AE tuition for 11+

[Mumofgirls12341]

Has anyone got any experience with AE tuition centres? I am looking into enrolling my year 4 daughter with them for their 7 month course. From what I have read the course is quite intensive as they are covering the same syllabus as the 12 month course that they run.

Has anyone used them before and if you have how did your child get on? Did they secure a grammar school place? How well did they cope with the homework? Did you do any additional work with them outside of AE?

We are aiming at HBS, Latymer and WCGS if that helps. I am pretty new to the whole 11+ world so any advice would be greatly appreciated.

I can send you a PM if you want

Yes please

Yes please

can someone share their experience with me too please?

I don’t have personal experience of AE tuition but I would honestly say that you don’t need it. Practicing Papers at home and going through them is the best way. All 3 of my girls passed their 11 plus without tuition with excellent marks (my eldest got maximum marks). The kids i know who had tuition are now struggling to keep up in grammar as they were taught how to pass the test so wasn’t a true reflection of intelligence

Problem with this is most people do not understand the level of prep that needs to go on in. The tutor helps guide them and some children work better with tutors or parents don't have time or understand what is needed/being asked.

I do understand that but ultimately they don’t teach anything that under normal circumstances a parent/guardian can’t teach. The practice papers are easily available and all it takes is a bit of time with your child going through the questions. Paying for tuition is honestly unnecessary and if my kids couldn’t pass without tuition I wouldn’t want them at a grammar as academically they expect a lot from their students. Like I said my girls passed with flying colours but they are naturally bright. My eldest got the highest at 282 and my twins got 261 and 263. People just assume they need to pay for tuition but this honestly is not the case.

There are grammar school and grammar schools in the country, so understand the level of competition of the schools you are aiming for upfront is more important, regardless DIY or ask someone help for tuition.

Some kids can get high mark in some grammar test in some area with little effort but in some other area preparation is essential in order to pass, naturall bright is simply not enough.

Don’t get me wrong preparation is key for all 11 plus exams regardless of area but I genuinely don’t think tuition is required. The grammar schools in our area are extremely competitive. People can ultimately decide what approach to take but my personal opinion is tuition is not necessary. I have friends who kids had tutoring and failed, some who had it and passed and didn’t score high enough to get a grammar place and others who had tuition and did gain a place. Similarly I have a lot of friends whose kids didn’t have tutoring and gained a place as well as some who didn’t. If a child is naturally intelligent then they will most likely pass whichever approach is used as long as they do preparation in some way or other (past papers was the way we went). A lot of people seem to think the only way for their kids to pass is to pay for tutoring and I felt a lot of pressure to do the same. Ultimately our decision paid off and I’m sure it’s because they had dedicated 1:1 time with us going through the papers and making sure they understood etx. When paying for tutoring a lot of the time you are in a room full of other students so you don’t get that dedicated 1:1 at all times and if you do you end up paying through the nose for it. I do understand how desirable it is for your kids to go to grammer (obviously I wanted my kids there) but parents shouldn’t be made to feel they have to pay in order to help achieve this. Like I said my girls are naturally intelligent. My eldest especially is top of the class in every single subject in her year group at grammar (apart from PE) which is prob why she got a score of 282. This meant the 11 plus came very easy to them so yes I accept I probably had an easier job teaching them myself than perhaps others would find it. Maybe I would have a different view on tuition is my girls struggled a bit more accademically

Every child is different. Some don't need tutoring and will fly through. Some will be tutored and will be perfectly fine in school.

Also sitting down and doing practice questions/papers is still tutoring to some extent. The difference is that the parent is the tutor really and there's no formal classes for the child to go to.

Just had a look at AE Tuition and my oh my do they charge a pretty penny 😂. We chose 'The Cambridge Tutor' (https://www.thecambridgetutor.com/) because it was recommended to us by a friend of ours, and we were pleasantly surprised. The tutors were really knowledgeable and attentive to my child's needs and problems. I'm pretty sure all of their tutors go/went to Oxford and Cambridge, which did sway me to choosing them. It was great because it wasn't group sessions so my child got the 1:1 support he needed. My DS2 got into the school he wanted so really couldn't ask for anything more! I've mentioned them in a couple of threads now but they were just that good :)

Also, please buy the 'Bond 11+' books. From my experience, they are the best out there.

While I somewhat agree.. one of the dangers of outsourcing to tutors is you have to trust that they are covering the material and actually know what they are talking about. From our experience my son is the only one in his circle of about 6 friends who got into a super selective grammar (I tutored him and not massively I might add) all his friends who had paid for tutors did not gain a place for September. Now I believe part of that was because the tutors are not invested in your child like you are, and often say what you want to hear etc.

This mean the parents need engage to the extent that requiring deeper commitment than a paid tutor.

Agree you can’t just offload it all to a paid tutor and think that’s it job done! You need to check that the tutor is covering the correct material etc.

