Atom users

[noughtmare]

My son has been using atom for 5 months and has answered 5000 questions and gained 20,000 alp points.

Is this a lot of work?

I think he has done over 80 hours work on the platform?

He is in the top quartile of students but only just.

Weaknesses is in nvr abs English.

Tends to get 120 standardised.

But today he got 100 percent on a 15 question at olaves maths test.

Do you think he has done enough work for the grammar tests coming up in a couple of weeks time?

But as doobiedoo says most 11 plus is paper based.

For us I found keeping track of bond books and marking hard enough.

I like the dashboard for atom.

I also like the courses, some of the live teachers are brilliant and they do know what they are doing.

I guess it is horses for courses. You could get a regular atom and then add mocks closer to your child's examination.

Thanks for the replies. Yes, DS will be doing paper based test and is in Year 5 so we have a year. I currently have both Bond online and the books, we're doing a mixture of both, I do like the online ones because you get a mark at the end of each set of questions/test which makes my life a bit easier and I can track his progress.

Also, DS is in a state primary and a lot of the Maths has not been covered yet, they did virtually NOTHING during the whole lockdown(!!) - so compared to other schools and especially kids in prep schools he will be significantly behind. Hence, I want to make sure we do what we can to get him up to speed. We only decided on the 11plus 1-2 months ago and if I look at some of the forums on this, it seems we're already playing catchup compared to parents who start preparing their kids in Yr 4.

And not all private pupils are ahead of state: many will go to non academic secondary private schools. Almost none go to state grammars, which tend to be where state primary kids go.

That's not at all the case in our area, where the Grammars (1 girls' and 1 boys') are very highly regarded and considered to be the money-saving option for many with children at private schools in the area. The private schools tutor for the 11+ (unlike the state schools) and a significant number of the Grammars' intake are from that sector.

Hunky I agree, if not private the overwhelming number of children at grammar schools come from well off families.

user1 I still feel like I am playing catch up and my child is in year 6.

Like me it sounds like trout primary school wasn't able to adapt to the lockdown so I think you should keep going with 11 plus and see what work your child can cover quickly. If possible it may be worthwhile getting a tutor for a couple of sessions and carrying on with Bond online or another platform like atom learning.

Your not trout

@user145964508 Do have a look at the 11+ forum. There are many grammars, and they have differing entrance tests. You can check for the individual schools your child is sitting for, and see what their requirements are.

If Atom are 10points below CATS then it will go to 140.

@HunkyPunk

And not all private pupils are ahead of state: many will go to non academic secondary private schools. Almost none go to state grammars, which tend to be where state primary kids go.

That's not at all the case in our area, where the Grammars (1 girls' and 1 boys') are very highly regarded and considered to be the money-saving option for many with children at private schools in the area. The private schools tutor for the 11+ (unlike the state schools) and a significant number of the Grammars' intake are from that sector.

I also disagree. The grammar local to us is very selective and almost all of its pupils are from preps or high achieving states. In fact it is a known fact that parents will put their kids through prep just so they can get into the grammar. It achieves the same results as the privates and due to its impressive PTA, offers extra curriculars that are on par with the privates.

The system disadvantages from the beginning. In our case you had to sign up for the test in a 2 week window in June. Unless you know about the grammar and how it works, you wouldn't even know that as the state school doesn't inform you. You also wouldn't know the familiarisation papers are online. Once you did find them, they are over 100 pages long and specific to that school so you need access to a printer. So if youre poor or dont speak english, you have no chance, genius child or not.

Yes yes yes malmonter

If you are economically disadvantaged you really don't get a look in unless you really know someone who knows how it all works.

The super tutoring people do also just make it harder and harder.