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Can it really be that difficult - Experienced parents please

Posted: Tue Jul 06, 2010 8:08 pm
by supermum2
After attending a few open evenings and listening to the Heads speech I believed that you only need to cover the KS2 sylabus to get into grammar school. I then looked at this site where parents are discussing equations, algebra and long division etc. I am very keen to know if these more difficult subjects have come up in any of the Surrey exams in previous years. Those of you that have DC's who have already sat these exams please can you post a list of the types that have come up in the past. Long Divion on BBC bitesize is listed under the GSCE catergory much higher than KS2&KS3.

I do not want to go overboard if their is no need at this time, so your help is needed, before I lose the few strands of hair left on my head!!!

Thanks in advanced

Re: Can it really be that difficult - Experienced parents pl

Posted: Tue Jul 06, 2010 11:43 pm
by WP
I'm moving this to the Surrey section, as you're more likely to get a useful response there.

Re: Can it really be that difficult - Experienced parents pl

Posted: Tue Jul 06, 2010 11:58 pm
by sherry_d
supermum2 wrote:I then looked at this site where parents are discussing equations, algebra and long division etc. I am very keen to know if these more difficult subjects have come up in any of the Surrey exams in previous years.
Just to say if you found this in the maths section, these questions arent all related to 11+. Some will be for entrance exams to independent schools. If you look at the NFER practice papers it gives you a good guide of what to cover or Bond how to do maths 11+

I am not from your area but generally there is normally one question that require algebra and sometimes it isnt straightfroward algebra more like "I think of a number add 7 and the answer is 13" I have not seen any question in the 11+ where a child needs long division, most can be done by short division...if you are tight on time these are the areas you may work on in the last days when your DC has mastered most of the stuff and I wouldnt worry too much about it.

I am not too sure whats covered in KS2 but some of the maths topics may get covered in Year 6 for example my DD only did ratios at school recently and it was very basic more like an introduction yet there are one or 2 questions on ratios in the practice papers. I hope someone in your neck of woods can give you more specifics but the maths paper seem fairly standard across the board. My DD actually did some mocks in Surrey even though we are in Kent so I doubt there is much difference in the content.

Re: Can it really be that difficult - Experienced parents pl

Posted: Wed Jul 07, 2010 8:18 am
by mitasol
I think the problem is that the exams are taken at the beginning of the year 6. At this point the school may not have covered all the relevant topics. These tend to be the more complex areas but it will depend on the school. ( I found DS had not covered simple algebra, ratio and probability).

There are a list of maths topics here http://www.elevenplusexams.co.uk/revisi ... _maths.php
I used Bond to check everything had been covered. http://www.elevenplusexams.co.uk/books/ ... 3D0%23b318

I'm not from this area but "only covering KS2 material" is a theme common to all areas and is disingenuous.

Re: Can it really be that difficult - Experienced parents pl

Posted: Wed Jul 07, 2010 9:30 pm
by surreymum
The problem with the schools in this region is that they all set their own exams so you have to cover all the bases as you just don't know what will come up.

You will not need to do more than what is in the available 11+ books but you will have to try and cover it all.

We did some very simple algebra. We did not do long division. I tried not to ask my sons what had come up as did not want them (or me) to worry

Re: Can it really be that difficult - Experienced parents pl

Posted: Thu Jul 08, 2010 12:20 pm
by atestingtime
If you could say which schools you were looking at applying for the answers would be more specific - each of the Sutton / Tiffin / Wilsons etc have different entrance exams.

Lots of details in the stickies at the top of the page for each school - do they help further?

Re: Can it really be that difficult - Experienced parents pl

Posted: Thu Jul 08, 2010 9:09 pm
by supermum2
My questioning is in relation to the Wilson/Wallington and Sutton Grammar tests.

Re: Can it really be that difficult - Experienced parents pl

Posted: Fri Jul 09, 2010 11:38 am
by qpootle5
I was told by a tutor that the selective schools do stick to the ks2 syllabus per say but the questions therein will be tough. Sometimes they will chuck in a couple/few ks3 questions at the end to stretch their maths knowledge. So this is where you might get algebra or sequential problems requiring different calc methods.

Re: Can it really be that difficult - Experienced parents pl

Posted: Fri Jul 09, 2010 1:58 pm
by lamum
Shall we fast forward?

Getting in to, say, Wilsons, is a start but then what?

Looking at their GCSE Maths results for 2009, it shows that of 144 boys who sat mathematics, 99 achieved an A*, 44 achieved an A and 1 achieved a B!

Parents, tread carefully! Grammar schools are not for the fainthearted.

Re: Can it really be that difficult - Experienced parents pl

Posted: Tue Jul 13, 2010 5:55 pm
by Plum
Hi

DS sat for WCGS & Wilson's last September. He couldn't remember anything about the exams when he came out but he ended up doing well (better in WCGS than Wilson's but I think that was more to do with us taking the foot off the pedal once he got a guaranteed place at Wally Boys!).

I would agree with the other posts that they haven't covered all of KS 2 maths at primary school when they take these tests - we used the Schofield and Simms books and DS had just finished book 5 by the time of the WCGS test.

With all the tests (maths, English and VR/NVR), it comes down to practice and getting your timings right - a bright child will be able to answer the questions but whether they can answer them in the time given is another matter. This time last year, I drew up a timetable for DS to do 3 papers a week during the holidays (one for each subject that was in the tests he would be sitting) and timed him, he then knew what he was doing and when and it seemed work - he didn't put up too much of a resistance when it came to doing some work.

Hope this helps.

Good luck.
Plum