Advice needed - Second stage - Sutton Grammar and Wilson's

[DIYdad]

Mums, Dads,

DS has been invited to second stage at both Sutton and Wilson's and will be grateful for your advice on preparation. What worked for your DS? What didn't?

regards,

[Ladymuck]

Your son must, must, must read the instructions carefully. All of them.

It is very likely that there will be marks for working in maths. If so he MUST show his working. A correct answer without working will not get full marks. This can be hard for some boys as they can just "see" the answer.

Revise data, probability and geometry as these usually are tested in 2nd round. The rest are likely to be wordy multiple stage problems. Historically Sutton sets a harder maths paper than Wilsons.

It is helpful if your son practises 30 and 50 minute writing exercises in a variety of styles, eg diary, letter, recount, description, essay. Teaching him to plan will help. We sat down and made sure that ds understood what literary tools he had at his disposal, so that he would look to use a variety of sentence structures, language, punctuation etc.

[DIYdad]

Ladymuck,

Thanks for taking the time to share your comments.

Others - please share your tis if your DS was successful in getting through previously.

Regards,

[Maap]

Can someone please tell me how long the creative writing piece should be? My DS is not very fond of creative writing and writes only about 3-5 paragraphs! I know its the quality of work that's more important than the quantity, but I am sure he should be writing more!

[Daogroupie]

That is more than enough. 3 paragraphs will be plenty provided your ds understands how to chase the marks.

Some students will write 2 pages but the writing will be full of naked nouns and baby KS1 vocabulary. Other will write 3 paragraphs packed with CEM words, varying sentence structure, punctuation and figurative language. The latter will get the most marks. DG

[Ladymuck]

Wilsons allow 55 minutes for the creative writing piece. Whilst quality does count, 3 paragraphs might be quite thin. 5 well planned ones would be better. DS noted that many boys had stopped writing after 30 minutes indicating that they simply weren't prepared for the longer writing piece. Wilsons and Whitgift have always gone for longer writing.

Sutton has often asked for 2x30 minute writing pieces.

[Maap]

Daogroupie/ Ladymuck - thank you both for your replies.

Another question: for creative pieces of work which asks you to compare 'x' to 'y' or discuss the advantages and disadvantages for 'x' and 'y', would one or two points for each be sufficient?

[workingmom]

My daughter has been invited for the second stage joint exam for NonSuch and Wallington girls.

I am keenly observing this tread.

Just one question: Does the same advice be applicable for girls appearing the second stage for NonSuch and Wallington.

Thank you in advance.

[willgetthere]

Thanks @ Ladymuck.

I have somewhere on these forums, someone providing a lot of good useful information about creative writing - it was about all different ways of writing and different tools to use. I cant find it now.

My DS is an avid reader and is full of ideas when writing but I think I need to help him with the various aspects of creative writing. If anyone has any idea of that thread, please can you paste it here.

If you can put your thoughts & ideas here that will be greatfully appreciated as well.

[Gee]

I second Ladymuck. 3 paragraphs are quite thin. Try to encourage writing up to 5 paragraphs.

For Maths, do advice them to show workings/number sentence even they can't solve/find the answers. It maybe worth some marks. Also, skip questions which consume longer time and come back to the questions whenever they have time. Sutton Maths is relatively harder than Wilsons. Be prepared if they couldn't complete the paper.

All the best for your DS/DD.