Advise please- books/materials

Eleven Plus (11+) in Birmingham, Walsall, Wolverhampton and Wrekin

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ANGLIA
Posts: 16
Joined: Sun Feb 21, 2010 10:33 pm
Location: Birmingham

Advise please- books/materials

Post by ANGLIA »

Hello everyone, I'm new to the forum and just would like to get some advise. My son is in year 4 at moment and we've just started to prepare for 11plus to both KES and KEGS. our plan is to prepare him at home for a while and may need to get a good tutor this time next year. So just wonder what books/materials we should use to prepare him for the exams, esp English, VR and NVR.

I know most of you are currently nervously waiting for the big day, so hope this thread can distract you a little bit.

thanks in advance and best wishes for all who are waiting for the results.


:P
um
Posts: 2378
Joined: Sat May 30, 2009 1:06 pm
Location: Birmingham

Post by um »

Hello Angela. I have a son in Yr 4 too (although the eldest is awaiting his results in few days!).
Although I want to help I feel nervous about dispensing advice, simply because I am not an expert in this myself and could be saying the wrong thing for your child. I would advise you find a good tutor who can assess your child, give you an indication of his strengths, weaknesses etc and what to work on. Be careful, though, as there are many tutors out there who don't know what they are talking about (sorry, tutors, but I'm getting frustrated at the amount of parents being taken for a ride in Birmingham!) Bear in mind that if you start looking for a tutor this time next year all the good ones will already be full. It would also be worth talking to his teacher for advice.
KEGS and KES are also two very different exams. But both will requite high level understanding of Maths and Problem solving, for which I think AE tuition Maths books are good. AE also do Vocabulary books but I know not everyone finds these useful - I still use them - and again these will be useful for both exams. KES will also require good writing skills and AE do Creative writing books that seem good but alas I never got my eldest to complete them- they are tedious). Bond do Comprehension papers as well, at different ages/levels.
ANGLIA
Posts: 16
Joined: Sun Feb 21, 2010 10:33 pm
Location: Birmingham

Post by ANGLIA »

Thanks um, for the quick response. Our problem is that we don't know any tutor, not mentioning the good ones. Any recommendations you've got?

my son is ok with math but will needs to work on VR and english. currently he is doing Bond 9-10 english which i found the comprehension bits quite hard. what's your experience with comprehesion? Creative writing is hard, not sure whether this is the general problem with boys. they don't seem like writing as much as girls?

anyway, wish you get the results you hope for in a few days!



um wrote:Hello Angela. I have a son in Yr 4 too (although the eldest is awaiting his results in few days!).
Although I want to help I feel nervous about dispensing advice, simply because I am not an expert in this myself and could be saying the wrong thing for your child. I would advise you find a good tutor who can assess your child, give you an indication of his strengths, weaknesses etc and what to work on. Be careful, though, as there are many tutors out there who don't know what they are talking about (sorry, tutors, but I'm getting frustrated at the amount of parents being taken for a ride in Birmingham!) Bear in mind that if you start looking for a tutor this time next year all the good ones will already be full. It would also be worth talking to his teacher for advice.
KEGS and KES are also two very different exams. But both will requite high level understanding of Maths and Problem solving, for which I think AE tuition Maths books are good. AE also do Vocabulary books but I know not everyone finds these useful - I still use them - and again these will be useful for both exams. KES will also require good writing skills and AE do Creative writing books that seem good but alas I never got my eldest to complete them- they are tedious). Bond do Comprehension papers as well, at different ages/levels.
fm

Post by fm »

I am not surprised he is finding 9-10 comprehension hard. I do it with Year 5 children and they find it hard. I would perhaps slow down a little.
um
Posts: 2378
Joined: Sat May 30, 2009 1:06 pm
Location: Birmingham

Post by um »

Yes, the comprehension can be difficult. There were questions in the Bond fourth papers comprehension that completely baffled me to be honest - and I though this was my strong point! If your son is getting less than 70% when working alone I would go to age 8-9 (which is year 4 age) first until he's regularly over 85% with those. But it could be even more useful just to read books with him and talk about what you've read as well. There are book lists floating around this site that you could work through.
(I've pmd you)
ANGLIA
Posts: 16
Joined: Sun Feb 21, 2010 10:33 pm
Location: Birmingham

Post by ANGLIA »

thanks um, i've got your pm, and pm'd you too.

I've also seen the reading list and will start from there. my son is a good reader, though it seems that he tends to read as fast as possible, simply skips any unknown words. he is more interested in the popular modern books, the horrible series, adventure etc, but not too keen in classicals. will this be a problem?
um
Posts: 2378
Joined: Sat May 30, 2009 1:06 pm
Location: Birmingham

Post by um »

In all honesty, yes. There is such a wide variety of books out there for children, ranging from complete trash (sorry to be snobbish here but there are some books my husband has brought home innocently that I've stuffed into a charity bag before the kids could read them - Gran's Gang for one..) and some (particularly Michael Morpurgo, William Nicholson and Phillip Pullman), are sublime - better than many classics. Let him read non fiction to his heart's content - Horrible Histories/Science etc are usually well written and fascinating - and its all learning, but I would impose some sort of fiction reading list on him - with rewards as you see fit.
After a while, he'll begin to enjoy really good literature, including classics - a for example if you've only ever eaten candy floss, grapes don't seem so sweet, but if you stick to the grapes, you sense the fresh sweetness after a while and enjoy them more. This will also depend on limiting the TV - which will also 'spoil his appetite' for good books if it occupies much time. A tough prescription, some may say but if you are serious about Grammar school entry, it is my suggestion.

And just to note, while I mentioned the AE series, I meant it in the context of starting now and slowly finishing them before Nov 2011 without a mad rush at the end. The harder work in those books is in no way meant for a 9 year old!
ANGLIA
Posts: 16
Joined: Sun Feb 21, 2010 10:33 pm
Location: Birmingham

Post by ANGLIA »

thanks again um, when you said AE series, did you mean AE publications or Athey Educational?

btw, a big congratulation to you and your DS for the deserved place. all the hardwork has been paid off now!
ANGLIA
Posts: 16
Joined: Sun Feb 21, 2010 10:33 pm
Location: Birmingham

Post by ANGLIA »

thanks fm, he is ok with multiple choice while the open questions in comprehesion is just so difficult, he seems can't get the meaning behind the words/sentences, esp when there is no standard aswer.
fm wrote:I am not surprised he is finding 9-10 comprehension hard. I do it with Year 5 children and they find it hard. I would perhaps slow down a little.
BB248
Posts: 162
Joined: Thu Sep 17, 2009 10:51 am
Location: Birmingham

Post by BB248 »

ANGLIA

I think um is right, that the more they read the better, and the better quality the books, the better still. However, in case you come up against real resistance, all is not necessarily lost. My DC is a hopeless reader - probably only finished half a dozen boks in his whole life - (although I still read to him each night) and we learnt today that he's got a place at Camp Hill. Must admit that his reluctance to read WAS one of the main reasons that we were surprised that he'd got a GS place, so you may have less grey hairs if you can convert your DC to a bookworm, who devours quality literature.
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