Best way to help with independent schools exams (11+)

[Flowe52]

Hello, could anyone help advise me on the best books/apps/methods to help my DD to prepare for the entrance exams to independent schools in Surrey for Year 7? We can't afford a tutor and it seems a closely guarded secret amongst parents! I have contacted the schools who obvs say they don't need to prepare, but I know around us, everyone has tutors and therefore I would like to help my DD if I can since we need her to do well in order to get a scholarship/bursary...
I have heard the Bond books are good - is that the test ones or others? Any others that are worth buying and working through with her, in particular for English? Thanks so much! I really appreciate any help or advice.

It would be helpful if you could name some of the schools because as you have probably gathered they all have very different types of exams - ie LEH v KGS etc.

Overall the CPG 10 minute test books are very helpful plus past papers on many of the schools websites.

Also be aware the scholarship offers at many of the schools is around 10% of the fees. If you are after a bursary you need to contact the schools for more details.

Depends on the schools you are targeting - each one will have a different threshold and styles of exams. For a highly selective school, Bond books are probably not enough.

It's going to completely depend on the school, they don't all use the same methods. However, broadly speaking:

Getting used to verbal and nonverbal reasoning tests is very important - understanding exam technique and getting used to not getting bogged down in a single tricky question.

Maths - just get a y6 maths workbook to go through (that isn't one used at her primary school) and do an hour of extra maths each weekend.

Creative writing needs practice for how to buckle down and get something written within the time limit especially if not feeling inspired by the task. You can google for example task texts.

Some schools also have a comprehension test - should be pitched at a similar level to y6 SATS though.

The best way to prepare is to teach your child how to take an exam. And practice taking an exam under timed conditions.

Explain about multiple choice - eg that any answer is better than no answer. If you can't do a question move on, and go back at the end to tick the answers you think might be OK. Or if you haven't got an answer or idea, then ticking randomly is better than not answering.

Explain that if you are doing longer questions, you should write down every single idea you have. If you can't do the whole question, go as far as you can as you may pick up some marks. If you run out of time do bullet points.

Practise pacing yourself. Look at the exam questions and work out which have more marks and which you need to spend more time on. Always leave ten minutes at the end to check and spot errors. If you spot one you haven't got time to correct, flag it and write as much as you can to show that you have an idea of how to answer.

I think exam technique is really important for this type of thing. Worked for us.

Thanks so much for all of this help. I had read that it was worth trying to sit some practice exams next summer so I will look into that and get hold of some more Year 6 maths books.

We are still looking at schools but her favourite which might be completely unachievable on all levels is currently Reigate Grammar.

I may be wrong for some reason but it's difficult to avoid the suspicion that if you can't afford an 11+ tutor there's no way you can afford to send even one child to private school. it costs the earth. your chances of getting all your fees paid are negligible.

Looking at their website, you can see the upper income limit for bursaries (sliding scale…so won’t be much) and income level which can attract sizeable bursary. Very few 100% bursaries will be given, so most people will be still having to find big chunks of fees.

There are sample exam papers.

The English and Maths are written papers, not multiple choice. For English it’s story writing and comprehension. Any resources which practice these will help.

The reasoning is both VR and NVR and is electronic. So using Atom or Bofa subscriptions to practice these can work.

Preparation and familiarisation of the styles of Qs and working in timed conditions are needed really. A capable and focused parent can deliver these or a tutor. Lots of people get into selective schools without a paid for tutor as lots of parents are perfectly capable of doing some research, getting resources and delivering a programme over time with their kid. A parent is often more motivated than a tutor.

So Op, I wouldn’t be out off, assuming you have visited the school and spoken to the bursar to get a sense of what might be available and if it could be financially workable.

There will also be other local independents which you can consider too. Caterham is the nearest and most similar school in terms of academic profile. Dunottar is also in Reigate and has grown in popularity in recent times.

I recommend Atom Learning for Y5 exam prep - very good as a platform and it’ll take you 80% of the way there, with the last month or so doing paper-based tests and exercises to get experience replicating the real exam.

We have a 95% bursary (has been 100% since the pandemic hit). It is definitely possible.

Unless it has changed recently the RGS papers differ to others in format so definitely familiarise her with each school's. They are currently big on increasing participation (were in local press bragging about an award) and around 160 pupils have some financial assistance apparently although most will only get a small amount. Full fee awards are earmarked to go to those living in social housing and Scholarships are now only a token discount. Bear in mind the additional costs at these schools too. Even if tutoring is beyond your means consider a short 11+ prep course at likes of Explore. It might just make the difference. However they also have a reputation for managing pupils out after gcse .

DD1 sat 3 11+ exams for private secondaries. We used Bond papers and in maths she was a year ahead. All 3 schools' exams were quite different. The first was all online (covid) and consisted of maths, VR and non VR and then a 20 min essay.
2nd and 3rd schools were more old fashioned pen and paper maths, English comprehension and 30min writing an essay.
Practice definitely helped and by the 3rd school she was on top form ;-).
We used Bond and white rose for maths. Bond for comprehension. Lots of advice and examples of essay writing on the internet. We had no tutor and she got a scholarship to the third school which was the one we wanted (but we are not SE so schools not mentally competitive).

For English composition practice, I'd recommend Pobble365.com, which has a picture a day that DC can choose and try to write a story about. Descriptosaurus is great for examples of how to expand creative writing vocab and sentence starters for poetry & prose.

As DS's preferred schools used GL assessment we used a lot of the Bond books (not just the 10 min tests). If you're banking on scholarship, your DD will need to be scoring highly in the Stretch Maths & English books. Also, her VR practice test scores will need to be excellent.

As some of the MN'ers have said practising exam technique is really important. Even for the brightest DCs, getting enough content down in a fixed time is a challenge and takes practice. It's not something that state primaries will do in 1st term of Yr6.

Good luck!

We swerved the competitive 11+ in the end by accepting an occasional place at an all-through school, but we were quite far down the track and had found the structured 11+ preparation courses from Learning Street to be really useful.

Past papers OP- just work through them. Do the schools you are targeting not have any? You can get loads of free past papers on the websites of certain schools eg Trinity, Sevenoaks, Alleyns etc - that would be grater depth maths 1 hour, English 1 hour plus verbal reasoning. But it really depends on the schools you are targeting / best to find out their exact exam format.