Well it was fine and its now over
.
We were all calm, cool and collected until 5am this morning when my son woke up having dreamt of doing a hard 12+ paper which he couldn't answer, so sad, what must have been going through his head, my poor soldier!!
Strange cos we all had a nice Sunday evening, played some board games and watched tv, he read in bed, all very normal or so we thought!
Anyway, pushed hubby out into spare room and we lay there chatting about holidays, talking football (as you do at 5.15 am) listened to the dawn chorus which was soooo loud this morning, serenading us with good wishes I think!
I eventually got up and made brekkie at 6.45 and my son was a happy bunny again and announced he had no nerves and 'bring on that test'!!
Moving on to the test, it was busy and bustling at The Grange, a few crying kids and as I looked around, virtually all boys, hardly a girl in sight, not sure what this means, do we push boys more or do boys mature later - amazing though, might just have been how they split up all the examinees?
The exam was fine, only 10 or 11 question types covered plus an additional maths type section which was unfamiliar but ok, answer sheet which is different from 11+ is ok, apparently no examples of question types but you had to read the instructions step by step?? at the start of each section?
Everyone concentrated, no sobbing or sniffing, a few dropped pencils, a grumpy invigilator (sorry if you are reading this, it's what my son said!), timings given at mid way and five mins to go. Heating on in exam room as it was a cold day.
Freezing cold waiting outside for them to appear and very nerve racking! Talked with other families/parents and then we saw all their little smiling faces and I think, in the majority everyone seemed relieved, my son had colour in his cheeks as oppose to the white/terrified look he had going into the room and we whooped and yelped off to the car, relieved (him and me that it was all over)!
Sign up saying results by end of May and school allocations by end of June if successful.
So it's done and dusted, he feels the exam was fine, he finished with 6 mins to go, looked back at 6 or 7 which he had noted on his paper. It seems there are two 12+ papers 2A and 2B so they obviously alternate them from one day or one session to the next which makes sense.
Good luck to all those out there, do pm me if you have anything more specific to add to your childs' exam as we don't want to give anything away on the forum.
Another 6 or 7 weeks waiting still to go - fingers crossed.
Ambridge aka 12+ Elf x