thank you
Posted: Tue Mar 06, 2012 1:22 pm
Hello all members
I just felt I owed a great big thank you to this forum and all its members
My dd has secured a place at Tiffins this year (scored 244) so very pleased with her
But i wanted to say the amount of help and advice ive recieved from this forum is amazing.
Ive posted numerous questions asking for help and have always had a reply, and as a parent who doesnt know much about vr/nvr i cannot be grateful enough for everyones contribution.
this forum is not only a gem but a light of guidance for those who do not have a clue where to start when selecting schools. i started a year ago without any direction and with the time spent on reading endless number of threads i had enough confidence to see my dd through, so thank you all.
There is ample written on advice regarding past papers and which ones to do but not much on exam technique advice and being a doctor myself (and having sat endless medical exmas!) i passed on a few to my dd for her exams which i feel worked well, she scored 130 in slough/langley exam and came 28th position in kendrick and i feel id like to share some for those parents who cannot understand why their child is unable to complete papers in time or has to leave a few questions out due to time:
1) once all techinques taught time papers - one paper per hour, stop your child once an hour is up and establish how many questions left out - then during papers remind him how much time he has left - even though he may make a few mistakes on rushing he is picking up speed (ofcourse do this a good 10 months before the exam)
2) time each nvr section - start with 1-2 minutes per question in each section so 10 questions = 10 minutes, then tell them to move to next section
3) after a few months halve the time given in nvr per section or make it 1 min per question. eventually for 10 questions i used to give my dd 5 minutes (3 months before exam) initally she left a few out but eventually her fingers and mind started to race through and she picked up speed. initally they will make mistakes because they are not used to speeding through the questions, ignore those silly mistakes and correct them at the end - what you are trying to build is effective speed - it is always good to know questions done as silly mistakes or because of lack of time for thinking were not qrong because they were hard
4) for vr 80 questions i used to give 45 minutes only - this was pushing for time but not impossible with a amximum of 5 mistakes allowed - brought down to 3 mistakes a 3 months before the exam
5) keep a clock infront of child and give toime reminders every 15 minutes
6) in the last month my dd was doing vr papers in 30 minutes 80 questions with no less than 95% being allowed in the house!
6) im sure lots of people do this but in the nvr teach your child that 3 questions are 100% wrong in that they are telling you from the page 'I AM WRONG!' - put a line through them immediately - if techniques are truly mastered this step takes about 10 seconds to do. then you have your final 2 choices and spend the remaining 30 seocnds or so thinking about them. this helped my dd immensely and she loved the elimination process!
7) never leave a question out...and intelloigent guess is always better than no guess at all - there is no negative marking
if my dd left any questions out i told her to circle the questions number on the ANSWER SHEET (lightly) just so in the last 10 minutes when you go over your mistakes a cirlce staring at you will make you want to go to address that question first...during her tiffins exam an inviglator at the end of the exam mentioned to her 'thats a very good exam technique you had going on there!'
i know the above requires the parent to be around 100% but it is all worth it in the end when you open those letters where you read your child has passed with flying colours:))
hope the little above helps even one child out there
thank you all
I just felt I owed a great big thank you to this forum and all its members
My dd has secured a place at Tiffins this year (scored 244) so very pleased with her
But i wanted to say the amount of help and advice ive recieved from this forum is amazing.
Ive posted numerous questions asking for help and have always had a reply, and as a parent who doesnt know much about vr/nvr i cannot be grateful enough for everyones contribution.
this forum is not only a gem but a light of guidance for those who do not have a clue where to start when selecting schools. i started a year ago without any direction and with the time spent on reading endless number of threads i had enough confidence to see my dd through, so thank you all.
There is ample written on advice regarding past papers and which ones to do but not much on exam technique advice and being a doctor myself (and having sat endless medical exmas!) i passed on a few to my dd for her exams which i feel worked well, she scored 130 in slough/langley exam and came 28th position in kendrick and i feel id like to share some for those parents who cannot understand why their child is unable to complete papers in time or has to leave a few questions out due to time:
1) once all techinques taught time papers - one paper per hour, stop your child once an hour is up and establish how many questions left out - then during papers remind him how much time he has left - even though he may make a few mistakes on rushing he is picking up speed (ofcourse do this a good 10 months before the exam)
2) time each nvr section - start with 1-2 minutes per question in each section so 10 questions = 10 minutes, then tell them to move to next section
3) after a few months halve the time given in nvr per section or make it 1 min per question. eventually for 10 questions i used to give my dd 5 minutes (3 months before exam) initally she left a few out but eventually her fingers and mind started to race through and she picked up speed. initally they will make mistakes because they are not used to speeding through the questions, ignore those silly mistakes and correct them at the end - what you are trying to build is effective speed - it is always good to know questions done as silly mistakes or because of lack of time for thinking were not qrong because they were hard
4) for vr 80 questions i used to give 45 minutes only - this was pushing for time but not impossible with a amximum of 5 mistakes allowed - brought down to 3 mistakes a 3 months before the exam
5) keep a clock infront of child and give toime reminders every 15 minutes
6) in the last month my dd was doing vr papers in 30 minutes 80 questions with no less than 95% being allowed in the house!
6) im sure lots of people do this but in the nvr teach your child that 3 questions are 100% wrong in that they are telling you from the page 'I AM WRONG!' - put a line through them immediately - if techniques are truly mastered this step takes about 10 seconds to do. then you have your final 2 choices and spend the remaining 30 seocnds or so thinking about them. this helped my dd immensely and she loved the elimination process!
7) never leave a question out...and intelloigent guess is always better than no guess at all - there is no negative marking
if my dd left any questions out i told her to circle the questions number on the ANSWER SHEET (lightly) just so in the last 10 minutes when you go over your mistakes a cirlce staring at you will make you want to go to address that question first...during her tiffins exam an inviglator at the end of the exam mentioned to her 'thats a very good exam technique you had going on there!'
i know the above requires the parent to be around 100% but it is all worth it in the end when you open those letters where you read your child has passed with flying colours:))
hope the little above helps even one child out there
thank you all