Might be useful......a few tips.

Eleven Plus (11+) in Kent

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dadofkent
Posts: 515
Joined: Tue Jan 01, 2008 2:05 pm

Might be useful......a few tips.

Post by dadofkent »

Been away from the forum for a bit, and away from the 11+ for nearly a year..thank god. Bit late in the day, but a few things I recall instilling in my DC's.


Spend some time working out your optimum position for question paper, answer paper and hands. EG answer paper on right, question paper on left, and the two papers close together, or even one on top of other. Keep your non-dom hand on answer paper or question paper to keep your place. Spare hand is a useful tool, use it. And just one firm pencil stroke on the answer paper-not back over it. These are things that can easily make a difference of two or three seconds a question. On an 80 question VR paper this can be three or four minutes by the end.

You can write on the question paper. This can make a substantial difference in all papers. In maths you can do jottings/sums right next to the question, draw on graphs, or complete geometrical shapes; in VR it helps with codes, number sequences (writing in the number intervals), and putting in trial and error answers; and in NVR it lets you draw in shapes, or sketch in rotations, and helps with codes, for example. In all papres it allows you to cross out rejected answers (particularly useful if you need to come back to question at end and quickly take a guess). It has been known for invigilators to stop children writing on papers, although I think this has been more of a problem in mock tests. But if this problem occurs, tell your DC to stand their ground. The invigilator is wrong.

Tell children not to panic if faced with a difficult paper. They only need about a half right to pass. Tell them to concentrate on getting the half right. If nothing else it might help take the pressure off.

In maths, if you start to get behind schedule timewise, start to pick off the questions that involve only one step, or calculation. Some questions require a number of steps-come back to these at the end.

Also more relevant to maths, in the-which of the below are correct/incorrect type questions, I told my DC to start at E and work back to A. I take no responsibility if this backfires!

If you want to do minimal maths preparation at this stage, I would concentrate just on revision of tables, and equivalent fractions:percentages:decimals (down to all eighths)

Remember in VR most of the test can be done straight from the answer paper. But make sure you do not get opposite meaning/same meaning type questions mixed up. Even if the questions cannot be done straight from the answer paper, reference to the answer paper helps in elimination and trial and error. This can be particularly important in code questions, where incorrect answers can be eliminated before the code is fully cracked.

In the VR letter codes, first thing to do is put a line between the M and N in the alphabet. This helps with mirror codes, and also reminds you to look for mirror codes.

Remember for the number sequences, those with the most numbers are likely to be alternate sequences. Look for these first.

Not sure whether this one was any use for my children-depends on the layout of the actual paper. But in NVR each section is timed separately, and started with a practice question before formal timing starts. I told my DC's to ignore the practice questions and just put random marks in the answer boxes, and use the time to start looking at the actual questions. Never did find out whether they were able to do this in practice. Did not interrogate the DC post test.
pdharmendra
Posts: 33
Joined: Fri Sep 03, 2010 10:23 pm

Re: Might be useful......a few tips.

Post by pdharmendra »

Thanks..very useful
CologneJim
Posts: 8
Joined: Thu Jul 15, 2010 1:11 pm

Re: Might be useful......a few tips.

Post by CologneJim »

Thanks very useful last minute tips on technique on the morning of day 1.

Good luck to all our DCs taking the test today/tomorrow. Just told my son I am so proud of him for the effort he has put in, all he can do now is try his best! VR and NVR today with Maths and Writing tomorrow.
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