Speed & Timing

Advice on 11 Plus VR papers and problems

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medwaymum
Posts: 827
Joined: Sun Nov 04, 2007 6:45 pm
Location: Medway & Kent

Speed & Timing

Post by medwaymum »

I have discovered that although my ds is getting pretty much all the VR questions correct, he is actually going quite slow!

Any ideas on how I can speed him up? He doesn't have this problem with Math, always finishes quickly ahead of time. He will be undertaking his 11+ in September. Should I just start timing him on the 10 min tests or more?

Any input gratefully received, as ever. :)
patricia
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Joined: Mon Jan 30, 2006 5:07 pm

Post by patricia »

Dear medwaymum

Follows a copy and paste of an old post...

Timing, off the top of my head..

1] Speed writing, get your child to write out their name as quick as possible 10 times. Keep timing until they get quicker and quicker.

2] Do NOT write neatly, I tell my children, this is one itme they can write as scruffy as they want, as long as THEY can read it [because no one else will look at it]

3] Work directly from the answer sheet for types D H Q and E [ as identified by IPS]

4] When marking the answer sheet use one line from left to right [right handed children] I tell my children if you do one line then go back over it again, that second line takes approx half a second. 80 times half a second, thats 40 seconds wasted just drawing a line! 40 seconds thats a code answered or perhaps 5 easy questions...

5] Type Z MUST be left till last.

6] Child must not panic, thinking that they must complete 40 questions in 25 minutes. Its NOT 30 seconds per question. If 2 types of codes and the bracket maths appear in the first half of the paper, then they are probably not going to be anywhere near question 40.

7] Make notes! Some children [particulary boys] think that they have to keep everything in their head. Its actually quicker to make notes, particulary all the maths and code questions. When working quickly a child trying to keep figures and sequences in their head often either makes mistakes or forgets where they are and then have start again [wasting time]

8] Practice, Practice, Practice. There is no doubt about it, practice does make perfect.

9] 10 x 10 times table squares every week. [numbers mixed up, not in order] The answer 7 x 8 is 56 now not 5/10 seconds later. Eventually add the 15 then 13 times table.

10] Guest55 close your ears and eyes now. Teach multiplication and division the old fashioned way. Not chunking and grids. I tell my children they do it my way for the 11 plus, they do as their teacher says for school.

11] Use, perhaps AFN papers during session time. Time each individual section. Say I am going to give you 5 minutes to answer this section of 7/8 codes. I am going to give you 2 minutes to complete this section of 7 bracket maths.

12] Photocopy papers [your own personal use, so its OK] have competitions with your child, can they beat you answering a section of finding the hidden 4 letter word or a section of codes etc etc.

13] .......

Patricia
bucks mum1
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Post by bucks mum1 »

Hi,

My DS got through the 11+ last year. Patricia's tips were really good for us - especially leaving the Z questions until the end. Initially he spent ages doing those type and often got them wrong. Once he realised these longer more complex type Z questions were only worth one point he stopped fretting over them. I think he thought it would be more like a SATS paper where the more complex questions would give him more points! Never did get him to write anything down though - typical boy had to do everything in his head, much to my frustration.

He too was far too slow to begin with (allowed him an hour on a full paper but he never got beyond question 70 in that time) but after practice he eventually was able to complete the papers within 40mins and have 10mins for checking. Even with the timetable grids he halved the time he could complete one in after practice.

It is a good sign he is getting most of the questions right - better that then rushing through and making lots of basic errors. Good Luck with it all.
medwaymum
Posts: 827
Joined: Sun Nov 04, 2007 6:45 pm
Location: Medway & Kent

Post by medwaymum »

Thanks Patricia, I will try those tips.

Thanks also Bucks Mum for the reassurance, you are definitely right about boys not wanting to work anything out in paper! I will ask him to do more timed tests now he is familiar with what he has to do and hopefully the speed will improve.

I think because he enjoys Maths he whizzes through, along with Non verbal, but VR is his least favourite (along with writing) - common I'm sure with boys! :wink:
medwaymum
Posts: 827
Joined: Sun Nov 04, 2007 6:45 pm
Location: Medway & Kent

Post by medwaymum »

Having monitored my son's verbal reasoning practice, I have now noticed that the 'slowness' I mentioned seems to be on the Standard type practice papers. Whenever it is multiple choice he is a lot faster. He will be doing multiple choice in his actual 11+. What are peoples opinions on this? Should I continue giving both types? Or just the multiple choice which will be in his exam?
Any opinions gratefully received. :)
frosties
Posts: 53
Joined: Tue Apr 28, 2009 10:00 am
Location: South Manchester

VR speed

Post by frosties »

Hi, new to this site.
My daughter is in year 5 and she gets sent home one type of VR question a weekend and gets about 3 pages of them. Seems to be working for her.
We also have an excellent tutor who knows all the ins and outs of the exams and we will be doing some mock papers and practise sessions in the June half term. She has also got her up to speed.
bucks mum1
Posts: 191
Joined: Wed Apr 02, 2008 5:20 pm

Post by bucks mum1 »

I would stick to the multiple choice format.

We never used the standard format papers at all and I think your time would be better served sticking to the m/c papers now that he knows how to do the different question sorts. Patricia has posted many helpful tips about how to approach the questions and time saving techniques such as looking directly at the answer sheet for some question types. (Types D, H, Q and E).
Good Luck!
boltew
Posts: 48
Joined: Thu Mar 20, 2008 2:38 pm

Post by boltew »

I think using Standard questions is good at the beginning to teach all the different question types. However, once your son is familiar with the types, you would be better off using the M/C papers. My son was tutored last year and I was very concerned that his tutor kept using standard format papers (knowing that the actual exam would be M/C). He was spending ages working out the code questions and these are questions that can be worked out very quickly from the answers in a M/C answer sheet. I bought loads of M/C papers which he did alongside the papers he was bringing home from his tutor. I'm glad to say it paid off and he was offered a place at the GS.
patricia
Posts: 2803
Joined: Mon Jan 30, 2006 5:07 pm

Post by patricia »

Dear Medwaymum

If the real test is M/C choice, then your son should practice M/C. There are different techniques on many many questions. eg...

1] Long codes [C] only the first and last letters, most of the time need to to be found.

2] Where does the letter come from [O and R] as above

3] Types D H Q AND E can be can be answered directly from the answer sheet

4] One letter for all 4 part words [A] instead of having to go through the whole alphabet, the answer sheet offers 1 of only 5

5] Missing 3 letter word, [J] if child unsure of the big word, they can use the 5 words on offer to work out the unknown word.

6] If the answer the child has found [any question] is not on the answer sheet, they KNOW they have FOUND the WRONG answer.

Patricia
medwaymum
Posts: 827
Joined: Sun Nov 04, 2007 6:45 pm
Location: Medway & Kent

Post by medwaymum »

Thanks for your responses everyone. I tend to agree with continuing with mc format. I will dig out all the mc papers I have! Now that he is familiar with the different question types, I need to work on his speed, and this will probably be best served using the mc format.

Thanks again :)
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