11 Plus Exams Forum

Hi
We go away for a week on the second week of August. My husband is keen on DS revising during the holiday whilst I recommend doing nada! Who is right? Surely he's not going to forget everything in seven days??
Any advice welcome

Let him enjoy his holiday I say!

I am in the Nada group tooo - enjoy the hols and come back refreshed

A rest is good, chance to recharge.

If your DH absolutely feels your DS must do some work, keep it low key, maybe one of those 10 minute tests once a day. Maybe over breakfast or some other down time. Certainly don’t let it interfere with doing the things you’d be doing,

Hi
We had the same dilemma last year with the same difference of opinion. We adopted Tinkers advice: 1-2, 10min tests after breakfast and then no mention of the 11plus. I don’t believe my DS would have forgotten anything in a week but it was a compromise that kept DH happy and DS didn’t mind as it only took 20 mins of an otherwise fun-packed day. I wish you well as it’s a challenging time.

Definitely nada.

If your husband insists, you could play scrabble or yahtzee, or you coukd all ignore him!

We had a week's holiday at the start of the Summer and a week in the penultimate week with DD3 and didn't do any preparation whilst on holiday. The exam was the first week in September. We did do prep over the other 4 weeks.

We did take a book with us for the first week but it never made it out of the suitcase.

thanks everybody for taking the time to respond!

One week should not affect the exam results. If anything, it will recharge and replenish the child`s battery. My daughter last year was taken to London end of Aug for 4 days, and it did her the world of good. She passed her grammar exams. The word 11+ and any work associated with the exam were completely banned during this short holiday.

Another friend took her daughter to Spain for a week, mid Aug, and she passed at the score she was hovering around during the summer preparation.

Having said that, another friend, who had an able son, went overseas for 3 weeks. Her son was a whisker away from passing.

In short, and in my opinion, 1 week should be fine.

We are taking our younger daughter overseas for about a week end of July, before we honker down for a final focussed push during the summer holiday.

Sound advice much appreciated.