11 Plus Exams Forum

Hi all!
Gosh its quiet...hopefully hot up soon around here!I cant possibly be the only mum in Glos with it all starting to become VERY real?..can I?...
OK well ds is doing well-he really has grasped it all and "gets"all the different types and does them pretty much as second nature now,so all good.
His tutor (which he's had for only the last 3 weeks/mth)is really pleased and says he's "very good..no,I mean really good-honest!"at my raised eyebrows...lol!
He has been completing the practice test,first nfer and now onto the second of the bright sparks,within the time,again-good.
Thing is-although he can actually do the questions quicker and a WHOLE lot easier now..he seems "stuck"at around the mid 80% on practice tests...seems odd to me.
When going back,they are SILLY mistakes(I try not to get !!!)and he knows it-he's very much the perfectionist and wants to be consistently in the 90's%..as do I-id feel happier then i think..obviously!
So any tips on stopping silly mistakes?Maybe in the real deal he'd focus more than at the kitchen table anyway..
We dont do loads-just one every 2 weeks or so..
Does this sound ok for now?

No youre not alone,Im also starting to wonder if we are preparing ok. We have had results varying from 72% at the beginning up to 93% on a sunday morning. Yesterday after a really long,busy day at school he scored his lowest yet at 68%. This makes me think that I need to plan when he takes his tests more carefully and not just throw them in when we have time. We still came out of yesterday on a positive as he was able to look up words he didnt know and then get the correct answer straight away. We also found some techniques to help with different groups of quetions.I have had to get him to slow down as he can do a test paper in 25mins with silly mistakes or in 40mins with none. Plenty of time yet though!!!

wow-he is going FAST!!(I think?)well done.... seems to be going well for you!
ds does it in @40-45 mins...50 if he is losing it!lol!gets very stroppy when theres noise(which,invariably with 4 boys inc a newborn there is!)
well,there is LOTS of time-I dont do many just on a sunday am sometimes..I feel bad doing too much after school-just 10 mins really.
Its been lovely weather so he's off out..playing cant push him too much,he's the type that would tell me to ummm "go away"but not as politely

hi All

From my experience (DS1 sat last year) they do plateau out at a certain level. I rarely got more than a 5% swing with DS1 coming up to, and during, the summer prep. I would not be to concerned about this as parents/tutors usually build up to harder tests and so no rise in marks with a hike in difficulty is fine in my book.

Nice to know EmeraldE..makes sense..duh...of course the papers are rising in difficulty-sometimes I astound myself with my stupidity-good job its not me doing the 11+!
Thankyou..Its always nice to hear of peoples past experiences.

Good to see there are others as unsure of what to do as me. Should I be worried I have only penciled in one paper a week until the end of the hols - the rest of the summer holidays spent reading and trying to improve vocab?

That's what I will be doing. VR can get pretty boring (especially the codes!) for kids once they have sussed the techniques.

Would suggest sending them on the KP week assuming they still do it, did this for my kids, the first scored 100% twice and very high 90s and got Pates the other low 90s and just missed Pates - so maybe a good guide?

KP week??? Never heard of it.

Your DC's all seem to be doing really well. We too are stuck on a plateau - DD achieving mid 80's% only just inside the 50mins. Have bought rather a lot of papers - another 7 Walsh papers, all 8 Bright Sparks and want her to do the 4 Nfer papers too! With only 13 weeks to go, that's rather more than 1 a week not sure what to do! Will definitely have her sit two papers in one go as practice nearer the time but progress has slowed right down and don't know how much to push her over the holidays.