11 Plus Exams Forum

Hi everyone,
I know there are quite a few of us with dc sitting this test in September. Half term is now over and ds's Grade 4 piano over (phew) so it's back to preparation in ernest. Would anyone like to join for a bit of mutual support?

Me please! Our main issues are silly mistakes, not reading the question and trying to improve vocab. I put my son in for the music exam too even though he has only been playing piano for 6 months or so and is working towards his grade 1. Although I am sure he will not pass on music short of a miracle, it has had a really positive effect on his willingness to practice and the progress he is making with his music. I think both of us are glad that there is an end in sight. When he gets fed up and jaded I remind him that it isn't long to go now.

Hi Bel,
Yes, I know the feeling about silly mistakes....also misreading the question (e.g.giving most similar rather than most opposite) and not checking. I have started an incentive scheme of 10p for every error found and rectified, My husband also had a good idea about getting ds to mark his own papers so that he spots the silly errors.

It's quite nice to see an end point in view! Good news about your ds 's increaced willingness to practice - music is a wonderful thing that he will be able to enjoy forever regardless of any school entrance test. i am going to ease off music practice for a bit and let ds enjoy himself as he worked really hard for his G 4. Main focus for us is VR.

yes to support!! we are working on the silly mistakes - mostly misreading and over confidence being our main issues. We tried the incentives with money but the interest soon petered out. We are now back to good old fashion sit down and practice mode (dd has her moments but generally ok).

Me too please! My DS is still keen enough to do VR (and always keen to do Maths) but we too are suffering from 'silly mistake' syndrome and from general second half of term tiredness I think. And, of course, from the excitement of Euro 2012. Watching football is SO much more important than 11+ exams if you are a 10 year old boy, apparently.

Comforting thoughts:

1. We have come a long way already
2. Scores have improved
3. There isn't too long left now.

Frightening thoughts:

1. We may not have come far enough
2. Scores may not be high enough
3. There isn't long left now!!!!

Hi both. Agree, we have all come a long way. The summer term is always so busy at school too- ds has had first residential trip, now it's district sports, sports day, open day, summer concert, extra orchestra, stuff at Scouts,...I'm trying to get in to a new routine but somethig seems to come up every week. Ds still good at actually doing the work though, I'm very proud and we don't have too many moans. I'm going to aim for a paper a day in the summer holidays. We have quite a long car journey for our summer holiday so I'm also making index cards to play word games like thinking up as many similies or opposites or compound word type things.

And breathe....

Another one here!

I take comfort in the fact that most other parents complain about silly mistakes too . So all the children are on an even footing, hopefully.

How are test centres allocated? Is it completely random so they are divided equally among the schools or do they give you the closest one? Before applying I was under the impression that we get to choose our centre of choice.

We got Clement Danes both times and did not meet anyone who had not got the test centre of their choice. It may well be different this year and if necessary I would think they would do in the order you registered so some last minute merchants may need to go somewhere different. DG

I hadn't thought about allocation of test centres! I think I made an assumption about being allocated the one geographically nearest since all the St Albans dc I know who have sat the test in the past took it at Parmiters. Well, at least we will know in the next couple of weeks.

Question to 9 year old son yesterday. "What's a Puffin?" Reply, perfectly seriously "It's a layered chocolate biscuit." I am sure I used to have a sense of humour once But couldn't see any funny side yesterday!