Hi all,
MY DS will be appearing in the exam in 2019 (next year). We are planning to prepare my DS for Bekshire and Bucks at home only.
Is that a good idea? Or should we put him in 11plus tuition? My DS is a smart kid and his pick up is great.
If we are preparing him at home, what books and coursework would be recommended.
Any help will be very much appreciated.
Kind regards
DD

If you feel confident to DIY then go for it. Plenty of others do (myself included) and are successful. Others use tutors and some of those aren’t successful. There’s plenty of advice on this forum and the general website itself.

Berkshire is CEM and Bucks is a new bespoke test set by GL (and no one knows quite what it expect this September).

For Berkshire you’ll need books for CEM. CGP and FPTP are usually the ones I see others recommend on here. We didn’t do CEM so I’m no expert.

For Bucks, I’m not sure, but after the test this September, there may be some better advice.

However, before you start, have you checked you have a realistic chance of getting a place at the schools you are interested in. Since you say Berkshire, I’m assuming you mean Slough and not Reading. I know there are areas with a realistic chance of places at both, but it depends if you live there.

Have you checked the Bucks allocations (look at the Bucks forum) to see what distance the schools have allocated to in previous years.

(Please check before starting out. There’s no point your child sitting a test for School you have no chance of getting a place.)

I home tutored both of mine successfully so give it a go.

I would suggest the following:

Take advantage of the upcoming open evenings to see which school you prefer,

Take into account all admission criteria especially as some of the Slough ones are bringing in distance criteria (even St Bernards is now looking at local non-Christian kids over "out of catchment' non-Christian kids. No change for Catholic / Christian kids as such),

Remember travelling distance - what do you both feel is realistic over a 7 year period? Bear in mind that he will probably have some early starts if he is going on field trips,

Re books, we mainly used CGP but I bought Bond or others if I felt my dc was missing the point (especially with the verbal),

For CGP, first of all get the 3 student/parent books (maths, vr and non vr). Get your son to do each of the mini tests as this will help you see where he is, learning wise. Then buy the relevant aged practise book as well as going through all the study material in the parent guide.

And finally - good luck
I found the community on here really helpful when I was in your shoes.