What's going on with Atom? Two weeks before exams...

[BeccaBean]

My daughter is sitting Stage 1 assessments for West London independents starting in 2 weeks time. She has been working consistently on Atom for six months and is tracking just above the line in all topics (not that we're drawing much from this, just mentioned as may be relevant for Atom algorithm for weekly island targets).

Today, Atom has introduced a brand new topic! Why would this happen at this stage? Surely if it was relevant, the topic would have appeared earlier so she could practise repeatedly. I am panicking there are other new topics that are going to appear over the next couple of weeks. She doesn't have much time during the week to work on Atom as her state school gives a lot of homework not relevant for 11+ combined with various activities so we now only really have 2 weekends. Has anyone else seen this happen?

On another Atom grumble, she has twice done 10 minute VR/Non-VR practice tests over the last month where the final question is not marked or included in the scores. They are 15 questions but only 14 show on the review. I know she finished the test because time was 9m18s - the test would have timed out at 10m if she hadn't hit finish. Could this happen in the real test?

In the nicest possible way, I think you are overthinking things. The chances of the actual test somehow not counting some of her answers is very slim.

The only thing you should do is coach your daughter on what to do if e.g. the online test glitches or freezes. She should quietly and calmly raise her hand and highlight it immediately with the invigilators. They will have processes in place for when things go wrong to ensure your daughter isn’t penalised. My DD was caught up in this in 2019 where two questions on the test were unanswerable. Those children who remained calm and moved on were generally those who faired better when it came to results.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-49923142

As for the new content, also please don’t worry. They have to keep adding to it so it becomes more attractive to parents. Your daughter has done the prep. Keep things ticking over but actually easing off in the week before is very beneficial. If your child can see you stressing out then it’s going to impact on them. Take time to do a few fun things together and reward the hard work before the exams.

Finally, they really do all end up in the school that is right for them. Not getting into a school isn’t a failure, it’s just not where they are meant to be.

You are suffering from 11+ derangement syndrome OP, no shade I've been there.

No one knows which style of question will come up and theres every chance a new style will come up that shes never seen before.

You've obviously prepared her well, she's on track, just keep encouraging her and keep your stress to yourself.

Atom is not always reliable with user experience. We had some minor issues before when using it. But at the end it still helps you prepare just fine. My two dc came from state schools before entering private secondary. Year 6 my dc hardly ever did the state school homework. We explained to the teachers the work for 11+ goes above and beyond what they are doing. They allowed this as they could see from the classwork both dc were preforming well. Their main goal in year 6 is to prepare for them for SATs and the 11+ means your dc will likely get GDS in everything for SATs. I would tell the teachers you are going to pause the homework and put all the focus on the 11+ until after exams. My dc did not do the homework after the exams either as it was all just SATs prep. Again, the teachers did not mind as they scored well during mocks taken in school consistently.

As for what topics to cover, just focus on what is relevant to the schools you are aiming for.