When did you start preparation?

Independent Schools as an alternative to Grammar

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S999
Posts: 22
Joined: Tue Feb 03, 2015 5:34 am

When did you start preparation?

Post by S999 »

Hi there
My DD will be sitting for the usual suspects - SPGS, CLSG and a few other NLC schools. She is in Year 5 now and has begun doing some easier practice papers although she has started working through some past 11+ NLC papers.
Are we doing this too early? I don't want her to burn out or become stale...
I must say, she is not at a school which any way prepares her for these exams, we are applying from abroad.
When did your girls start preparing? I'm particularly interested in how the London hothouse preps approach this? Do they have weekly tests/timed papers? And from when?
Thank you!
Ladymuck
Posts: 1240
Joined: Wed Jul 01, 2009 2:04 pm

Re: When did you start preparation?

Post by Ladymuck »

Year 5 is about right. There were a couple of us who hadn't started tutoring until Jan of year 5, and we were warned that this was on the late side - certainly the class all accelerated in that first term of year 5. I'd say that they concentrated on technique until Easter, and then speed and accuracy from then on.
S999
Posts: 22
Joined: Tue Feb 03, 2015 5:34 am

Re: When did you start preparation?

Post by S999 »

Thanks lady muck...
We are abroad and the school is not at all helpful preparing for these exams. Did you tell the school you were tutoring? If so, how does that work when they have to send a reference to the next school? Does it put you at a disadvantage?
Ladymuck
Posts: 1240
Joined: Wed Jul 01, 2009 2:04 pm

Re: When did you start preparation?

Post by Ladymuck »

Everyone tutors for these exams. Our prep school wants to take the credit for the number of offers/scholarships etc. If anything we were warned that we were leaving it too late (my view is that 1 year is more than enough, but as we are also in a grammar area a lot of parents also tutor from Sept year 5 to Sept yr 6).

The schools use the interviews to see whether the children are going to be able to contribute in class etc.
LostInTheShuffle
Posts: 125
Joined: Fri Oct 24, 2014 8:20 pm

Re: When did you start preparation?

Post by LostInTheShuffle »

S999: My DD, who is now Y7, attended a small, non-conventional school in London so we had to do pretty much everything ourselves to prepare her for the 11+ last year.

A few thoughts:
- It is not necessary to employ an external tutor (I had fun preparing DD for the largely same schools you are targeting and we learned as we went along, with help from various people on this forum)
- It is not necessarily a disadvantage not to be in a prep school in that my DD was shielded from constant comparisons with classmates in the run-up to the 11+ exams (the downside, of course, is that we didn't know where DD stood until we got the exam results)
- Timing wise, I think your DD is fine. We also took it gradually (regular practice in small doses) and tried not to go overboard even nearer to the exams. I previously discussed our approach on this forum so you can do a search if you are interested in further details.
Middlesexmum
Posts: 1008
Joined: Wed Jun 22, 2011 9:54 am

Re: When did you start preparation?

Post by Middlesexmum »

Is it really not necessary to have a tutor? If you self tutored what did you do if faced with a question you couldn't do yourself?

I am well educated to degree level but I did sciences and I would struggle with some of the English comprehension questions I think.
Ladymuck
Posts: 1240
Joined: Wed Jul 01, 2009 2:04 pm

Re: When did you start preparation?

Post by Ladymuck »

A good point. I guess it depends on how many unanswerable questions you end up coming across! They're not looking for A level standard in these exams, and depending on the number of children you have it may be worth spending a little time brushing up your own weak areas.
LostInTheShuffle
Posts: 125
Joined: Fri Oct 24, 2014 8:20 pm

Re: When did you start preparation?

Post by LostInTheShuffle »

Middlesexmum: We thought, perhaps foolishly, that "it's an exam for 10-11 year olds so how hard could it be?" Having said that, we were exposed, particularly on English, because the feedback we gave DD reflected our personal views only (although we gleaned useful tips on evaluating responses from this forum). The rest (maths, NVR and VR) was more straightforward - again, this forum proved helpful when we needed advice on certain challenging topics/questions.

It may be worth mentioning that weren't targeting a particular school (whether a SS grammar or top indie) and so felt a bit more relaxed about the 11+ overall (the "fun" aspect was that I learned a few things along the way - some exam papers were highly stimulating intellectually - and spent some quality time with DD).

I suppose we may have been a bit reckless but I also think some people over-hype the 11+ in order to panic parents unnecessarily.
AML
Posts: 347
Joined: Fri Sep 19, 2014 5:32 pm

Re: When did you start preparation?

Post by AML »

" I suppose we may have been a bit reckless but I also think some people over-hype the 11+ in order to panic parents unnecessarily."

Totally agree.. I know children who have got into QE and HB with 1/2 hours a day. One child had no tutor and scored very high in QE.

(And I know the families very well so I don't think they're lying!).

Be wary of tutors trying to panic parents.
S999
Posts: 22
Joined: Tue Feb 03, 2015 5:34 am

Re: When did you start preparation?

Post by S999 »

You know that's exactly what I was thinking - being far away from the circus that is undoubtedly brewing in the London preps in the run up to 11+ is such a relief...as far as we know, DD is doing really well and that's doing wonders for all our confidence levels. However, it would be good to have some input on where she might need improvement and we don't want to apply unrealistically.
We've already started doing past papers that are a little easier than the North London consortium papers. She has one hour a week with a tutor, a bit of English and Maths or they go through the paper she has completed. At this stage, I'm not sure what else we can do. Our tutor is quite positive, I think we found a very good fit with her.
For those of you parents who tutored yourself, what materials did you use? The trouble is my DD doesn't want to do anything with me, she finds me far too critical!!! And I am not a patient person! She seems to be progressing and responding much better with the tutor.
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