Tricks of the Trade - CEM preparation TIP#1
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Re: Tricks of the Trade - CEM preparation TIP#1
I am not sure if reading builds vocabulary for everybody. DD is an avid reader. Once she is with her book she is completely oblivious to anything happening around her. She easily reads 200-300 pages a day. Initially I thought she just skims through them and does not understand anything, however, if asked any question she does reply correct. But if the same word appears in a synonym/antonym/cloze/muddled up words type of question there is no guarantee that she will know it. This worried me lot. I think while reading her experience/focus/ is more on the emotions, how the characters feel, why the author may have written thing in a certain way, what was probably going on in the author's mind while writing the book (most of the time this is a guessing game). She is never bothered about the words,punctuation,grammar, sentence construction or the plot as such.
DS on the contrary looks more for words, their sounds how sentences are arranged, how the plot develops and if the word appears out of the book he is more likely to know it. But he reads much less than his sister.
ps. yes, DD is much better than DS in NVR/Maths.
DS on the contrary looks more for words, their sounds how sentences are arranged, how the plot develops and if the word appears out of the book he is more likely to know it. But he reads much less than his sister.
ps. yes, DD is much better than DS in NVR/Maths.
Re: Tricks of the Trade - CEM preparation TIP#1
Just to add to the reading/ memorising words for VR questions debate
Somewhere along the way I read a really useful post here on the Birmingham, Walsall, Wolverhampton & Wrekin section that encouraging your child to discuss new words, seek out their meaning, etc... was useful. And a mother described how her DD had a dictionary by her bed.
We found that discussing words (what they use/ they mean/ they imply for to story or character) was really useful in reading in the run-up to the 11+. Little fish loves an adventure story so in reading things like Kim (which was far too hard for her, so I read it to her and we discussed what was going on) or Kidnapped or White Fang - we'd discuss word meaning, how that word helped the story, etc...
-----------------------
Because NVR/ Maths seem unpopular - here are my tips:
NVR - I'm sure there is lots of advice under that section but these are my top tips:
Remember SONS:
SHAPE
ORIENTATION
NUMBER
SHADING
Shape - the different shape(s) used (so if it's always a triangle with circles inside and you have to chose out of several choices which shape belongs in the group - look for triangle with circles inside).
Orientation - So if the arrow is always pointing up - don't chose the one with the arrow down. Usually it's about rotation - so you may have a series of objects and a gap - and what you have to work out is which image fits in that gap. Try and look at the run of images together and see if you can work out how much rotation is going on (quarter turn clockwise each time, for example).
Number - You may have a series where little shapes are being added onto a line or edge of an object - see if they are increasing by a specific interval - 2 more little shapes each time, for example. You also should pay attention to total number of objects - so again with the triangle and circles images - you may have one triangle and 4 circles every time - so that is what you need to have for the new object which fits the pattern/ or visa versa - to identify the drawing which doesn't fit the pattern.
Shading is key. Is something hatched/ grey/ unshaded (or white)/ shaded (black) - how does this change over a series of images (when you have sequence problems). You may have a series of small shaded circles with one unshaded circle along the outside of an object and the unshaded circle moves along with each image. Or shading will alternated - shaded/ unshaded/ shaded/ unshaded/ etc...
Our experience was letter coded NVR didn't come up for the KE Consortium 11+ exam - but the classic box of several images and which one fits in or the series of boxes with a gap and which one fits in here did come up.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Math:
In short - my advice is that your child should be working at Year 6 ability by the time of taking the test and needs:
core calculation skills: addition/ subtraction/ multiplication/ division - really to 4 digits.
ability to work with decimals
conversion skills - pence to £/ grams to kilograms/ cm to metres etc...
(also really teach them to pay attention to what they want the answer to be in).
fractions - simplifying, LCD - ability to add & subtract fractions with different denominators/ ability to handle mixed and improper fractions.
proportions/ percentages/ probability
working out area of part of a complex shape: so maybe a square with part of it shaded where you know the length of one side - based on this information can you figure out the area of the shaded shape in the square?
Perimeter (& with area/ perimeter I would include circles in that.)
Little fish didn't mention any angle questions - but knowing all the angles add up to 180 degrees in a triangle probably wouldn't hurt.
we presumed from all we read on this forum that algebra would come up - you know if 2x + 3 = 13 what is x - but as it turned out it didn't. But probably an idea to be able to attempt to tackle such a problem.
---------------------------
Pay attention to the sample questions they send http://www.kingedwardthesixth.org/famil ... 144116.pdf- they really did reflect the type of questions on the test.
Be prepared that none of the workbooks you might use (Bond/ Letts/ GL Assessment old NEFR etc...) will totally reflect the style of questions they have on the day - so try and encourage good attitudes to approaching new styles of problems and strategies for handling difficult questions.
Our strategies for handling difficult questions:
1. Is it multiple choice - guess and come back if time.
2. If not multiple choice and there are more questions skip it and come back later.
Tackling tricky question:
What is it asking for - written answer or multiple choice.
With multiple choice - can you rule out obviously wrong answers
could you estimate the answer (if numeric) and then from options chose closest.
If written (perhaps writing a word in a cloze passage where a few of the letters are there) - could you write out possibilities and see if one works?
Finally - with maths WRITE OUT YOUR CALCULATIONS ON THE SIDE - try to avoid doing maths from multiple step problems in your head - to easy to make a simple mistake and then be way out for the answer. Also if it is written down you can go back and check your work if time allows.
