The tutor proof test

[Weaver]

I home tutored my DD 3 years ago, and my son this year. Both got grammar places. I really noticed the difference in the sorts of things we covered, and I felt that the CEM prep helped my son much more in his general schoolwork than the old VR test did my DD.

The VR felt very much about learning strategies for solving 21 types of puzzle, at pace, with a hefty dollop of good vocab.

The CEM played to my DS strengths in that he has always loved reading, has good vocab and comprehension, and especially enjoys NVR puzzles. He was not so strong on maths, definitely. I felt the CEM test gave him the chance to demonstrate a broader range of ability than pure VR would have. I don't think he would have got a grammar place had we still been on the NFER VR format. I'm glad for him that we moved to CEM.

In terms of how much tutoring we did, we made sure he read challenging stuff with good vocab. Other than that, I picked up the CPG books this spring, one for each bit of the CEM (English, maths, VR and NVR) and tried to work through them. He managed about 20 mins a week. Over the summer, he did the CPG test papers, timed, which gave him experience of answering at speed, how to use the answer paper, managing his time. His results were pretty awful!

He wanted to try the test anyway, and we had no expectations on how he might do. Happily, it worked out for him on the day.

There you go. That's our experience of it!

[DebsB]

My DS is in year 7 and half of the students in his class went to private primary school. His is very clever and not struggling in any subject. But some of the above average public ( LA schools) school kids are struggling in some areas in maths. It is not because they are not clever but because the private school ones have already covered those topics in their primary school and are able to grasp those things faster. There is no way an average kid from very bad primary school is going to pass the eleven plus exam without with the tutoring whether DIY or paid. Tutoring helps to bridge the gap between private schools kids and public school ones.

Totally agree some tutoring (DIY or paid) is necessary for state school pupils. As I posted earlier, I organised some for my state-educated DD. A friend whose DS was at a prep school a few years ago found that even though they were all doing VR at school every week, she felt under enormous pressure to get her son a tutor as well - or he'd have been the only child in the class without one. And there was a documentary on TV a few years ago about children doing the 11+ in Birmingham, and some of those were doing vast amounts of extra work - I remember one girl saying she was so happy the final entrance test was over because now she'd be able to go to the park and play, whereas she'd been too busy working to be allowed to go to the park for nearly a year. That sort of thing can't be healthy for children that age - or any age, really.

[cazien]

And I'm aware that some kids do well enough on the exam to get in, and then have a miserable time struggling to keep up right from the beginning of Y7 and for the whole time they're at the school. Maybe some of those children were just unusually lucky on the day of the test and did better than they normally would.

I can't prove it, but I'm as certain as I can be without actual proof that if a child wouldn't have got in without lots and lots of tutoring, but has lots and lots of tutoring and as a result gets in, then that child is more likely to end up struggling than a child who gets in, or would have got in, with more moderate preparation. Note that I say "more likely" and not "certain". But I didn't want to take the risk with DD. If she couldn't get in with the level of tutoring I organised for her, I'd have preferred for her to go to a comp and shine there.

I agree - I know of a DC who left towards the end of Y8 of a Grammar school purely because they could not cope with the level/standard required and struggled for nearly 2 years. Tutored from the middle of Y3 for the GL Assessment test proved VERY detrimental to this DC. Even though they managed to pass the test with flying colours, they spent nearly 2 years struggling in every subject.

My DS's had no tutoring, just managed to gain a GS place and are currently excelling and achieving grades above all our expectations (where's the proud button!).

Give a bright child a chance by using books that are available. If they can understand the format/type of questions likely to appear they are not being "thrown in at the deep end" on the day and hopefully will stay calm and not panic. This is probably the only test that a child may face "blind" - practice papers are available for SAT's, GCSEs etc so I do not see a problem using practice books.