Mock test in year 4

Eleven Plus (11+) in Essex

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pg19
Posts: 110
Joined: Fri Oct 12, 2012 8:45 am

Mock test in year 4

Post by pg19 »

Hello mums,
I am DIYing for 11plus prep for 2015 entrance.He is fine so far. I want to ask if anyone has thought about taking a mock test for your DC in year 4, with any of the crash course providers or else where.it may be helpful to understand the scene/envt. little early and for us DIYing parents to understand where our kids stand.
Any suggestions please?
pg
bravado
Posts: 468
Joined: Thu Jun 07, 2012 11:28 am

Re: Mock test in year 4

Post by bravado »

Everyone's different and I can only give you my opinion, based on DD2's DIY prep for the CSSE exam. We didn't do a mock in YR4 and I don't believe we would have considered it, had such a thing existed. We did DIY mocks in YR 5 and 6.

Only you know your child and their resilience to poor or mediocre performance - conversely, if they fly through a mock, how well do you think you'll be able to keep them motivated, or more to the point, how well will they retain their self-motivation if they see they've hit the mark so soon?

How does your child feel about sitting a mock at this early stage in his preparation?

I'm unable to recommend any mock test or centres as we did our own mocks.

I'm sure someone will be along to recommend Sutton mocks very soon, although I understand they're full for this year.
Kingfisher
Posts: 416
Joined: Wed Sep 05, 2012 7:08 pm

Re: Mock test in year 4

Post by Kingfisher »

PG19, I am really surprised that you would put your child in for a mock test that early. What would you hope to gain? I should continue to work on the key areas, building knowledge and confidence before I attempted any sort of mock. At the moment there would be significant gaps in your child's knowledge and this sort of test would serve no purpose.
v.busy.mum
Posts: 2
Joined: Wed Mar 09, 2011 10:57 pm

Re: Mock test in year 4

Post by v.busy.mum »

Year 4 .... No! DIYing or not, I really question whether this is necessary. My year 4 hasn't even started on his journey to the 11+ yet. I will be DIYing my child ... this is my fourth time through this process and won't start that journey until Y5.

Quite frankly I'm beginning to question the whole 11+ process from start to finish. It won't be long before you can buy Verbal Reasoning Jigsaw puzzles for the 3 - 5 age range. Hmm. Now there's a thought.
pg19
Posts: 110
Joined: Fri Oct 12, 2012 8:45 am

Re: Mock test in year 4

Post by pg19 »

Thanks for your all your views. This being my first time and that to DIY I keep wondering whats the right way to gauge if we are on the right track.
Daogroupie
Posts: 11099
Joined: Wed Mar 04, 2009 3:01 pm
Location: Herts

Re: Mock test in year 4

Post by Daogroupie »

PG19, What schools are you applying for and what is the format of their exams? Your dc will be in Year Five in 12 weeks . Things are very different in different areas. In our area this would not be too early to start preparing. Many tutors close their books at the end of Y4 and don't take anyone else. I have Y3 students who are proceeding at a steady pace and several of my Y4 students did the Sutton mocks. My Y5 students have their exams starting in 12 weeks and most of their parents wish they were still in Y4 with more time. If you are applying for private schl exams in January you can afford to take a more relaxed approach but our local state selectives are QE, HBS, DAO and Latymer which are all very oversubscribed. Last year I had a group of students who came to me after not getting high enough marks in one or more of the above exams They sat second round of TIffin and Laytmer, and then the private schools City, Habs, NCLS, St Pauls, Westminster, St Albans. They all got places from the second rounds of the states and interviews and offers from all the private schools they applied for. You wont find a single post on here from anyone who thinks they did too much work and started too early. In my opinion a mock shows you what you dont know and how to organise your time. I am doing exams at the moment and I do mocks every day. How much work have you done so far? How do you think your dc would fare in a mock? When I start my percentage is in single digits but it does not take long to build it up. I was clearing out some old notebooks and found an Athey 100 question VR paper I did in 23 minutes with a score of 99%. When we started I could not get half way through the paper in 1 hour. I dont believe in inate academic ability, I believe in hard work. Have you read Bounce by Matthew Syed? I think I know what his reply to your question would be. It does come more easily to some but over and over again I have seen those who were at the top overtaken by those who started at the bottom and worked their way up. My own dd went from bottom set to be the only girl on Maths top table. A journey that took her through 7 tables. Start now, do a mock to see where you are and make sure your dc understands that is what it is for. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain. Many forum members live in areas where there are lots of places at the local selectives. Then you have our area where HBS had 1566 applications for 93 places and DAO had 900 applications for 65 places and QE I think might have had over 2000 for 180 places. That is the reality of my local area, your local area could be quite different and then maybe you could wait until Y5 but I wouldn't. DG
pg19
Posts: 110
Joined: Fri Oct 12, 2012 8:45 am

