Latymer, Edmonton - what prep did your DC do?

[cantstopstressing]

DS will sit the exam in September. He's very strong in maths and good but less strong in English. He's as a state primary but we've tutored for the last 18 months and are currently doing 1 hour with a tutor plus 2 past papers a week. Is this enough or do we need to ramp it up? He is generally getting over 90% in the maths papers (he loves maths!) but finds the comprehensions and creative writing harder. Would love advice from parents whose kids were successful. TIA.

Wow that's a lot. Esp if that's on top of school work. You're probably better off going on the 11plus forum but my nephew is sitting this in sept and he's only doing 15mins of smartick a day and currently doing through the how to train a dragon book series so about 1-2 books a week. His school has been v v crap in lockdown so we've just been doing fun projects. We'll do some past papers a couple of weeks before the test. In fact maybe I wouldn't go on those forums. There's parents on there that subject their kids to hours and hours of prep, really borderline abuse. There's lots of happy kids that got into Latymer just by being v bright kids who read widely and were usually v good at maths. I wouldn't stress too much, sounds like he's doing plenty.

Thanks Malmontar, that's reassuring. Yes, totally don't want to overdo it but at the same time I know that some kids are super prepared and I don't want to put him at a disadvantage. His maths is naturally very good so I am hoping that will carry him through.

My DC is starting Yr7 at Latymer in September coming from a state primary and did not do as much as you describe so from that point of view your DS is more than fine. I would also suggest a proper break from it all over part of the summer holidays.

To me it seems as if the Latymer exam is better for those strong at maths anyway. To help with creative writing, I think it's good to read a lot and a variety of books. This is not something I personally had to work on as DC is, and has been for years, a very avid reader. When I look at those being successful doing 11+ amongst DC"s friends, they're normally big readers.

@tiredmama99 I agree with you. You can't even get to the English if you don't do well enough in the maths. Well done to your child.

Did your ds pass?

1. Creative writing and comprehension tutor
2. 11+ group teaching maths and VR
3. Mock tests