Atom Learning

[decisionsinsandouts]

I posted this under the Primary Education thread with little response and was advised to post in Secondary.
Has anyone used Atom Learning for a year 6 child? Is it specifically for children working towards the 11+ exams or is it beneficial in broader terms.? Is the content interesting i.e would a 'regular' sort of 11-year-old be motivated by its content to engage with it regularly. If you have used it with your child were there significant gains academically?
It is quite expensive and I am keen to find out if it is worth it.
His school does not teach verbal reasoning or non-verbal reasoning and he has found some of the examples challenging but still enjoyable.

Hi we are using it

Do you mean for exams that are pretty much happening now? Or are yours very soon?

Or do you mean just using it no exams?

Ds has improved with the scores but I’m not sure it helps in general, possibly but hard to gauge. It’s quite tailored to ISEB test.

Having said that Ds has said he’d like to keep going after the test because he quite enjoys it.

I started thinking about 11+ a bit too late. Whilst applying for secondary schools I found a school that really appealed to me and would suit my son. However, it has an entry 11+ test. His primary school is not terribly academic and my child is fairly middle of the road. We have done some 11+ papers but he is not up to speed with pacing and has fairly significant gaps in English and Mathematics. I did find however that the brief period we have spent on 11+ papers has been well spent as he has made good progress especially in VR and NVR and for that reason, I wondered if it was worth proceeding with Atom.

My DD is sitting the ISEB pretest in two weeks time and she has been using it for a month. We have found it useful for this purpose because the exam is adaptive and DD won’t be able to practise the mock tests on paper based. It is quite expensive and the subscription just expired yesterday so I didn’t bother to continue.

Is your son taking the 11+ exam soon?

We used ATOM for literally a couple of days before the ISEB exam but even then found it useful to get familiar with the format of the test. Can’t comment on how helpful it would be long term but DS’s score jumped 12 points just between the first and second test he did, in part I think to knowing how it worked.

Atom ideal for general coverage of all K2 curriculum, or the ability to hone weaker less familiar subjects eg NVR or VR skills. Atom is expensive, however it has the bonus of quasi ISEB mock exams & videos with some great funny tutors. Ideal for short bursts -

Long term the content will become stale until Atom expand content to address wider cohort.

I don't find Atom that expensive, to be honest, maybe if you do it for a few years, but 3-6 months the children can learn a lot (assuming they respond well to the format and use it rergularly), it is far cheaper than tutoring, so a motivated child who learns fast can get a lot out of it in a short time.

My daughter uses via school and she gets a lot out of the English, VR/NVR and Maths. I like the focus on grammar in English (as it does not seem to be taught properly in many schools) and her VR/NVR scores have improved massively. Maths she is naturally strong and may not "need" Atom in that sense, but it's been great due to the adaptive element, the school homework in the past was always too easy and now it is always challenging.

I think even with tests coming up in January, 1-2 months of regular practice can help a lot.