Needs 11= Preperation material

[elevenplusprep]

Hi,

I am preparing my DS myself for 11+ exams and it would be very helpful if somebody can provide the material and tips for how to prepare him? I am preparing for Tiffin, Sutton and Surrey grammer schools. I can collect the material.

Thanks

[catcool]

It has been a few years since my DS and DD did any preparation for the 11 + so I am sure others will be along shortly to point you in the right direction.
However you mention Surrey Grammar schools. Surrey does not have any Grammar schools . Round here they are all in Kingston or Sutton.The only school in Surrey that has an academic entrance test and offers about 36 places to boys under the test is Glynn in Ewell, but if you look on their web site you will see they are at present consulting with interested parties with a view to doing away with the academic test as Rosebery did a few years back .

[Plum]

Hi Elevenplusprep

We went through all this last year with DS - he sat for WCGS & Wilson's (can't comment on the other schools) and he got a place at WCGS. He's now more than 1/2 way through the year (can't believe how quickly it has gone) and is thoroughly enjoying it. As parents, we are very happy with the school. The new h/m has made a few changes (for the better imo) which are slowly taking place and communication is very good. The school is also pushing sports again, which , imo (again), is good.

We started DS with a tutor at the beginning of Yr 5 and she focused on his English skills (typical boy - hates writing), whilst we worked on his maths & VR at home. Tutor used Bond for Eng Comp and recommended Scholfield & Simms for maths and Bond again for VR as well as Susan Daughtry. You can get all these from Amazon, probably cheaper than Smiths.

DS sat the SGS test run by their PTA (don't worry to much about results, it's the experience that counts) and he did 3 papers a week during the summer hols before the test (one for each subject) to work on his times. You can find papers on this website and try googling Dulwich and the like as they also publish test papers you can use. We had a time table so he knew what days he would be doing what which kept him happy (he's that kind of a boy).

Tutor & I (using this website among others) came up with a list of story titles and he used to write one a week - I would time him so he didn't spend ages doing it. Started out at an hour and gradually brought it down to 20 minutes (this was the time in the real test at WCGS).

DS used to do a couple of maths papers, a couple of VR papers and an Eng Comp each week (took maybe 1 1/2 - 2 hours a week ) and a story every other week. We would have week long breaks over Xmas etc (and 3 weeks when we went on holiday!) I like to think we kept it fairly balanced and it didn't interfer too much with his out of school activities.

My advice would be:
Check the websites of any schools your DS is going to sit for to get test information as it may change from year to year
Get your DS to read (as much as possible)
Keep the extra workload realistic - you don't want your DS to burn out before he turns 11
Have a back up plan

Now, DD starts Yr 5 in September so lets see if I can follow my own advice!!!!

Hope this helps
Plum

[elevenplusprep]

Thanks catcool and Plum for all the advice. I am also looking hgetting him prepared for Tiffin boys. Any advice on that front would also be very helpful.

Thanks

[afruitie]

Hello Plum,
Thanks for sharing your experience. My DS is in year 4 and will be preparing for Wilsons, WCG and SGS. Which of the schofield and simms books did you use?
Thanks.

[Plum]

The mental arithmetic ones. I've got DD (also year 4) working her way slowly through book 1. I think DS was just starting book 6 by the time he took the Wilson's test (but it was later in the year last year).

Px

[yoyo123]

lots of practice with tables and quick addition/subtraction.

there are lots of games on the internet to help

[afruitie]

Thanks Plum and Yoyo123.