First Past the post

[wildwest]

Hi All

I apologies if this has been discussed already. Trust me, I have tried repeatedly to locate it on the forum but to no avail.. If I search using the phrase it comes up as 'not specific' and the words get rearranged themselves to 'pass first post first!!!!!'

I am considering buying this series and am looking fir some advice about its relevance to Birmingham and also whether to buy the whole series of all the 4 subjects or any specific ones. When is it recommended to use them, now or closer to the exam?

Would be grateful for any insight.

[Daogroupie]

I am a big fan of the First Past the Post papers. The Maths is challenging, the VR is up there with Bright Sparks and Walsh, good for our local state and indy selectives and the English is a good level for top schools like QE. I have not used the NVR yet as our local schools are moving away from NVR but I am planning to. I wish there were more than 4 papers for each subject because I would certainly buy more papers if they were available. DG

[catwoman]

Hi Wildwest my Ds is also taking B'ham exams this year and funny you mentioned past the post books i was just sorting them out yesterday! My Ds has just completed the cpj and some bonds books and now we are going to attempt some of the past the post books (not the cloze books...much to challenging atm). The mods on here are very helpful and they recommended these books of this forum, however some parts are not recommended i.e in the comprehension questions on verbs etc. IMO i would say these books are challenging for my Ds however compared with the books we've used in the past.
Hope that helps

[wildwest]

thanks for that reply catwoman. We are in the same boat then..
Did you buy all the 8 books in this range, i.e. 4 books of practice papers for all 4 subjects, 2 cloze books, 1 3D non verbal and 1 numerical reasoning?
I didn't notice any bundle pack which might reduce the cost, did you?

[catwoman]

Hi wildwest
No i've only bought m/c comp, numerical reasoning, cloze1 and verbal reasoning, i want to see how he gets on with these first...he did the nvr last night and seemed to get on well but looking at the comprehension i was so shocked, i couldn't believe how long the passage was compared with cpj...i wonder if they get separate time to read through the passage? i'm doing my own clozes with my Ds yet to slowly ease him in before i attempt the cloze book (looks to challenging atm)

No bundle packs i'm afraid

IMO first past the post is much more challenging than Bonds and cpj.

[wildwest]

that's my understanding too. I recall someone on here mentioning recently, that FPTP are challenging series and better introduced slightly later on. dd got some vouchers (for books) for christmas which I need to spend on time, and hence making a list of books to buy.

[wildwest]

have ordered the papers set in all 4 subjects and the cloze book. will need to spend some more time on here searching the threads before I order the remaining 3 books in the series:

Numerical Reasoning, 3d NVR and book 2 of cloze.

[southbucks3]

Wild west, I am in a state of did you really just spend your dd' s Christmas vouchers on 11+ books? My son's gift voucher bought me some shoes in marks and sparks on Sunday he is reminding me every 10 minutes that I "owe" him a skylander!

The nets book is very good, although annoyingly nets did a no show in the bucks test last year. Ds3 is doing just one cloze set a week, I do not intend to time him on book 1 (good blooming job, as he sulked during the last one just after chrimbo and took 20minutes!) Book 2 I will introduce timing. There is no way he could do two pages in 6 minutes or whatever at the moment, but he does know the vocab, just needs to drag it to the front of his brain a lot more quickly. The fptp missing word texts are mostly factual, which suit my ds.
The comprehension papers are teeny tiny writing, which I do not agree with at all, as us poor old parents have to read it, when we go through it with them, and some children really struggle with small text, glasses or not. S and S maths is tiny too, I am all for saving paper, but not in work books!

[wildwest]

How did I know that someone will go on my confession...

Well, well, well, they were W.....H ones, given by a good family friend (in their late 80s- I have no complaints that they didn't look up for the sequin art sets/ICE watches.......what not).
So, thankfully, no guilt on my part, because after buying some stationary in the store, dd ran out of options. By the time we got the vouchers, Santa had already bought the fictions that she wanted and wrapped.

Oh and I did get her the electronic dictionary from there which she is very delighted with (from my pockets though, not the vouchers!). would recommend to everyone really. But yes, not to replace the traditional paper dictionary completely.

SB3, no chance of dd letting me spend HER vouchers from any other shop on myself. Forget dd, even ds who has just turned 3, keeps his disney voucher under his pillow until we are able to take him shopping to buy him Mickey Mouse swimming constume

[southbucks3]

How did I know that someone will go on my confession...

I like to be predictable!

I noticed Cat woman has adversely criticised the text size in fptp English too on another thread. Perhaps if we all shout, the publishers will make it larger for the next lot of victims! In the mean time I will just enlarge it on the copier at home, which is added hassle and cost.