Fast track tutoring

[Waiting_For_Godot]

I am going to sit DS for the 11+ but we have done no preparation whatsoever so I need to know the best books to use to fast track him through. Pates would be a long shot but I may as well aim high, so the most appropriate material for this school is necessary too. Any advice much appreciated.

[livviloo]

We started in mid July and used the Susan Daughtrey series of techniques books over the summer. There are 35 little tutorials and I don't think you need all of them but I couldn't work out which ones you didn't need so we did them all. Then we did papers in september (2-4 a week in pairs) from SD(the graded ones), NFER and tutors.
This did the trick for my DS who got into Pates. I would concentrate on the stamina, speed and psychological aspect because really good kids crumble in the exam every year.
good luck
Livviloo

[muminTewkes]

We started in the Feb before the exam in the Oct but tbh it was just general stuff as he was tagging along on his older brothers GCSE tutoring.
We really started gentle 11+ stuff in the end of Feb/early March and if Im honest he was *almost*fed up by October so Id not worry too much.
By May we were doing the SD technique books as Livviloo said and then doing x1 NFER test a week progressing to the SD tests with The Tutors vocab builder and Free Rice here and there.
During the summer he had professional tutoring for an hour a week and then for the 4 weeks before the exam they did mock tests(x2 back to back)in the test situation.
We backed it up by the quick 15 tutors tests alongside doing things with cut out compound words(from this site) and also right at the end did a couple of tutors level 4(is it?blinkin' hard anyway!)tests and back to one NFER one lastly.
DS1 got into Pates.

Id second Livviloo in that we focused on the timing and him keeping his head "straight"under pressure almost more than the drilling of 11+

Good Luck!

[slackmum]

We started in September of Y6(but the exam was in November that year) did the SD series (ten minutes per day every day) and then did 4 full papers to check on timings. My son really just needed familiarisation with the type of question so that he did not have to waste any time in the exam having to work out what to do and how. I think the SD books are great for that, but then that was before my time on this website so I did not really know how much more there was available, however they teach the basic technique.

DS1 has always been a voracious reader and we play a lot of scrabble and sudoku etc so his vocabulary and general knowledge are pretty good. Although I was pretty naive about the preparation some undertook I am not sure that I would have done much more with him.

However, I know that I was very lucky - he enjoys exams and was desperate to go to GS (although our local comprehensive is very good also) so was highly motivated - with a different child different methods may need to be employed e.g. a tutor if the child will not work independently.

We too were successful and he is in Y7 at Pates and thriving in the environment. Good luck with your preparation which ever route you choose.