Maths Papers

[watford]

Dear All,

Has anyone heard of Robin Brown Maths Practice papers 11-12, 1994?

Also would you do anything different regarding 11 plus prep if you had another chance???

Thank you all.

[mushroom]

If you do a search for "photocopied maths papers" in the maths section of this forum you can view a sample of what they're like. I hadn't come across them before but they look ok and experience of different styles of papers is always good.

I have done it twice and now on my third. What I learned from the first and confirmed when I modified my approach for 2nd was:

1. A year is a long time, they mature greatly during this time and progress towards the end is phenomenal compared to the start. The problems of them not understanding some topics, making silly mistakes and / or taking a long time on papers tend to disappear as they get older and gain more practice (although silly mistakes never really go away!). Focus on having fun, laughing when things go wrong and building confidence. I abandoned the phrase 'silly mistake' second time round as it seemed to invoke guilt. With 2nd child I just praised what was got right, explained how to answer questions
that were wrong and focussed on the useful things they had learned.

2. Less is More. I found it was far more beneficial to spend 10-20 mins on a area that seemed to be causing difficulty than to spend 45 or 50 mins doing a whole paper. Doing whole papers was important for practicing timing and exam technique but not so good for addressing weaknesses.

3. Give plenty of time off over holidays, even if you don't think you're making the progress you think you should be. They need a break and will perform better if given the first 2 weeks off at Christmas / Easter / Summer before focussing on maths / VR again

Child no.3 is benefiting greatly from this experience and is probably doing about a third of what child no.1 did!

[watford]

Dear Mushroom

Thank you for your input.

My DC has just done the 11 plus and although performance was good I think we could have done much better.

I think I concentrated too much on papers and not going through mistakes enough. The group tutoring in my opinion did not work as it was not tailored enough.

We spent alot of personal time & money on the 11 plus prep and don't feel it was value for money. Outcome was alot less than expected. Now I am trying to figure out how to change my strategy with DC2!!!!

[fairyelephant]

If I could have this past year over again (oh what luxury!) I would definitely take that approach, together with not panicking, ideally!! Also making the decision to go for it at the start of the year rather than in June, would have helped
I have just started now with ds (year 5), whilst waiting for dd's results (year 6) - terrible planning - they don't tell you that in antenatal classes, do they?! And am focussing more on small areas and max 20 mins, rather than plodding through a whole paper for 40 mins or more. I do think though that the first time you are less equipped (at least I was/am) to spot where the problem areas are, plus my dd gets stressed when looking at things she is less comfortable with and would rather leave it under the carpet, and my own lack of experience didn't help.
This time I am intending to work through Bond levels and "How to" books til about March/April, then start looking at Athey/this site's ipad apps with GLA and indie papers at the end. Having written that, it looks so efficient, and possibly difficult to stick to in practice..... DD is already asking why DS is being treated differently

[watford]

Hi Fairyelephant

Thank you.

I feel the same way that you do. I did too many papers and when mistakes were made they were brushed under the carpet - sometimes due to lack of my knowledge.

Alot of the time tutors expect the parents to have the knowledge and time to go through the papers too and in reality this is not alway true.

[mushroom]

Agree tailoring is key. Although no experience of group tutoring, I can see it working for explaining technique e.g. how to do VR type xyz etc and practicing papers under timed conditions with others, but think it would be difficult in a group to do much 1 to 1 coaching.

I used a tutor first time round, as although I thought I could do it myself, my child thought that they would be disadvantaged as all friends had a tutor. I still helped sort out areas of difficulty as I didn't think 1 hour a week plus a bit of homework was going to be enough. In the end what worked best for me was 10 mins a day at breakfast time and the odd paper at the weekend to practice timing, exam technique and spot any areas that needed a bit of a focus in the 10 min sessions.

If I didn't have time to do it myself I would look for a tutor who was able to give bite sized practice work that was tailored to what my child needed.

[watford]

Thanks Mushroom,

Could you possibly PM me details on whether your particular tutor worked or not (maths/VR)?? I am looking for recommended tutor for DC2. 1 to 1.

Much appreciated.