11 plus support thread for exams 2024

[ElvenDreamer]

Hi all,
Anyone fancy joining me for for an 11 plus support thread for those yr 5s who are probably just starting a bit of prep now ready to sit exams in September 2024?

State grammar is the angle I'm personally coming from but all welcome no matter if you're applying to private selective, state aptitude tests etc.

This will be my 3rd and final time of going through this and I've found support threads here really useful the previous times.

Gosh, we're also aiming for CRGS but for 2025, its only going to get more competitive with the 20% vat on indie school fees isn't it.
@Safariplease would you mind messaging me the tutor details please - I hadn't considered it was a good idea to get a tutor who had been a secondary school teacher. I think the ones I've spoken to are primary.

Yes, and it’s sad. The area is changing so much with kids not able to see their friends as they live 30 miles away! I have already seen a massive shift. From the looks of this year’s results, Maths has gone a bit into the ridiculous - when I was writing we were at a year 7 (grade 4 GCSE) level but it’s getting harder…

PM sent

@PencilVania the long build up is the worst isn't it? Twice was enough, this 2rd time round is going to finish me off I think!
@Emmarie123 mine goes through stages of wanting to do it and stages of not. At the end of the day I refuse to make it a big pressure for him, but I think his chief motivator is wanting to go to the same school as his brother.
@Safariplease that's quite depressing! I think I'm going to try not to think too hard about it, lol.

Hi, we are sitting the Gloucestershire exams next year. Please can I ask how you prepared in Year 5? When did you start doing mocks? Thanks.

twinkle38 we sat the Gloucestershire exam this September. We had a tutor for my twins who was phenomenal, she taught her them to a high level, pitching work to year 7| standard. They never did fantastically in mocks, averaging 65% but both found the actual exam easier than the mocks and the work covered with their tutor.

Sitting mocks is very beneficial. Mine sat them every month from May to August with various providers. This really helped their confidence.

Best of luck.

Can I join? Kent test here but DC with ADHD. Will have a prompter in the exam but not sure if it's enough. Given practice tests at home and 4/10 questions will go unanswered not down to ability but just distracted/glossed over them/claims didn't see them. Very frustrating!

@Teatrayderby Has your DC tried medication? Mine wouldn't have gotten anywhere near attempting the exam without the medication. He was diagnosed last year and only started medication in Jan. And he did well enough in the exams despite all the stress and his disadvantages in lots of areas due to ADHD.

No, we haven't gone down that route. Currently they sit in the 'greater depth' bands on core subjects so we are hesitant but we are reading up on it. We are also waiting to see if a tutor gets a better performance than just mum and dad giving the trial tests.

Thank you so much for your advice. We have just finished year 6 syllabus and about to go through revision of this consilidating with bond assessment papers. Is this the right time for the 10-11 papers or too soon? Thanks again.

@Teatrayderby make sure you apply for reasonable adjustments etc for the exam, you may well find your DC qualifies for extra time and you will not know unless you ask. (Look up that info early, it may have an earlier/separate application date.)

@Twinkle38 in my view, it's a little too early for mocks. My DD sat for the Birmingham 11 plus a couple of years ago (which is generally considered a similar format/difficulty to Gloucestershire) and she did a mini mock at a small tuition centre at about Easter of Y5, and two 'proper' external mocks with a well-known local provider in the summer of Y5 - one in June and another in August.

We did home prep rather than tutoring. We made sure to use workbooks from a range of providers, and to go through wrong answers carefully to learn from any mistakes. We did do about four mock papers at home as well, but none until Easter of Y5.

In my view, the main benefit of mocks is to get your DC used to the format of the papers and the exam conditions. It is therefore unnecessary until the last few months.

@Twinkle38 is your child currently Year 5 and you have just finished teaching them the Y6 curriculum? Super impressive!

Hi all, just checking in. We're in that stage where sometimes DS is dashing off questions like he's a child genius, other times it's like he's never been taught a thing 😆 Definitely need to work on consistency but am still very carefully trying to keep it light and unpressured. How's it going for everyone else?

Hi parents, I just wanted to share a small platform we're working on for our students at our tuition centre, and just wanted to validate the idea to see if it's something parents would actually be interested in.. (Not trying to advertise a product, this is just pre-recorded video showcasing the platform)

Let me know if something like this would actually be helpful in your 11+ exam prep, what your opinions are on learning online etc. And feel free to ask me for any advice as we run a tuition centre for 100+ kids and pass quite a few through Bexley and Kent exams each year.

Hope you're 11+ prep is going well.

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@christmastomato that's amazing, well done to your DD, can I ask what county? if it's Essex I'd love to know which tutor/tutoring organisation you used.

my younger child is sitting 11+ next year too, we need to start with NVR as our tutor centre doesnt teach NVR. Apart from Bonds, is there a book to start with.

I didn`t know the 11 plus was still around.

Good luck to everyone.

CGP are also very good.

@11plus2nd I seem to recall using a mix of bond, cpg and schofield and sims 1st time round with DD. We just did the 10 minute test books to keep it light hearted and fun.

Thanks so much about the NVR recommendation, 10mins seems fun. There is quite a lot of homework from the tutor so hopefully we could squeeze in between and loads of reading to improve vocabulary. We are targeting 1 grammar school in our area and backing up with some private schools. Couple have NVR in their first round(SW london).

we usually find that bond books are a bit too easy, CGP and collins are of a good standard. If you're able to move onto the CGP Stretch NVR books as soon as possible you'll be in a good position.

However I'd warn you to not spoon feed your child! Make sure they are able to read the instructions and figure out how to answer the question themselves, because in the actual exam you often get new question types that they'll need this skill for.

Hi @Farazaz , for the stretch cgp when you started using it , 1,2 months before the test or longer.