Very quiet in Brum.......4 weeks to go

[um]

My dd had two older brothers at CHB, and no matter how hard we tried to reassure her and ensure she did not feel stressed about the exam, I am afraid to say she felt the pressure more... she did get into CHG which was where she'd wanted to go but not by a huge margin, so we were not totally sure until March when we received the allocation.

Her score in the KE exam was significantly lower than it was for Warks a week later or for Walsall (taking into account the 3-way score) in July. I have no doubt that, unfortunately, this is because she did put herself under more pressure.

There are no easy answers. I did everything I could to 'relax' her and ensure that she felt no pressure from us at home. But she is not daft - and the end of the day she could see her two brothers were at CH and she wanted to go herself.

I have to say though that some parents (hopefully a small minority) do put their children under great pressure - I even witnessed this at the entrance of the exam (!) and while having aspirations for our children is natural and right, applying psychological pressure on a 10 year old to 'pass' an exam is not only cruel but completely counter-productive.

[Bob1892]

Anyone tried the Eureka 11+ mock paper?
My ds did it and scored terribly!
Questions I thought were somewhat obscure.
A little step back in our preparation.
Any thoughts?

[Gladitsallover]

We've got the Eureka paper to do tomorrow, time and motivation allowing (!) so will let you know...DS1 certainly struggled with lots of the practice papers though and he did much better in the real thing...perhaps because he was expecting worse and so was pleasantly surprised!!

[nervousmom]

I've not heard of Eureka. I have found some CEM CGP papers but DD not done those yet.

DD had a little meltdown a little while ago but I think we are turning the corner now, I hope!

We are away this week so she has hardly done any work at all, but I think it's helped her relax a little. She said today she is feeling happier about it now!

Back to the grindstone next week and hope we can keep up her confidence.

Next week we find out our test venue for Warwickshire. When do Birmingham find their venues?

[Bob1892]

They said end of August for brum- so probably next week. Then the nerves will start jangling.
How did you get on with that eureka paper gladitsallover - or should that be gladitsnearlyover??

[happymom1]

@ nervousmum. Bham would receive by early Sept . .quite late. My dd too appearing. She gets very nervous and down whenever she makes a mistake. I am so worried that she might just give up in exam conditions. We did a mock test. Didn't help much. Any suggestions by anyone how can I prepare her that she faces exam confidently.

[nervousmom]

Bob made a suggestion to give some easy papers to build confidence and then gradually build up to harder ones. We had some Bond 10 minute tests from when DS did it 3 years ago. These helped to get her back in the right frame of mind. She just did the maths ones.

Her English comprehension is good, so we've not done anything with this. She is practicing NVR. Verbal is not so easy, as you can't teach them vocabulary, they just have to read, read, read and then read some more.

We are just trying to be positive with DD and praise her at every opportunity.

We know she's capable of doing it, but we need to make sure she knows that too, because up until now, she's been doubting herself.

She has also been feeling really pressured because her brother is at GS and she wants to go where he is.

Exams are nerve racking, I wouldn't want to do it now, let alone at their tender age.

All we can do is encourage them to do their best and tell them we're proud of them no matter what.

[happymom1]

Thanks nervousmum for your suggestions. .will try to do that. Fingers crossed

[nervousmom]

We're trying to make sure DD not feeling pressure by being extra nice, but I think she's playing us a little!

Today we were chatting about working hard for the next 3 weeks and then she can relax and chill out, all we got was 'this is the worst summer ever' !!!

She really wants to go to her brother's school, so I do think she is doing it for dramatic effect. Not sure if effect or affect is the word to use. Good job I'm not sitting the 11+

[happymom1]

You did make me smile by this comment. Yeah they do play on us. As someone said It needs a village to raise a kid.