AE sell all the books which they use in tuitions and they are quite good. The quality of tuitions are very dependent on who the tutor you get assigned to.

aepublications.co.uk/shop/

I feel this is not good advice for OP (who is specifically asking for AE tuition) and for anyone else reading about 11+ preparation.

People's circumstances are different and many parents will not be in a position to work with their children like you did with your DDs

For some, that maybe because English is not their first language, or they may not have enough time (very busy at work, maybe juggling multiple jobs, caring for someone etc) and while many others may simply not be confident about teaching sums involving, say, ratios, percentages, word problems or NVR.

It's great that you could work with your children, and well done to your daughters, but your situation is certainly not applicable to everyone in MN.

MN works best when we give helpful answers to question being asked.

I also agree with what PerplexJ said previously, that for some schools where competition is much more intense than the average grammar, focused preparation is key (for example, OP specifically mentions Henrietta Barent where something like 95% applications do not succeed and nearly everyone would use tutors). A knowledgable, experienced tutor is more likely to be able to provide better support than a parent doing DIY.

I’m sorry you feel that way but I genuinely believe my answer was helpful. There is too much pressure for people to pay for tuition for 11 plus exams and j was just pointing out it isn’t required. I work full time as well as care for two severely disabled children who require me to do pretty much everything fkr then yet I was still able to tutor them myself (their disability is physical and doesn’t effect their brains) and they passed with excellent scores and were accepted to an extremely selective grammer school (only 4 children in their year at school passed and got scores high enough). People need to know that tutoring is not always the best option. The amount of times people told me my girls wouldn’t score high enough without tutoring is ridiculous and yet my kids got accepted and many of theirs didn’t. Yes I agree if you don’t feel confident tk do it yourself and your child needs help then tutoring may help but if I can do i feel anyone can.

Totally agree

I actually think this is very unfair. The thing about these threads/ boards is everyone’s experience and personal circumstances are different and the point is they show people that they’re options and different ways of doing things. The OP and others looking into the 11 plus know their child/children and can make judgements based on what they read on here.

When I was starting out about this time last year I read a lots of these threads and found all the information interesting and helpful in different ways. Making my decision based on what I read and personal circumstances. So say this advice is not good is not on as all they are doing is pointing out you can do it differently.

I would also say to do it effectively without a paid tutor which we did getting into one of the most selective schools in London. You really need to research the school and the type of exams they do. Obviously some people haven’t got the time or skills to do this but if you can it is possible to DIY the tutoring and get in.

Whatever you do OP best of luck.

I feel that posting on a thread specifically asking for feedbak on a particular tutor that one doesn't even need tutor is not on.

There are thousands of threads here along the line of 'How to prepare for 11+' or 'Do I need a tutor' etc where this answer is perfectly valid. Just not here (thread title : 'AE tuition for 11+') in my opinion

Anyway, am afraid I have now derailed this thread :( so leaving it at this.

My colleague used it. My DH is an 11+ exam writer and prepper but for a different area so we spoke about it a lot.

His daughter passed (Slough Consortium) and got her school choice. AE gave a LOT of materials and it was intense but it required heavy amounts from him. He was doing hours every day and weekend and he has to mark all the homework etc and write in the diary what score she got - they tell you that if you don’t write it in the diary then they will just assume it’s not done and not help with any area of struggle. Definitely intense.

I don’t have an AE for our areas 11+ so no competition, but if we did I’d find it useless and against how we do prep. It definitely depends on region.

It’s a public forum so ultimately they may get derailed that’s just way it goes. No need to get worked up about others opinions and posts.

Anyway all the posts will have helped the thread get noticed and possibly more comments as a consequence.

OP I hope you got the you information needed.

OP, everyone's experience is unique. You could "categorise" them in certain ways. But ultimately, it's a combination of many factors. You can't rely on one or a few pieces of advices. Do need to have a proper think about your child, your goal and the "what if" scenario.

In certain regions, grammar schools take on 30% of the students of the area, whilst some regions like north London could only take the top 5% - 10%. So someone suggested earlier on that Bond books are the best, which might be true for their experience, but it can be very misleading for those schools who take on the top 5-10%. Bond books are too easy and definitely not sufficient to support the superslectives.

While some parents were successful self tutoring, it may not suit all. Depending on the time, your own capability to tackle the exam contents and especially your child's learning style, there's a massive difference of feasibility in one way or the other.

My child would not have worked with me alone, if they didn't get tuition. The dynamic was just there to aid the process. The poster managed to do everything themselves without outside help has a lot to do with the children themselves.

A lot people said no matter what you shall never be entirely disconnected. You know your child the best and to find what works for them, it takes more than a few hours a week by a tutor. But of course, again, it depends on the child (I'm probably not talking about the genius type who don't need to work but can get in wherever they want. Most kids aren't genius...)

Don't do paper too early. Try to focus on building up the solid elementary blocks and read LOTS. Vocabulary is really one of the key things and reading help builds that (and helps with creative writings too).

Good luck.