11 Plus Exams Forum

Hi
My son is taking the 11+ in September 2018 and has been tutored since September. He has made fantastic progress and achieves mostly 80/85% or more in homework and also in his tuition sessions. However, he has sat 4 tests with the tutor (once a month since April) which are similar to the real exam and in each once only gets around 45%. When he redoes the questions, he realises straight away what the answer should've been. He clearly doesn't do very well in exam conditions and can only seem to focus in short sharp bursts! So the tutor has suggested that instead of him doing a little bit of homework each day that we get him to do an hour or more and try to learn how to sit and focus for a longer period of time.

Has anyone else had this issue? I'm not sure how we can 'teach' him how to do an exam. He has seen enough papers to know what to expect, but ask him to do anything for longer than 20 minutes and it doesn't work. It is frustrating to see it especially as we know he is so capable! He really wants to do well, and wants to go to grammar but that doesn't seem to be motivation enough!

Any suggestions greatly received!

Thanks
Sharon

TheHurdle wrote:Some people are saying there is algebra though Head?

Apparently its not black and white on what Maths might be in the test...

In the past its this very issue that has been complained about because obviously if child has not been taught how to do something in class - without extra tutoring how can they pass the test. My husband has now explained algebra to dd - only took a few moments, and he can work through maths side of things with her.

The whole topic of algebra? She's going to be very bored in secondary school maths lessons .

bradys2003 wrote: However, he has sat 4 tests with the tutor (once a month since April) which are similar to the real exam and in each once only gets around 45%.

Welcome.
How does the tutor know what the test is going to be like - nobody else does!
I wouldn't worry too much.

What Guest55 said. You can’t ever know exactly what will come up, and unless the tutor sets the exam paper (hint: they won’t be!) they can’t possibly know.

Just prep them as best you can with time control, sensible strategy (guess something for all answers if time runs short as there is no negative marking) and see how they do.

TheHurdle wrote: My husband has now explained algebra to dd - only took a few moments

This man is clearly a very gifted teacher. Get him into writing textbooks/doing TED talks/advising the government now! You could make a fortune.