CGP Practice Exam - Help Please

[Newbiee]

Thank you all..Really appreciate it

[inspired]

Hi all

My DS is in yr 4 and I am doing the cgp and s&s books. I agree the s&s mental arithmetic books are particularly good.

I am doing diy with my son and have found the advice on here invaluable. Sometimes I have wanted to give up due to various factors i.e the low achieving school my ds attends, poor quality of tuition available and the competition from the indies.

However, you guys are my inspiration and the high scores achieved with your children has shown that it can be done with hard work and perseverance.

Petitpois- doing 100 questions in 1 min and 40 secs is impressive. My boy can do 50 in 1 min and 20 secs and I thought that was good. Will need to do a lot more practise I think!

[Petitpois]

Inspired good to hear, to note

DD mastered the timetables her self well before yr 5, she would sit in the of the car telling us (with encouragement) the answers to random times table questions for ages and ages. We would then try and catch her out. At some point around yr3 she became instantaneous on any question 6*7=42 or whatever.

If the child is still not confident and instantaneous then work on that rather than speed in Yr4. DD2 is not yet. Watch out for use of fingers, that is a dead common give away that they are behind. We started getting worried in Yr3 because our expectation was that DD2 should have known her timetables fully by then. The teacher thinks I am mad because they aim for times tables by Yr6, but my personal opinion is don't always believe in the standards the school sets (but don't challenge them on them either - it is fruitless)

We started remedial work in Yr 3 and it has paid dividends because she just about knows them now. But I would say she has not mastered them and is not instantaneous. My focus at the moment has been reading (math is not the be all and end all). DD2's Yr4 speed scores are way way worse that DD1's yr5 scores. I think she does 100 in like 5m 30s, but at least they are all correct. Once I realised this, I gave up the speed testing, as it is not that important as mastery, so I will go back to that again in say 4 or 5 months. Speed will definitely be on the agenda and plan for Yr5.

To put this in context, there are kids in yr6 same school that cannot do times tables, but they spend their evenings on oovoo, which I think is madness even if a grammar is not being aimed for.

I say this only because the battle and war strategy is simply about getting sufficiently far enough ahead of the average to secure a place. No one will ever remember the standardised score, if they get into a good school, then that will carry them.

[quasimodo]

.............................the battle and war strategy is simply about getting sufficiently far enough ahead of the average to secure a place. No one will ever remember the standardised score, if they get into a good school, then that will carry them.

Once your child is at a selective school it is then up to the child what they make of the opportunity they have been given.Children who scrape the exams can do excellently at GCSE and the converse is also true.There is so much growing up and development yet to take place.

[quasimodo]

.............................the battle and war strategy is simply about getting sufficiently far enough ahead of the average to secure a place. No one will ever remember the standardised score, if they get into a good school, then that will carry them.

Once your child is at a selective school it is then up to the child what they make of the opportunity they have been given.Children who scrape the exams can do excellently at GCSE and the converse is also true.There is so much growing up and development yet to take place.

[inspired]

DS took an interest in timetables in yr 2. He learnt them all by himself from a book and he now gets 100% and is instantaneous. His addition and subtraction wasn't so good and he would take ages on it. I worked on this with him at home and he has now made a significant improvement. Last year I researched into kumon but did not put my son in due to reading some negative reviews. Wish I had now after hearing it worked well for MSD and his boy.

DS often says he is bored in his maths class and finds the work too easy.They spent the whole of last term just going through the seven times table and making a rap song to help them remember it. I did ask the teacher to give him some challenging work but she hasn't and wish I hadn't bothered.

I just hope he can get into a good grammar school it so that the work is set at his level. I agree there is a lot of developing to take place afterwards too but the key is to getting your foot in the door first even if it means scraping it.

[Petitpois]

DS often says he is bored in his maths class and finds the work too easy.They spent the whole of last term just going through the seven times table and making a rap song to help them remember it. I did ask the teacher to give him some challenging work but she hasn't and wish I hadn't bothered.

Inspired exact same experience with my DD. She often said she was bored stiff in year 5. Particularly for maths (don't neccessarily listen to the child too much). I pressed the school for stretch and challenge and they were actually really good. They did several things,

a) entered her in the annual King Edwards maths challenge, which her team got a medal for.
b) created a gifted and talented group where they would get extra specific tuition
c) Agree for them to visit local secondary comps on stretch teaching days (which incidentally provided vital intelligence on just how rubbish the local comps are). Feel bad
d) Gave them classroom helper tasks with other kids that needed help.

