11 Plus Exams Forum

Hi,

I am at my wits end! My son is incredibly slow, he has no sense of urgency when it comes to completing his work/tests. I get so frustrated because he's got the knowledge. If he doesn't get a high enough mark to get into a grammar school, it will be purely because of his speed. Some days I feel like giving up, but he is insisting he wants to do it and is desperate to go to grammar school.

He doesn't have a tutor, we are DIYing. Any tips on how to improve speed will be gratefully received!

Thanks,

MacPac

MacPac wrote:Hi,

I am at my wits end! My son is incredibly slow, he has no sense of urgency when it comes to completing his work/tests. I get so frustrated because he's got the knowledge. If he doesn't get a high enough mark to get into a grammar school, it will be purely because of his speed. Some days I feel like giving up, but he is insisting he wants to do it and is desperate to go to grammar school.

He doesn't have a tutor, we are DIYing. Any tips on how to improve speed will be gratefully received!

Thanks,

MacPac

I have the same problem with dd, if I leave her to it she takes an age to complete a sheet, if I stand over her and watch her do it literally she is really fast! Totally infuriating. Probably a bit early but is it worth giving him a mock in the subject he is best at? They are all time pressured, I stand over dd and tell her when she has half the time left then 10 and 5 minutes left. I think that gave her an idea of how fast she had to be and how much time she was wasting.

Keep with it, I'm sure he will realise

My DS is totally commited and really wants to do well. Like you, I do get very frustrated at his lack of urgency. We can make a Bond 10 minute paper last 40 minutes some days ! I found myself getting very grumpy with him and saying things like "you'll never get in if you take so long" etc. which in hindsight I don't think is very kind to him. I reminded myself he'd already been out of the house for 9 hours (which is his school day with commute) and that using other encouragements might help. Now he only gets to play FIFA on the Ipad if he has made a good effort - he might not taking 12 minutes.. but its the effort that I am rewarding at this stage. He did sit the VR exam and ran out of time, that really helped, as he realised how well he was doing.. and then realised he hadn't the time to answer 15 of the questions !

I did look at the GL assessment spreadsheet on what we should be targetting and its not speed yet, so stick with accuracy and encouragement now.

BTW we are DIY'ing too.

I was nagging him like a crazy woman this morning. I'm feeling guilty now. He completed a Bond 10 minute maths test in 9 minutes. He then did a VR 10 minute test. He completed the first 6 questions in 10 minutes but then took another 10 minutes to complete the remaining 4 questions. It doesn't help that I'm not a morning person!

I gave him the 2007 CSSE papers a few months ago and he did okay in them and completed them in time. I don't want him to become too complacent so I want to try and speed him up now. He is very laid back.

Araucana girl - I'm going to try sitting with him and keep reminding him of the time.

mikedellfarm - My son also has a long day at school like yours. He also gets a lot of homework and we're struggling to keep up with it all. I don't want to overwork him. Where did you find the GL assessment spreadsheet?

Thanks for the replies. MacPac

In the Official 11+ series Parents Guide, pages 46, 47 etc.

I do worry about overworking my son and burn out. At 9 years old with a very long school day and homework, there is a chance he might overdo it. I can see that VR and maths are not our problem area, we just need to work on his speed slowly but surely.