how much work

Eleven Plus (11+) in South West Hertfordshire

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mm
Posts: 9
Joined: Fri Oct 05, 2007 11:30 am

how much work

Post by mm »

how much time should my daughter be spending per night in preparation for herts & maybe bucks test? she is year 5 & usually does one bond timed paper plus one or two pages each of no nonesense maths/english

sometimes shes just too tired and i dont force her.

is this enough/too much? & is it worth trying for bucks if we in herts ( just on the boarder with bucks) I know the test is multiple choice so will this just confuse her?

I use bond but also AE Tuition verble & maths has anybody else tried them & what are your thoughts. I'm finding the maths a bit long winded
Guest

Post by Guest »

Sounds like quite alot. My child (who in retrospect did too much) was doing one piece of work from the Bond books rather than the tests in untimed conditions usually taking about 20 minutes max.
mm
Posts: 9
Joined: Fri Oct 05, 2007 11:30 am

Post by mm »

from the no nonsense books?
Guest

Post by Guest »

Sorry I should have made myself clearer. I meant one paper from the 'Bond Assessment Papers' books as oppose to Bond 11+ test papers (MC or Standard). We varied each night between maths, english, VR and NVR. Nothing took more than about 20 minutes at this stage in year 5 so there was still plenty of time for fun and friends.
Guest

Post by Guest »

mm

I have just re-read your post. I would suggest that you post details of the schools that you are interested in. It may be that some test material is unsuitable for the schools you are looking at. some may be MC in 4 subject areas, some may be comprehensions with longer written answers. I guess there is no point getting your daughter to work on areas she doesn't need to. If you post schools someone is bound to come up with insider knowledge. Good luck
mm
Posts: 9
Joined: Fri Oct 05, 2007 11:30 am

Post by mm »

thanks guest,

I also ment the assessment papers vr age 10-11. we have looked at Dr challoners and thought it was wonderful, would love our daughter to go there but unfortunately we are in herts so not sure we would get a place even if she passes 11+, we have also looked at watford girls, rickmansworth & clement danes, all have great features( Astronomy, tripple science, fast track GCSE ) It would be great to hear from any parents with children at any of the above also what prep was needed.

is your child at any of these?
Anon

Post by Anon »

With regard to Bucks the work you are already doing sounds rather a lot.
The majority probably won't start preparation before the new year and, even then, probably 1-1.5 hours a week max. in term time learning the techniques and practising question types should be sufficient.

We didn't do any work in the school holidays until the summer , which is when we did the first full papers - 2 per week. Continued at this pace until the exams. In weeks where there were practice papers, we cut down accordingly - never did more than the two papers. It soon all comes together and the children don't get bored/resentful.

Obviously keep up the reading etc throughout. Good Luck!
WP

Re: how much work

Post by WP »

mm wrote:how much time should my daughter be spending per night in preparation for herts & maybe bucks test? she is year 5 & usually does one bond timed paper plus one or two pages each of no nonesense maths/english

sometimes shes just too tired and i dont force her.

is this enough/too much?
It's quite a bit more than my son was doing for the SW Herts tests at that stage: about 1-2 hours a week, often including a test to determine what he found hard and discussing and practicing those. I'd be worried about keeping her going at that pace for all that time, and they don't learn much when they're tired. Initially we didn't worry about the timing. Like Anon, we ramped it up after the summer holidays. But for expert advice, try the Bucks forum.
mm wrote:is it worth trying for bucks if we in herts ( just on the boarder with bucks) I know the test is multiple choice so will this just confuse her?
Personally I think more practice with real test conditions, even with a different format, is useful for building confidence. As for your chances, the Bucks admissions website has catchment maps and allocation profiles for last year. It seems that last time Dr Challoner's took girls from out of catchment, though there's some confusion about how far out they went. But there aren't many places out of catchment closer than Chorleywood. Another problem is that in Herts we only get to give 3 preferences on the Common Admissions Form, so you have to balance risk and ambition.
mm
Posts: 9
Joined: Fri Oct 05, 2007 11:30 am

Post by mm »

thanks anon & wp, it sounds as though i may be panicking just a little bit!!

i'm sure my daughter will be thrilled when I tell her. Good point about the bucks admissions, we are in chorleywood but that still out of county so maybe it would be a wasted choice? and we do have some great schools to choose from, just think she would suite girls school and watford would be a pain to get to, also would she have any friends to walk with. where do your children go? are they happy/doing well?
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