the best advice please

proudaspunch · Post by **proudaspunch** » Wed Nov 25, 2009 11:52 am

my dd did not pass this year and will be going to my local comp

However next nov my other daughter will be sitting the 11+ and i can't afford tutoring ,so could you please give me a few tips for which practise papers are the best as my dd1 did not recignise the question format on paper 1 this year

i have the wh smiths ones already and downloaded pates tests

kind regards

koalabear · Post by **koalabear** » Wed Nov 25, 2009 2:10 pm

Hi!

I really feel for you and if it's any consolation we're in limbo at the moment. I couldn't afford tutoring either and as we're in Wiltshire, the whole thing with kids sitting VR tests at school and heads involved with the results etc was totally alien to me.

One thing though, and I hope this helps, is that my son has assured me many, many times that we had covered all types of questions that he came across in the exam. For the technique, we used the Susan J. Daughtrey Verbal Reasoning Technique & Practice books - all 4 of them. One thing though is that my son found the exam questions a lot harder than the ones he had practiced at home - including the Pate's samples and the GL and Bond ones.

Hope it all works out well!!!

Glparent · Post by **Glparent** » Wed Nov 25, 2009 2:17 pm

I used Athey Educational VR and non-VR, mixed with a few of their English & Maths too. Slightly old-fashioned but really gets their vocab going. Good luck.

proudaspunch · Post by **proudaspunch** » Wed Nov 25, 2009 2:45 pm

thankyou i will source these out

Milla · Post by **Milla** » Wed Nov 25, 2009 3:35 pm

our tutor (Â£5 an hour, so affordable) did a lot of comprehension work with her children. At times, this was frustrating as "everyone else" seemed to be doing papers, papers, papers, but vocab work, and the subtleties - since they do chuck in tricks - is key.

My boy got 141 in the second paper. I say this not to boast but it was within a standardised range of 138-282 over the 2 papers and suggests that it was very high and this is the paper which is meant to be more tutor-proof so we must have been doing something right. I mean, it may just be the way that his brain works rather than anything much I did and he certainly did not find the papers hard and finished each 10 mins early so it probably is just his particular hard wiring being suited to these kinds of questions.

But if pushed I would certainly attribute a lot of it to his excellent vocabulary. He does also read avidly and always asks me what words mean so there is a genuine interest there and his mental maths is vg too, so no time wasting working out sums. That's not to say that there's a big maths element but I think a rounded approach, as Glparent suggests, is very important. Using a range of material also helps them take changes from an expected format in their stride.

proudaspunch · Post by **proudaspunch** » Wed Nov 25, 2009 4:55 pm

thankyou milla , my dd is a great reader but not so great on the mental maths !!! dd2 seems to be great at both so hopefully will come out of test next year with a better result !!

Glos_Mum · Post by **Glos_Mum** » Wed Nov 25, 2009 11:35 pm

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