Applying for secondary next term: anyone doing prep for 11+ or other selective admission exams?

[roisin]

Who else is in this boat this year?

Not this year, but went through it (11 plus) Oct 05, ds started grammar Sept 06.

Have you tried the eleven plus website forum? I found it really helpful.

We didn't use a tutor but bought practice papers. Once ds got the hang of them (some of the stuff is a bit weird, learning how to crack codes etc) we left him to it, just practicing speeding up to answer about 80 questions in 50 mins, IIRC.

Good luck.

Hiya - thanks for the message.

We're not using a tutor, just doing a few practice papers so that he's used to the format of the questions.

He's doing really well though, so I'm not worried. But we do need to work a bit on his Maths.

At school he's one of the top of the year in Maths, but the methods they use at school (e.g. "grid method" for long multiplication) are very slow, and he needs to pick up speed to pick up a few more marks.

Does anyone know anything about age-adjustment? How many percentage points are we talking about? (Ds1 is mid-July birthday - so very young in his year.)

We will be. DD is taking two exams in January - for the senior section of her current school and for the more academically-selective school in town.

I'm not planning on doing anything with her. Her current school gives out a sample paper but apparently they have updated the exam this year (it was trialled on the current Y6 almost immediately - 10 days or so - following their taking the 'proper' exam so a comparison could be made).

I don't think the other school gives out sample papers - I suppose I should ask really.

She'll do well at either school and would have to do something seriously wrong in the next few months to not get a place at the seniors of where she's already at - we are quite fortunate really that there isn't such huge competition here.

Locally you would get 3 points for a july birthday (out of 300, so it is a 1% adjustment).

Thanks Ladymuck and SueW.

No grammars here, just a small independent school. His primary don't do any prep for these sort of exams.

DS1 would do really well if he sat them tomorrow, but a scholarship would be nice and I won't want him to be disadvantaged because his primary haven't taught him what an antonym is or whatever.

We did this a couple of years ago for DS1 and last/this year for DS2 (he will be going to the same school as his brother in September). We will also be looking at it later for DS3 who is in Y4.

The practice papers are good. It's helpful to sit with the child for the first few papers as the format can be quite daunting if you haven't met it before. Then, once they are happy with what is expected of them, leave them to get on with it and just practise against the clock.

There's a sample maths paper for Nottingham High School (boys, academically selective) here and maths and English for Christ's Hospital here

These are the only two I can remember off the top of my head that have samples on their websites.

If you think he is of scholarship standard then why not a tutor? Would have thought a couple of sessions to concentrate of things such as multiplication techniques would be useful?

Dulwich College and City of London school also have sample papers on their websites. Sorry - every time I try to do links they don't work but here are the addresses:
www.dulwich.org.uk/Document_1.aspx?id=1:29406&id=1:29017
and
www.clsb.org.uk/Admissions/admissionsindex.html

BTW, Roisin, I forgot to mention I will be in the same boat as you!!! Ds1 will be sitting exams for grammar and independent schools - oh, joy! I have bought the Bond papers to practise but he really needs to work on his speed (he is a bit of a dreamer).

Some more practice papers here (11+ and 13+ from the Perse School Cambridge - again a very academic school.

Thanks all.
It's not a 'very academic' school - just the only one within a reasonable distance!

Ladymuck, I'm not considering a tutor, because he's responding well to doing things with me; and I think I'm very capable of explaining to him anything he needs to learn.

If he was resistant to working with me, or if I felt he needed many hours of work, I would consider a tutor. (His target atm is 50 mins each week).

Elenya - As well as 30/45/50 min papers, we have been using the Bond 10-min tests, which are fantastic to do on a daily basis without a huge commitment of time and patience. But they are still timed, and there is a lot to get through in 10 minutes, so it's quite a good stepping stone IMO.

Thanks Roisin, I haven't got the 10 minute papers so I will check those out on Amazon.

I remain shocked at the difference in standard between NC and 11+.

DS1 can do the 11+ tests within the time limits, and get very high scores, but he doesn't have much time left over - certainly not enough to go over and check each answer.

But tonight - for a bit of light relief - I gave him a workbook with "10-minute Tests" for SATs-prep. (Someone gave them to me ages ago and I found them in the cupboard.)

I gave him 10 minutes and he was half way through the fifth test, and made only one careless error.

DD's class have been doing some tests recently.

She said they had a test where 'we have to pick the right word and at the end, Mum, I bet you wouldn't have known the right word'.

She got 8 wrong out of 86 apparently but many people got 'about 25' wrong. ??

SATS are meant for everyone and cover levels 3,4 and 5 of the NC whereas 11+ questions are intended for the high fliers and probably equivalent to just level 5

IME many 11+ questions are above Level 5, and they also get far less time in 11+ exams than for SATs.

one in September and one in January

Potential for DS to mess up is high or he could walk it...

if the questions were level 5 then everyone would get very high marks, need to make the papers harder than level 5 so there is a wide range of scores to be able to pick out successful candidates

Oh, absolutely I agree with you ungratefuldaughter. But it is patently clear that children coming from state school without any preparation for these sort of tests are going to be at a huge disadvantage, irrespective of their abilities.

When ds1 first did a NVR test he only got about half of it done in the time, and some of the questions he didn't know how to tackle. After just a few weeks' practice now he can complete them in 60-70% of the time allowed with 95-100% accuracy.