Re: Mock test in year 4

Post by pg19 »

Thanks for that view point.
I am in essex and mainly looking for KEGS or CRGS.competition is increasing day by day.I only reason to try a mock will be to underatand where we stand .Where in sutton can be book a mock test?Do you have any idea where my DC can sit for a mock this year?what are the subjects there?
I personally do not think its is ever too early to start studying for competitive tests.There is nothing to loose there.
Best of luck
pg
talea51
Posts: 522
Joined: Sun Feb 06, 2011 5:10 pm

Re: Mock test in year 4

Post by talea51 »

I find Daogroupie's point of view very interesting, only because I have a child who is currently in the middle in her class and I wonder whether she would be able to get into a grammar so it's very interesting to hear what Daogroupie has to say.

With regard to the OP, I wouldn't (and didn't) do a mock exam with my dd in year 4 but only because I thought it would seriously undermine her confidence. In year 4 our preparation was very low key and I know that she had not covered all the required areas to be able to do well in a mock exam.

I agree with Daogroupie though, I highly doubt that any of us whose children will be taking the exams in 15 weeks time feel that we've had enough time to prepare. I certainly feel that I wish I had done more and that I am running out of time.

My feeling with regard to mock exams are that they are a great way to give your child the experience of writing an exam, of dealing with time pressure in an unfamiliar environment. I don't think that a year 4 child needs any of this and I think you can find out what your child's areas of strength and weakness are by working through the masses of 11+ prep books that are available.

That's just my point of view though.

I would say that you don't want to do the Sutton Mocks as they are not the same as the CSSE ones.
tabasco
Posts: 473
Joined: Fri Oct 19, 2012 11:21 am

Re: Mock test in year 4

Post by tabasco »

I agree that hard work is importantfor doing well in anythings. But without innate academic ability only so far a DC will achieve unless all DCs with higher academic ability decided not to put in any work at all. To be sucessful is down to a combination of preparation (hard work), exam nerve management (mock exam) and innate academic ability. If all other parameters are equal the DC with higher innate ability will almost always have better scores. Unfortunately this is not always the case due to family circumstances. This is the reason why some selective school try to introduce different type of assessment for 11+ such as the CEM.
Daogroupie
Posts: 11099
Joined: Wed Mar 04, 2009 3:01 pm
Location: Herts

Re: Mock test in year 4

Post by Daogroupie »

If the students with the higher innate ability put in the work then they will do better. But in my experience their parents and their school tell them how great they are and they think they don't need to work. A friend of my dd's parents told me that the school had told them she did not need to do any work to get into DAO as she was already at the level required! How could her primary school who had never had a single student get a place know what the level required would be that year. DAO did not even know that because they do not know what the ability level of the top applicants is going to be. Needless to say she did so badly that her parents denied getting the letter that gives your ranking and your mark for each paper that is sent to every applicant. She cried for weeks and we felt really sad but her parents listened to the school and nobody else. She was top of her class at her very average primary and they thought that gave her an automatic place. I personally think exam technique is more important than innate ability. In my current cohort I feel actually quite guilty as I do not really deserve better marks than some of my classmates but they just dont get it on exam technique. DG
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