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Boosting confidence

Posted: Mon Oct 29, 2007 2:59 pm
by Dw
My daughter sits her 11+ in 4 weeks time. She's worked hard and I think she is as ready as she's going to be. Her tutor describes her as gifted at maths and she does very well at verbal reasoning as well. Her english is definitely her weaker subject. Unfortunately she seems to have got it into her head that her english is a disaster area (it's not that bad!) and that she's therefore bound to fail. I've tried to get her to focus on what she's good at, whilst trying to help her improve her english. Has anyone got any ideas of how to help boost her confidence? The funny thing is that she's the only girl in her school taking it along with a handful of boys. She would say herself that she outperforms the boys in general and yet they seem to be full of confidence. Maybe it's a girl thing??

Posted: Mon Oct 29, 2007 3:14 pm
by Guest
What area are you in and will the tests be nfer?

If it is multiple choice English, I would tell her that for comprehensions, the answers are all there and it is a job half done. If she reads carefully, she will find the answer and if she is ever stuck, she mustn't worry as it is there somewhere, waiting to be found.

Even for punctuation and grammar there are words she will have come across during her practice or reading, so it's impossible for someone to forget everything or not know a single thing.

The aim of the exams in total is to get as many marks as possible, so she must try her best to be positive and remember that she has been using English all her life (I hope this is the case) and it's impossible to be 'lousy' at it.

If it's any other type of English exam, post again and some help should be forthcoming.

Posted: Mon Oct 29, 2007 3:20 pm
by DW
Thanks for replying. We're in Essex and English is set by the Consortium of Selective Essex Schools. It's not multiple choice unfortunately.

Posted: Mon Oct 29, 2007 3:33 pm
by Guest
I thought it might be.

Even so, the answer is still in the text. My son thought that English was the worst ever subject!! He did a consortium type exam( not Essex) and was convinced he was going to muck up his English paper. In the end, his VR was the highest ,then English( a respectable top 5% of the test group) and then Maths (his best subject).

He was very negative to begin with as he said all the girls were good in English and all the boys were lousy at it. But we talked everyday and wrote little passages often on any topic/subject we could think of (to practise for the creative writing) and we encouraged him to search his memory bank for alternatives to what he was using and he came up with the goods. He felt more confident and was pleasantly surprised when his results came through and since then, has been enjoying English very much.

If your daughter is fundamentally OK with English and it's just a confidence thing now, it might be a good idea to show her how good she is by playing test related games with her (Vocab/spelling) and then praising her, "See, you knew that!" Keep reinforcing that and she will believe it soon.

Boosting Confidence

Posted: Wed Oct 31, 2007 7:04 pm
by Essex marie
My daughter sat the Essex 11+ last November in Essex. VR and Maths far and away her strengths compared to English - and Tess was a horrid, horrid paper......BUT even though English was lowest mark ..she made it.

I am sure this was repeated many times over. So please let your daughter know it is just a quarter of the marks and there is all to strive for!! This is particularly important if English is the first paper, as a lot of people commented how spirits sunk last year. Good Luck!!

Posted: Wed Oct 31, 2007 10:59 pm
by 11+ daughter
Hello! I sat the 11+ last November in Essex. Although the English paper was quite hard, the key is not to rush the paper and to read the questions carefully. I was lucky enough to pass and I absolutely love Colchester County High School. I'd like to wish everyone good luck who is taking their 11+ this year!

i go to colchester county high!!!

Posted: Thu Nov 01, 2007 10:21 pm
by Daughter of marie
I go to colchester county high !It sssooo rocks !Don't worry about the 11+ just try to do your best .Don't worry if you did terrible in one test when I did it last year I got 29 out of 50 and I still got in.Don't worry if you can't do a few questions ,just go onto the next question .Now all i can say is....GOOD LUCK!!!!! :D

...But just remember after the 11+,no more VR!!!!!!
:lol:

Posted: Mon Nov 05, 2007 10:24 am
by DW
Thank you so much for replying - particularly the girls who got in last year - Well done!!

I have shown my daughter your replies and I think it has really helped. She seemed convinced that she had to get 100% in each of her tests - a pretty tall order - so is very encouraged to hear that this is not necessarily the case.

3 weeks to go.....

Posted: Mon Nov 05, 2007 4:25 pm
by Essex marie
DW have a look at the Essex Forum ' No Names please..scores on the doors' from last year.
It is true you cannot compare across years, but it does give some perspective.

Hang in there...

marie