Tutoring
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neurotic kent mum
- Posts: 970
- Joined: Wed Mar 07, 2007 12:40 am
With you Rachel's mum and Alfie. Nails bitten. Arms intact! But will it be enough. We also had a complete break at the beginning of the holidays and also towards the end. I think it was fairly balanced the rest of the holidays. Don''t actually think, ' was it enough,' as we did what we could and I genuinely believe she was well prepared. But I really am eating an arm off now in worry as it not what she can do but what she did do that will count - and that is a mystery! And she really didn't like the Maths!
For us the maths was a nightmare yet I can't understand why. Although maths was always the weaker subject, she's a high 5c bordering a 5b, excellent on mental maths and times tables and word problems. High percentages on practice papers.
She finished the paper but told me stories that when she'd worked out the answers her answer was not on the answer sheet. This happened many times so she guessed. Right thing to do I supposed so she didn't get bogged down with the time but after the disaster in Bexley I cannot see how she can turn this around in Kent. She has already told me that she thinks the maths was just as hard in Kent.
Have got a permanent headache and am dreading Monday.
She finished the paper but told me stories that when she'd worked out the answers her answer was not on the answer sheet. This happened many times so she guessed. Right thing to do I supposed so she didn't get bogged down with the time but after the disaster in Bexley I cannot see how she can turn this around in Kent. She has already told me that she thinks the maths was just as hard in Kent.
Have got a permanent headache and am dreading Monday.
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neurotic kent mum
- Posts: 970
- Joined: Wed Mar 07, 2007 12:40 am
With you on the headache. Stress related. My understanding is that there was a lot of problem solving on the maths - so this may be a help to you Tracy. It was not like the NFER papers which was what caused him upset. Tried not to obsess but not succeeded! And thank you to SSM for your kind words. Not an easy time this.
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alexandra6
- Posts: 37
- Joined: Thu Sep 17, 2009 8:06 pm
- Location: kent
just thought I'd add my two pennies worth - my son was not tutored (and I am now feeling guilty about this). We showed him the Bond (age 9-10)books in Year4 and he just seemed to 'get' both NVR and VR and his maths is good, so we put it all on the back burner until Easter of Y5. Then did some higher level Bond books (age10-11) and occasionally did a few other papers someone had handed onto us.
In the summer we did 2 complete sets of NFER papers B and D but never managed to properly time anything as there were always too many interruptions
First week back at school went through all the odds and ends of unfinshed papers etc and planned a quiet week end. Practice day for VR and NVR was a disaster, however, with lots of unfinished questions. Maths was fine.
Went into panic mode, visited school who kindly photocopied papers for me (NFER paper A) and marked them. Maths fine, as suspected 94% correct but VR only 66% and NVR 48%. On this day I discovered this forum after madly searching google about NFER paper A and discovered it was though to be a really hard paper.
So spent the weekend on exam technique and timing, down to working out how long it took to answer 20 blank boxes to cover the unfinished paper scenario (42 seconds
) and finally DS seemed to get the importance of every second counting. So no more staring out the window, fiddling with watch (newly purchased to help in 11+ but quickly abandoned for the real thing - clock on wall was fine).
So I guess I'm saying - go for home tutoring if you feel able but don't forget all the exam technique and definitely don't leave it as late as us to do some properly timed papers and if you don't want to feel guilty as anything - get a tutor for a least a few months.
Time will tell on Monday if we did enough that final weekend .. Reading the Bexley posts this week reminds me that no one is guaranteed to pass. Commiserations to those who did not and let's hope it is second time lucky if you did Kent as well.
In the summer we did 2 complete sets of NFER papers B and D but never managed to properly time anything as there were always too many interruptions
First week back at school went through all the odds and ends of unfinshed papers etc and planned a quiet week end. Practice day for VR and NVR was a disaster, however, with lots of unfinished questions. Maths was fine.
Went into panic mode, visited school who kindly photocopied papers for me (NFER paper A) and marked them. Maths fine, as suspected 94% correct but VR only 66% and NVR 48%. On this day I discovered this forum after madly searching google about NFER paper A and discovered it was though to be a really hard paper.
So spent the weekend on exam technique and timing, down to working out how long it took to answer 20 blank boxes to cover the unfinished paper scenario (42 seconds
) and finally DS seemed to get the importance of every second counting. So no more staring out the window, fiddling with watch (newly purchased to help in 11+ but quickly abandoned for the real thing - clock on wall was fine).So I guess I'm saying - go for home tutoring if you feel able but don't forget all the exam technique and definitely don't leave it as late as us to do some properly timed papers and if you don't want to feel guilty as anything - get a tutor for a least a few months.
Time will tell on Monday if we did enough that final weekend .. Reading the Bexley posts this week reminds me that no one is guaranteed to pass. Commiserations to those who did not and let's hope it is second time lucky if you did Kent as well.