I would just say be careful with the stretch and challenge for two reasons. It is easy to over do it and I think we did. Secondly opportunity cost looms large in the 11+ plus and make sure you don't crowd out NVR or VR work because your particularly good at one thing. I needed much less maths and much more VR and NVR, and nearly came a cropper on the KE (may have done).

I just hope he can get into a good grammar school it so that the work is set at his level.

From what I can see, they all get a rocket up their rear when they hit Grammar, especially in terms of homework, but also remember I saw kids at QMHS doing 3cubed in year 7 (and switched off when they should have been listening). Almost all the grammars we visited were realistic in terms of expectations for year 7's.

In terms of levels, do get too bogged down with level, mastery is more important. There were no questions on this year exam that involved use of Pi, for example, so no need to go to that level.

Many kids are good enough for grammars and even more are good enough for the indies, which have marginally less meritocratic entrance tests, than the more open and transparent state grammars. The difficult bit is the limitation on places in both cases.

I have very little sympathy for parents that do not try for their kids, but loads for the absolute ton of parents, who do their level best and their kids and deserve a result, but won't get one, because there are not enough places and or funding.

PP

[MSD]

DS took an interest in timetables in yr 2. He learnt them all by himself from a book and he now gets 100% and is instantaneous. His addition and subtraction wasn't so good and he would take ages on it. I worked on this with him at home and he has now made a significant improvement. Last year I researched into kumon but did not put my son in due to reading some negative reviews. Wish I had now after hearing it worked well for MSD and his boy.

DS often says he is bored in his maths class and finds the work too easy.They spent the whole of last term just going through the seven times table and making a rap song to help them remember it. I did ask the teacher to give him some challenging work but she hasn't and wish I hadn't bothered.

I just hope he can get into a good grammar school it so that the work is set at his level. I agree there is a lot of developing to take place afterwards too but the key is to getting your foot in the door first even if it means scraping it.

Digressing a little, but I am not surprised that you saw lot of negative comments on Kumon. To be fair, it can be a repetitive and laborious at times. However, I must say it's good value for money. For a monthly fee of £50, you get a sheet of 10 pages to complete every day, and the children also see the tutor once a week. Moreover, for us it was a great confidence booster, helped with speed and accuracy and, more importantly, instilled that much needed discipline to be able to sit in one place, every single day of the week for 20 odd minutes and complete a sheet.

I believe it's down to Kumon that both our boys have excellent mental arithmetic skills now and, of course, our 11+ tutor, who took the fear factor away by really challenging them on unknowns and not allowing them to give up.

Unfortunately, we are also facing the same problem with our Primary. The little one sat Level 6 SATS in year 5 and not been pushed enough this year. But we are pretty relaxed about it as I promised that after his 11+ test he can do whatever he wants with his time in Year 6. The only thing we really ask for is nightly reading.

[inspired]

Thanks for the advice PP

DS is in the top sets in school and I assume he must be set work which is more harder than what his peers are getting. His maths is good but pace is an issue and will work on that in yr 5, the main thing is he is getting the answers right at this stage. The maths challenge sounds good and will ask the teacher about it. Did your DD do it at the end of yr 5 PP ?

For the VR and NVR I am looking to use a tutor in yr 5. Reading is at the top of the agenda in the next 4, 5 months and building vocabulary. DS is a reluctant reader and just read the horrid henry books throughout yr 3. I presented him with a variety of books but he just wasn't interested in them. His cousin lent him the Harry potter series and is reading those now. His teacher even said that he has made a big leap in his reading from the beginning of September to now and I honestly put that down to reading the Harry potter books.

[inspired]

MSD- The negative reviews about Kumon were mainly about it being very repetitive and the kids who had to do it really hating it but I am glad it worked for you. Another parent I spoke to did it with her DD and she got a scholarship at KEHS. I feel it's too late for DS who is in Yr 4 but will definitely consider it for DS2 in a couple of years time.

I wouldn't worry too much about the SATS in Yr 6. Let him enjoy his last year at primary school. The main thing is your DS doing well in the 11+ and securing a place. Well done to him for getting a top score and good luck for next week.