11 Plus Exams Forum

Hi

Argh. It's started. Despite promising myself that I wouldn't be drawn into the intellectual one-upmanship that surrounds the 11+, I can feel myself succumbing! Already discussions about who's tutoring who, how often and for how long are being undertaken in hushed whispers, after all 'loose lips sink ships' and all that.

My son has just gone into year 5 and we've begun diy tutoring. He's bright and able, but able enough? Well, we'll see, he's enjoying it at the moment so that's always a good start. I have no desire to 'coach' him into grammar school but do want to fine tune his skills and get him prepared.

My question is, what should we expect from the King Edward 11+ test in addition to the VR and NVR? We attended the recent open day and I believe the Head mentioned the whole process being over and done with in a couple of hours, but anything else has completely abandoned me now!

thanks

I tutor for the KE exam. If you look back through old postings, I gave an account of last year's exam (or at least what my pupils said was in it). I think it was under 're:test' and was dated last November or December.

Basically they are looking for children with great natural ability who also read to a fairly high level, have impressive vocabularies, can do mental arithmetic at a high speed and can interpret data and problem solve.

Most of my pupils do not fit the above criteria when they arrive, other than the natural ability part; in fact, it's 3 years since I taught someone who was anywhere near the full package.

My job is to raise them to a higher standard in as many of the required areas as possible which I would not describe as coaching.

I have 'coached' in the past and by that I mean take a child with all the elements in place and explain how best to tackle a specific exam such as an NFER verbal or non-verbal.

But coaching does not come into with the KE exam.

Anyway, I hope the list helps.

dear fm

I'm not sure how appropriate to ask this question here, but the situation demands me to ask this no matter what!

You mentioned that you tutor for KE exams; can you please send me your contact details to *********

Look forward to here from you.
Regards
Kevin
A desperate father

Email address removed by a moderator for safety reasons.. You can communicate with FM via Private Messages [Pms] I have sent you a PM.

FM is spot on. I'd say that problem solving abilities are vital also vocabulary is really, really important too.

I've got a year 5 son who will be sitting the test next year and he is now coming home and telling me that his classmates are one by one starting to be tutored for the 11+ ...

I prefer to take a 'holistic' approach if you will and look at giving them skills that will benefit them whatever secondary school they go to.

In daughter number 1's Y7 class there is a girl who was heavily tutored to pass the 11+....yet she is struggling with the work. Every evening she is on the phone to my daughter asking for help with the homework. So I think that it's counter productive to just 'teach to test'.