Panicking. Pls help

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gulat
Posts: 119
Joined: Wed Mar 20, 2013 2:16 pm

Panicking. Pls help

Post by gulat »

DD appearing for 11 plus exams. Though our primary focus is Berks and Bucks, we would like our DD to try for teh Sutton Schools (Nonsuch and Wallington). As part of DIY prep DD has just started doing Mock tests. Whilst I think her vocab and comprehension skills are OK, she really struggles to do the Assessments in the CGP 10 - 11 Verbal Reasoning book. She specially struggles with vocab, synonyms, antonyms, Cloze words (such as Success = --or-: answer = glory).

I am really panicking now as DD is getting really demotivated with the difficulty level and while she is scoring 75+ in other VR assessments she is scoring < 50% in the CGP assessement.

All parents who have have DD and DS in Grammar schools.
- Is the CGP 10 - 11 Verbal Reasoning book the level at which questions are set. Is that the level ) of vocab expected?
- Any tips on how I can build her skills and gradually improve DDs score in Verbal Reasoning (CEM).

Any help and direction greatly appreciated
berks_mum
Posts: 939
Joined: Sat Dec 28, 2013 4:52 pm

Re: Panicking. Pls help

Post by berks_mum »

gulat, I don't have DCs in grammar schools yet and I am sure someone will come along and answer your question.

AFAIK, CGP is notorious. Many DCs scoring over 90% for other publications have dropped their scores to less than/around 70%.

Unfortunately, vocabulary is so vast and I didn't find any grading as such. CEM does not publish any guideline making it very difficult to know what kind of vocab should be included in the preparation. I guess, most of us are using whatever materials, past papers available to prepare for CEM, however, nobody knows what CEM will choose to put in the papers.

There is a vocab word list on this forum which may/may not help.

Don't panic, just see where DD is going wrong and aim to fix that. Although, it is easier said than done.
WindowGlass
Posts: 163
Joined: Sun Nov 03, 2013 12:59 pm
Location: West Midlands

Re: Panicking. Pls help

Post by WindowGlass »

Sorry, I don't know the particular exam, but do find out what the topics are and the weighting if you can, and make sure dc has a good spread of ability in all, i.e. Don't just focus on one -especially where apparently deficient.

Having said that, where a weakness is identified, back uptowherethe child was comfortable and slowly progress until find out where the difficulty is - take your time, because the confidence of DC needs to be repaired. DON'T PANIC. DC needs you to keep calm, just bite your lip and smile and hug and reassure.

I might sound like I know what I'm doing, but I'm mostly repeating good ad icethat has helped me!

Grace and good fortune to you.
gulat
Posts: 119
Joined: Wed Mar 20, 2013 2:16 pm

Re: Panicking. Pls help

Post by gulat »

Thanks for your responses and encouraging words berks_mum and window glass.

@ windowglass: I like your advice "DON'T PANIC. DC needs you to keep calm, just bite your lip and smile and hug and reassure"..Thanks. With all the pressure I guess we sometimes tend to forget that they are just 10/11 and need lots of hugs and reassurance.

@ berks_mum thanks for the advice. Have printed words from the forum and am going through them with DC.
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