11 Plus Exams Forum

My DD appearing for CSSE exam in Sept.
I have given her the past papers for practise .I feel comprehensions are quite challenging for her.
which ever year the paper is she only get 50% of the marks in the english comprehesion mainly she is scoring marks in the grammar and punctuation/spell check questions which have the maximum marks(12) other than that for the comprehension questions she is loosing marks not understanding the comprehesnion properly.
I sit and explain her how to analyse those..but when given another paper she does the same.
I'm not understanding how to improve her..she is avid reader, reads whenever she gets time ..checked few times with her how she is reading is she skimming or understanding the text ...she explains me but when it comes to comprehesnion she is not good at it.
any suggestions on this ..pls?

I know this may not seem relevant but you could try her on some lateral thinking questions. That might get her to start thinking in that way a bit more. Do you read to her? If you discuss the stories that you read as you go along. Try and get her to think about what has happened, what is going to happen and what is unwritten but implied. Discussion of text is eye opening, I find that Dd often has a completely different perspective from mine which I am sure is a maturity thing.

Avid reading and comprehension do not necessarily go hand-in-hand. Some children can read well but a lot of the words may not make sense but they understand enough to move on and read the rest of the story. Does your DD ask questions when she reading a book about words she doesn't know? It is a good habit to get into. Maybe set a challenge to get definitions of five words she wants to understand in more detail per reading session.

Try not telling your daughter how to do something but ask her to explain what she thinks the story means as that will give you more of an indication of what is going wrong.

Some of the comprehension exercises entail explaining how a particular character is feeling. If your DD is not getting these right then strategies to do this are fairly simple, putting oneself in the position of the character rather than looking from the outside, it may seem obvious but is a regular challenge I've seen in the past.

Don't worry about the percentage at this stage, it is helpful you know it needs some work and that is all part of the process. In some regions 50% is enough to get a pass, I am not familiar with the requirements for CSSE.

PettswoodFiona wrote:Avid reading and comprehension do not necessarily go hand-in-hand. Some children can read well but a lot of the words may not make sense but they understand enough to move on and read the rest of the story. Does your DD ask questions when she reading a book about words she doesn't know? It is a good habit to get into. Maybe set a challenge to get definitions of five words she wants to understand in more detail per reading session.

Try not telling your daughter how to do something but ask her to explain what she thinks the story means as that will give you more of an indication of what is going wrong.

Some of the comprehension exercises entail explaining how a particular character is feeling. If your DD is not getting these right then strategies to do this are fairly simple, putting oneself in the position of the character rather than looking from the outside, it may seem obvious but is a regular challenge I've seen in the past.

Don't worry about the percentage at this stage, it is helpful you know it needs some work and that is all part of the process. In some regions 50% is enough to get a pass, I am not familiar with the requirements for CSSE.

I don't think that 30 / 60 on each paper constituted the minimum standardised score of 303 required the be considered for the Southend and Westcliff schools in the past two years and if out of catchment you wouldn't get into any of the CSSE grammar schools with that anyway, I'm afraid.

Sample papers here, PWF:

http://www.csse.org.uk/index.php?option ... &order=ASC

PettswoodFiona wrote:Avid reading and comprehension do not necessarily go hand-in-hand. Some children can read well but a lot of the words may not make sense but they understand enough to move on and read the rest of the story. Does your DD ask questions when she reading a book about words she doesn't know? It is a good habit to get into. Maybe set a challenge to get definitions of five words she wants to understand in more detail per reading session.

Eccentric wrote:I know this may not seem relevant but you could try her on some lateral thinking questions. That might get her to start thinking in that way a bit more. Do you read to her? If you discuss the stories that you read as you go along. Try and get her to think about what has happened, what is going to happen and what is unwritten but implied. Discussion of text is eye opening, I find that Dd often has a completely different perspective from mine which I am sure is a maturity thing.

+1

I found my eldest's comprehension wasn't as good as his reading; what he focused on while reading was different from what was needed to answer the comprehension questions.

We read together quite lot and I would ask 3-4 questions each time, including inference.

Hi All

I am new to the country and want to know is the exam for Bucks only Multiplr Choice Questions or the students will also have to write a letter and paragraph (comprehensive exam).
Pleas elet em know and share some sample test papers.