11+ 2025 support thread

[AquaPeer]

Hi all,
I really enjoyed reading previous 11 plus support threads and I think we’re probably ready for a new cohort of year 5s start their prep?

so I thought I’d set up one for next year. All welcome!

we are trying for dame Alice Owen. DD currently has group tutoring once a week but we are looking to increase to twice a week before Xmas.

i am trying to get her to do a cgt GL 15 min tests a day very unsuccessfully! This half term is going to be all about embedding routine 😀

look forward to meeting other parents preparing

Yes - my DD is. Feeling the pressure since the first one is Sunday and our focus has been on the academic tests so far

What I meant was, try other resources as well as Atom if you want a better chance at getting in because Atom is too easy.

Great that you are trying, always good to try and set the bar hard. You never know unless you try.

Good luck!

Yes we have books, past papers, CGP online, Atom, weekend tutor and just got home from getting assessed by a maths tutor.
He got 80% pass on the 40 min test.
He will get tutored on his weaknesses who CJ should bring his score up.

That is good, it sounds like you are on the right track!

Thank you. All the best best for your dc too.

Thanks :) Thankfully, we are done the 11+ for now (my dd did it 2 years ago and my ds just completed it). I have a few years break until we do it the last time (if we do it, depending on if dc wants to).

Did one of you dc take the Tiffin paper? Any advice? Can I find similar papers to practice? Thanks in advance

Yes, ds did. Second stage was very difficult he said. He also had the sports aptitude leeway, but competition is high and second round the bar is set real high. He did not make it in, but we did not want him to go anyway as it was too far for us. It was more of a practice for the independent schools. He said it was the hardest exam he took. I would look online for Tiffin mock exams and at the Tiffin papers online you can buy for example I think from examberry or other 11+ websites. They go far and beyond what you are learning in primary years for their exams and no way someone can pass without being tutoring or taught. Good luck!

It does sound like a long shot, but like I mentioned no pressure on him. We are very likely to move to Kingston either way.

The FAQ on Tiffin school website says that the tests are aimed for students that have completed national curriculum for English and Maths for year 5. They do not expect students to have covered topics beyond this, but they may/will add some unfamiliar questions to see how students demonstrate their adaptability. I’m hoping the questions aren’t ridiculous!

Did your son go to a prep school? Mine is at a prep school that seem to have a lot of intervention to boost and help with 11+.
I’m hoping this will help him for his test as it’s the only one we are taking.

Sorry for all the questions but we don’t know anyone else applying so you are the only person I’ve been able to engage with on this.
I read the first part of the sports aptitude is running for 8 minutes. Do you know what the second part is based on?
My son is very sporty and agile. But the unknown seems to bother me more than him. He’s happy to go and throw himself in.

Thank you in advance

@Nushi21 will pm you.

So we’ve just got the results back for DS second mock and he got 72%. He scored 70% in his mock last month. I dont know how good this is at this stage… and I’m starting to feel really worried whether he can do this. Do they make the mocks really hard on purpose? (Wishful thinking 😂)

The practice papers he does at home he scores really high, 85-95%. If anyone has any insight I would appreciate that. Thank you

I think that’s a good score for a mock. Mine did a few mocks and they were lower than the practice tests at home. They got a perfect score in the actual thing

Do you book yourself onto mocks or is this something you do at home?

That’s good to know, thank you. We don’t have much experience with 11+ and don’t know anyone who is doing them so I don’t know what is good/bad etc lol

Our tuition centre asks us to book them in, many parents opt out. We do practice papers at home

@teachermum26cant remember if you’re Trafford or another area? 70% would be classed as borderline where we did our mocks, I personally thought they were a bit easier in a number of areas than the CGP papers we were doing at home. Really depends on the test centre, they may be able to give you a guide based on their experience.

Do you have access to the paper/answers? If so, I’d go through it in detail to pick out any themes or if silly mistakes are happening.

Yes we are in Trafford! We’ve had the opposite experience, ds found the cgp, bond papers easier than both mocks. I guess I am just wondering if he’s on the right track, I was hoping for more improvement since his last mock.

Our tuition centre didn’t give his paper back but I I think I’ll go ask for it and see how he’s done. We currently are doing 10-11 10 minute tests, practice papers, vocabulary and Tution homework throughout the week. He reads everyday too. I can see what parts he’s weak at, so will focus on that.

We are finding it tough to know which books are best. We have bond and cgp. Doing the Kent test.

Dd scoring 80% on most bond tests, variable 60+ on cgp but we also notice that neither are consistently like the practice Kent tests or what the tutor (who is very experienced with Kent test) is doing with her.

Happy to go ahead and practice generally but it seems silly to focus on qs that may never come up on the Kent test.

@teachermum26interestingly my sons mock marks were identical in 2 mocks, and only 2% higher in the last one (taken between June - end August). So maybe not seeing much movement is expected.

You sound like you’re doing a lot with him, so be careful not to burn him out. We were only doing tutor homework up until the Summer holidays then moved to 10 min tests/part practice papers in the Summer holidays. That felt more than enough for us.

PS Many tuition centres don’t give mock papers back, as they share them with other centres (making more money!) They should at least be giving feedback on how well he scored in each subject and any particular areas for improvement.

Plus they use the same mock papers every year so don’t want to give them away!

Oh wow that’s interesting that your son scored the same! How did he find the actual test? I think I remember that he passed?

Yes we only upped to this amount of work since Easter, before that we were doing only tuition homework. He is naturally bright and so far he happily does this but any time he’s not up for it we don’t do it. I don’t want all this work to have the opposite affect.

I didn’t know this about tuition centres but it does makes sense. We got quite minimal feedback, what he scored in each subject and that he needs to manage his time well. ‘More effort is needed’

@teachermum26thats a really good score for June I think. My ds that sat it last year and passed got 68% on his first mock at the end of May. The last one he sat which was in the 8th of September he scored 92%. He passed for everywhere on the consortium and Ambrose.
We do Newell mocks. You don’t get the paper back but you get this report.

Sorry couldn’t get to attach!

It’s good because you can see where they need extra work. Ds is doing two 50 minute papers a week but that replaced tutor homework. The tutor then goes through the papers the next lesson and focuses on the ones he’s got wrong.