Preparing for the 11 plus but struggling

[Pecal]

posted this in the primary section but I thought I might get a better response here from parents who’ve been through the 11 plus.

My son is in year 5 and is preparing for the 11 plus.

He is finding worded maths problems very difficult to solve; he’ll read the question but won’t understand what he needs to do. Often he will use the wrong operation on the wrong numbers: multiplying two numbers instead of dividing.

Has anyone been through anything similar? Any tips to improve?

First of all, you have plenty of time to work on this so don’t worry. Second of all, you’ll probably have people say that your son clearly isn’t grammar material if he can’t do these with his eyes shut, but that isn’t true.

These questions are tricky because they’re often multi-step, and it isn’t always obvious how to break it down to arrive at the answer. When I did these with my daughter I’d usually start by saying don’t panic or overthink - read the question, look at the info you’re being presented with, what are you able to work out with that? Which usually unlocks a useful bit of information you can use to unlock the next bit.

I hope that makes some degree of sense.

It is quite common for children not to pay attention. It is a matter of practice, practice.
If you are planning for super highly selective school then it may be very challenging to get in if not paying full attention is his characteristic
If you just want him to go to relatively good private and not top- tier then just practice and he will be fine:)

Struggling with word problems can be a literacy issue. How is his reading comprehension?

every child is different and it may just be a question of going through a few questions woth him to see how he’s amalysing them.

Which area/school are you working for? are you DIYing or does he have a tutor or use online materials

generally CGP ten minute test books (on Amazon and other places) are useful and they sell one that just have maths word problems, might be worth a look.

there’s also the ElevenPlusExams forum which has a Maths query section: you could ask in there too?

eleven plus forum Maths section

Jellycats4life has good advice.

When we were preparing DD for this, we didn't directly start solving these problems (well, we did first, but didn't work!)

We started solving easier problems eventually leading to more complex word problems typically seen in exams

We looked at statements and expressions that can converted to a mathematical expression.

For example, we taught first that expressions like 'more than', 'increased by', 'on top of' etc lead to addition. (So what is 8 more than n? --> 8 + n)

While expression like 'reduced by a factor of', 'split between', 'halved' etc can be expressed as a division

And so on for multiplication and subtraction.

DD then solved simple problems like -

What is 7 more than n?
'b' split between 8?
'c' decreased by 7 ?
etc.

We then started solving simpler word problems with such expressions (but still single step problems)

And once DD was comfortable with these, we moved to more complex multiple step problems etc. (see Jellycats4life's reply for how to apporach these)

If you are doing DIY (and you are not a professional teacher), I would suggest using some book that take such an approach and has plenty of exercises. We were using AE tuition's 11+ maths workbook. But there are plenty of others that take similar incremental approach.

Good luck!

1. Don’t worry too much. DD got 10% in her first mock exam for the 11+ but did pass comfortably in the end.
2. Remember that these exams are aimed at year six children. At year 5 the children can find questions really hard that they’ll be easily able to answer in year six.
3. To pass a child does need preparation particularly as there is year six maths content that they don’t cover until after the 11+ exam (crazy). Every year some parents give their child zero prep and say ‘she’ll pass if she’s bright enough’ which is so cruel, even the council recommends some prep.

Preparation… The CGP books are excellent, start with their ‘How to Revise’. Also very good is the online program by Century (aka Bond) as it spots weak areas for your child to develop, or Atom Learning I hear is similar. We weren’t big fans of Bofa.

Bond books are good to build up skills. Cgp tests are good because the mark scheme explains the answers. Then bond 10 min tests but the mark schemes just say which answer. If your child wants to of course.
I am a teacher and paid a tutor, 1 passed 1 didn't but was close, tbh prob best for him.

Are you aiming for semi selective, super selective or normal grammar?

I have a child at a grammar and don’t know the difference! I mean in Essex, there are:

1. Schools with no catchment, who take the highest scoring
2. Schools who take an 80:20 ratio of catchment vs. non-catchment, who take the highest scoring
3. Schools who take anyone in catchment who reaches or exceeds the pass mark, including the highest scoring OOC applicants

#1 is clearly super-selective and #3 is selective, but I genuinely don’t know what #2 is because they sit between the other two.

Worded maths questions are certainly challenging at first, but with practice, one would get better.

My DC always has a bit of attention issue, so for him not only the question itself could be a mystery, also the basic maths concepts. I found often in school he didn't get enough practice on the earlier basic concepts before the whole class moved on to the next level. It resulted some fundamental maths understandings were very patchy. Maths is one thing they need to be given meanings in real life. Even though school probably has the best intentions, the connection between mathematics calculations and the real life problems are lacking. At least, that's the case for my DC. So I had to spent fair amount of energy and time revising the basic whenever he couldn't see through the "path" of solving any worded questions. Most of the time, it reflects some weak areas of maths understanding.

Would you be able to help her to go through similar types of questions: Doing together first, discuss how to convert the words in a mathematical sense, identify what's been tested and then the first step before the sequential steps. I myself like to draw a chart/drawing/number line to help understand the relationship between information given. DC did find it helpful too, but not consistent in using this method. I had to encourage him quite a lot towards the end, as it helps massively interpreting the network of information in the question.

Yes thanks, it make sense.

Practice. Past papers.
Learning what these words mean.
We went over what things like median, mean, denominator etc were over and over again.
DD did poorly in her first 11+ maths test (something like 30%) but got loads better with practice. Didn't struggle with maths at secondary school (but did have to apply herself) and came out with a grade 9 (and a 7 in further maths) in her GCSE'S.

Hi
Easy to say don't worry, but you do. I have taught children of all abilities and levels of confidence for over 25 years. I would love to meet him and first develop some mutual respect and care, and then bring in the maths at a gentle pace, using real world examples. I am a newish granddad and have seen all my kids into Grammar, and i now have time on my hands :) . I am sure with appropriate attention and friendly approach we may start seeing a difference. Please free to reply here. In any case, best of luck and please don't panic.

My DCs strongest subject is maths, but really struggled with the word problem, partly because wasn't reading questions properly. So we focused on this exclusively for 3 weeks, a little every day (I know a little extreme!), but the gradual to consistently getting getting 8-10 /10 in CGP 10 min tests.

We had this exact problem last year. DS knew the maths, he just didn't understand the wordy question.

If you have an Atom subscription they have a section called "worded problems". Practise a few a day until he starts getting the gist of it.

It's under Practise > Maths > Number > Operations