However, the most important piece of advice I gave was to remind little fish that there will be questions she most likely can't answer and there will be sections of the test that are hard to finish or that she doesn't finish. It is important they are prepared for this to happen and not to be flustered by it.
Hope that helps.
Somewhere along the way I read a really useful post here on the Birmingham, Walsall, Wolverhampton & Wrekin section that encouraging your child to discuss new words, seek out their meaning, etc... was useful. And a mother described how her DD had a dictionary by her bed.
We found that discussing words (what they use/ they mean/ they imply for to story or character) was really useful in reading in the run-up to the 11+. Little fish loves an adventure story so in reading things like Kim (which was far too hard for her, so I read it to her and we discussed what was going on) or Kidnapped or White Fang - we'd discuss word meaning, how that word helped the story, etc...
-----------------------
Because NVR/ Maths seem unpopular - here are my tips:
NVR - I'm sure there is lots of advice under that section but these are my top tips:
Remember SONS:
SHAPE
ORIENTATION
NUMBER
SHADING
Shape - the different shape(s) used (so if it's always a triangle with circles inside and you have to chose out of several choices which shape belongs in the group - look for triangle with circles inside).
Orientation - So if the arrow is always pointing up - don't chose the one with the arrow down. Usually it's about rotation - so you may have a series of objects and a gap - and what you have to work out is which image fits in that gap. Try and look at the run of images together and see if you can work out how much rotation is going on (quarter turn clockwise each time, for example).
Number - You may have a series where little shapes are being added onto a line or edge of an object - see if they are increasing by a specific interval - 2 more little shapes each time, for example. You also should pay attention to total number of objects - so again with the triangle and circles images - you may have one triangle and 4 circles every time - so that is what you need to have for the new object which fits the pattern/ or visa versa - to identify the drawing which doesn't fit the pattern.
Shading is key. Is something hatched/ grey/ unshaded (or white)/ shaded (black) - how does this change over a series of images (when you have sequence problems). You may have a series of small shaded circles with one unshaded circle along the outside of an object and the unshaded circle moves along with each image. Or shading will alternated - shaded/ unshaded/ shaded/ unshaded/ etc...
Our experience was letter coded NVR didn't come up for the KE Consortium 11+ exam - but the classic box of several images and which one fits in or the series of boxes with a gap and which one fits in here did come up.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Math:
In short - my advice is that your child should be working at Year 6 ability by the time of taking the test and needs:
core calculation skills: addition/ subtraction/ multiplication/ division - really to 4 digits.
ability to work with decimals
conversion skills - pence to £/ grams to kilograms/ cm to metres etc...
(also really teach them to pay attention to what they want the answer to be in).
fractions - simplifying, LCD - ability to add & subtract fractions with different denominators/ ability to handle mixed and improper fractions.
proportions/ percentages/ probability
working out area of part of a complex shape: so maybe a square with part of it shaded where you know the length of one side - based on this information can you figure out the area of the shaded shape in the square?
Perimeter (& with area/ perimeter I would include circles in that.)
Little fish didn't mention any angle questions - but knowing all the angles add up to 180 degrees in a triangle probably wouldn't hurt.
we presumed from all we read on this forum that algebra would come up - you know if 2x + 3 = 13 what is x - but as it turned out it didn't. But probably an idea to be able to attempt to tackle such a problem.
---------------------------
Pay attention to the sample questions they send http://www.kingedwardthesixth.org/famil ... 144116.pdf- they really did reflect the type of questions on the test.
Be prepared that none of the workbooks you might use (Bond/ Letts/ GL Assessment old NEFR etc...) will totally reflect the style of questions they have on the day - so try and encourage good attitudes to approaching new styles of problems and strategies for handling difficult questions.
Our strategies for handling difficult questions:
1. Is it multiple choice - guess and come back if time.
2. If not multiple choice and there are more questions skip it and come back later.
Tackling tricky question:
What is it asking for - written answer or multiple choice.
With multiple choice - can you rule out obviously wrong answers
could you estimate the answer (if numeric) and then from options chose closest.
If written (perhaps writing a word in a cloze passage where a few of the letters are there) - could you write out possibilities and see if one works?
Finally - with maths WRITE OUT YOUR CALCULATIONS ON THE SIDE - try to avoid doing maths from multiple step problems in your head - to easy to make a simple mistake and then be way out for the answer. Also if it is written down you can go back and check your work if time allows.
However, the most important piece of advice I gave was to remind little fish that there will be questions she most likely can't answer and there will be sections of the test that are hard to finish or that she doesn't finish. It is important they are prepared for this to happen and not to be flustered by it.
Hope that helps.
Re: Tricks of the Trade - CEM preparation TIP#1
Thank you for that, Old Trout 
Re: Tricks of the Trade - CEM preparation TIP#1
For reading I defer to tried and trusted ways. I will start daily short comprehensions of written and McQ questions. I have a huge library of such resources and these help to consolidate text reading, comprehension and vocabulary.
For maths and NVR it is left off field questions that are asked and that is what I will practise. I have never been a fan of Bond books as they seem to be more relevant for private school entry exams. That being said Bond NVR is good, but not sure bond maths and English are relevant. SS Mental Maths series is useful.
For maths and NVR it is left off field questions that are asked and that is what I will practise. I have never been a fan of Bond books as they seem to be more relevant for private school entry exams. That being said Bond NVR is good, but not sure bond maths and English are relevant. SS Mental Maths series is useful.