Less than 1 month to go !

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Sunshine 11
Posts: 247
Joined: Thu Nov 01, 2012 7:29 pm

Less than 1 month to go !

Post by Sunshine 11 »

Just wondering how everyone was feeling now.

DD & I are ready for it all to be over. The summer is flying by. DD has had a lovely varied summer with pony camp, bike riding days, athletics club & this weekend LEGOLAND with her little brother. I wanted to keep it varied and not just study. She has had sessions with her tutor, although she has been on holiday herself so we have had 3 weeks off.

I am so glad the test is early so the children can get it out of the way and get on with enjoying Y6 I just need to keep my nerves in check. Her tutor ran a mock in the village hall last week and this week again, which I think was great for timing and to get the feel for an exam environment. If she didn't have a tutor, I doubt we would get anything done at all !

How are you all doing ?
Sunshine 11
Que sera, sera
Stressed?Moi?
Posts: 1844
Joined: Mon Aug 01, 2011 11:28 am

Re: Less than 1 month to go !

Post by Stressed?Moi? »

I'm pretty fed up with it, and so is ds. We don't have a tutor but are picking different subjects and categories of them to do each day. It's too late now to do anything new, so we are just refining. It's not going brilliantly as I thought he had nailed some things, but he seems to have forgotten them. I only have to give him two or three prompt words and he is fine, but of course that won't be possible on the day! He has however achieved more today than yesterday, so I hope we are gathering momentum. He did a residential camp for a week and is struggling to get back into it. He does a sports club twice a week which breaks things up. Roll on September 13.
MedievalBabe
Posts: 1191
Joined: Wed Oct 16, 2013 9:56 pm

Re: Less than 1 month to go !

Post by MedievalBabe »

Dd is on and off. Some days she is very keen and will lots and other days she does nothing. We have given her various activities over the holidays to break things up along with playing with her friends and getting incredibly muddy :roll:

I did a mock test with her last week to see if there were any final areas we needed to focus on, which was good but also knocked her confidence. Ds did it with her as a comparison so her mark wasn't too bad.

Can't wait for it to be all over and life can start to get back to normal, but need dh to finish his dissertation first!
chumba
Posts: 61
Joined: Mon Oct 15, 2012 11:38 am

Re: Less than 1 month to go !

Post by chumba »

DD is up and down! CEM practice tests at home show a range in results from 30% to 87% (for each sub-section). Strengths are maths and NVR. Getting better at jumbled sentences. Struggling with vocab sometimes. Comprehension ok. Hates the missing letters to make new words as her spelling is good, but not good enough it seems. Lots of silly mistakes which she can't correct as the timing is so tight on the practice tests, but when we go through after she corrects easily. Fell for the mistake yesterday of missing a question by accident, then continuing to fill in the m/c answer sheet without allowing for this. Realised after 4 questions, but only corrected one mistake, so got 3 wrong even though she knew the answers. Hoping these practice mistakes are only going to happen at home, but who knows? Will be so glad when it's over! The tears of last week have been replaced by skipping, dancing and singing whilst practising this week. She's only just turned 10, so feels very hard on her.

We've been doing lots of fun things too, with lots of days with no practice, so not all bad :)

Finding this forum very helpful, so thank you to all contributors.
Stressed?Moi?
Posts: 1844
Joined: Mon Aug 01, 2011 11:28 am

Re: Less than 1 month to go !

Post by Stressed?Moi? »

chumba wrote:DD is up and down! CEM practice tests at home show a range in results from 30% to 87% (for each sub-section). Strengths are maths and NVR. Getting better at jumbled sentences. Struggling with vocab sometimes. Comprehension ok. Hates the missing letters to make new words as her spelling is good, but not good enough it seems. Lots of silly mistakes which she can't correct as the timing is so tight on the practice tests, but when we go through after she corrects easily. Fell for the mistake yesterday of missing a question by accident, then continuing to fill in the m/c answer sheet without allowing for this. Realised after 4 questions, but only corrected one mistake, so got 3 wrong even though she knew the answers. Hoping these practice mistakes are only going to happen at home, but who knows? Will be so glad when it's over! The tears of last week have been replaced by skipping, dancing and singing whilst practising this week. She's only just turned 10, so feels very hard on her.

We've been doing lots of fun things too, with lots of days with no practice, so not all bad :)

Finding this forum very helpful, so thank you to all contributors.
I'm working on the theory that if we are finding it difficult, probably lots of others will do too and so will make it a level playing field. DS just got 75% on a Bond comprehension paper whereas he got 43% last week so we are pretty up and down like your dd. DS isn't 10 until very end of August and the fact that he has had less time over his lifetime to have a wider vocabulary is showing. It's still pretty good, but some of the words they are all expected to know are ridiculous. Who calls beige taupe for goodness sake!!
southbucks3
Posts: 3579
Joined: Tue Dec 18, 2012 11:59 am

Re: Less than 1 month to go !

Post by southbucks3 »

Who calls beige taupe for goodness sake!!
:lol:
Someone who has never looked at a paint chart!

From what DS and his teacher said about the bucks synonyms and antonyms, it wasn't so much the complexity of the vocabulary, but the fact the four words to choose from were very similar and there simply was not time to think of the fine differences if it was not obvious, such as one of the words being a verb rather than an adjective.

Contended. ....... happily, cheerful, kind, satisfied

Easy to grab at happily in the ten seconds you have on a speed mission. :evil:

I remember the cpg practice assessment cem verbal reasoning being completely bonkers in some of the vocabulary, my then year 7 at grammar son could not do it any better than the ten year old, some of the words made me doubt my own ability. I'm going to try and find one....wait Here!

Ok,

An antonym example:

Generous.....avaricious,imprudent,cordial,,malicious.

Really.....ten year old children! I suspect less is required of our gcse students!
MedievalBabe
Posts: 1191
Joined: Wed Oct 16, 2013 9:56 pm

Re: Less than 1 month to go !

Post by MedievalBabe »

My dd did a fptp comprehension yesterday and said the answer was mean, dh also agreed that it was mean. What do you think?

'Would the fall never come to an end?' (Line 30)
Which one of the following words is a verb in this sentence?
A. Fall. B. Never. C. End. D. Come. E. The


Dd put fall and argued that it is a verb as it is a doing word/action so it had to be that. I could see her argument but still marked it as wrong. Some of these questions are hard for adults let alone 10 year olds.
Peridot
Posts: 2195
Joined: Thu May 16, 2013 5:02 pm

Re: Less than 1 month to go !

Post by Peridot »

If that's "fall" meaning "autumn" that is very mean because it's an American English word. If you know what the word means in this context it's obvious it's a noun, but otherwise I can see why a nine or ten-year-old could be confused.
southbucks3
Posts: 3579
Joined: Tue Dec 18, 2012 11:59 am

Re: Less than 1 month to go !

Post by southbucks3 »

The question should have read "as used in this sentence" fall is a verb, it is also a noun of course. I guess we can all be pedants. :lol:
Stressed?Moi?
Posts: 1844
Joined: Mon Aug 01, 2011 11:28 am

Re: Less than 1 month to go !

Post by Stressed?Moi? »

That is really naughty - this is an English test, sat in the UK by a British citizen. How on earth is a 10 year old supposed to know that? There is no way no ds would know that. DD has an American girl in her class so would know it, so you could argue that the girl has an unfair advantage over the a Brit.

SB the examples you give are very similar to those that we are coming up against. DS is much better at similar words than complex ones so that would work in our favour. Voraciously reading Beast Quest for years has come back and shot us in the foot!!!
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