Help needed
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Re: Help needed
Please don't worry too much about not having a tutor. If your child is bright enough you really don't need one. My DD1 is in Y7 at a grammar and my second DD is taking the test in September. Neither had a tutor (apart from DD1 had about four/five hours maths in teh summer holidays because of the date change and I was a bit worried that she had not covered teh whole syllabus). All you need to do is some familiarisation with the question types and the IPS/Susan Daughtrey books are good and make sure their tables are red hot and also things like doubles and halving. If your son is a good reader then encourage him to read a wide range of materials. If not, then story tapes with a good range of vocabulary. My DDs have post it notes on the side of their bunks so that if they are reading a word they don't understand they put a note on the page so they can either look it up or ask me. Good luck!
Re: Help needed
Would be helpful to know if you are East of West Kent or Medway.
Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit, wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad !
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Beginning2Fret
- Posts: 10
- Joined: Fri Jun 04, 2010 7:23 pm
- Location: kent
Re: Help needed
Hi doodles, i`m in the Canterbury area.
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Kent99
Re: Help needed
Hi Beginningtofret,
The good news is that in your area of Kent your child just needs a basic pass in the 11+;higher scores won't affect your chances of getting the grammar school you choose. This means that your child probably needs to score somewhere around 50% in each paper. (It varies a bit from year to year).
If, therefore, there are a couple of topics which your child hasn't covered in maths it probably isn't going to matter. I made the mistake with my eldest child of getting too hung up about making sure she was confident with everything in the AE maths workbooks. The result was that in the exam she wasted a lot of time (about 10 minutes!) trying to use algebra to solve a problem before having a "durr" moment and realising that there was a very simple way of doing it just using common sense and basic arithmatic.
Many people posting on this board have children applying to certain grammars in West Kent which require much higher scores to gain a place. I was one of them, and will be again this September. Please don't be put off by levels of preparation some of the parents on this board are imposing on their children. Even in our neck of the woods it really ISN'T the norm.
For what it's worth I have not yet done any systematic preparation with my year 5 child but nearer the time I anticipate giving her 10 to 30 minutes of questions/papers I would guess a couple of times a week. Irritatingly I think we will need to do a little in the last couple of weeks of the summer holiday in case she forgets everything over the holiday. It will not be everyday, however, or more than an hour a day max. My eldest child tended to do the stuff at the kitchen table (term time only as it was for a January exam) whilst I was cooking. It meant that I was there to help with questions but not hanging over her. BTW she got a high enough score for the super selective grammars in the west of the county.
I suggest that you have your child look at one of each type of paper (without timing them) and see how they get on. That should give you a good idea of how much practice/ help they are going to need. If there are things they cannot understand, and you can't help, there are various "how to.." books available from WH Smith or this site. Don't worry if the first attempt seems poor, a couple of practice papers can make a BIG difference. After that, you know your own child best and must be the judge of how much practice they need to feel reasonably confident without just getting stressed out/ fed up with the whole thing.
The good news is that in your area of Kent your child just needs a basic pass in the 11+;higher scores won't affect your chances of getting the grammar school you choose. This means that your child probably needs to score somewhere around 50% in each paper. (It varies a bit from year to year).
If, therefore, there are a couple of topics which your child hasn't covered in maths it probably isn't going to matter. I made the mistake with my eldest child of getting too hung up about making sure she was confident with everything in the AE maths workbooks. The result was that in the exam she wasted a lot of time (about 10 minutes!) trying to use algebra to solve a problem before having a "durr" moment and realising that there was a very simple way of doing it just using common sense and basic arithmatic.
Many people posting on this board have children applying to certain grammars in West Kent which require much higher scores to gain a place. I was one of them, and will be again this September. Please don't be put off by levels of preparation some of the parents on this board are imposing on their children. Even in our neck of the woods it really ISN'T the norm.
For what it's worth I have not yet done any systematic preparation with my year 5 child but nearer the time I anticipate giving her 10 to 30 minutes of questions/papers I would guess a couple of times a week. Irritatingly I think we will need to do a little in the last couple of weeks of the summer holiday in case she forgets everything over the holiday. It will not be everyday, however, or more than an hour a day max. My eldest child tended to do the stuff at the kitchen table (term time only as it was for a January exam) whilst I was cooking. It meant that I was there to help with questions but not hanging over her. BTW she got a high enough score for the super selective grammars in the west of the county.
I suggest that you have your child look at one of each type of paper (without timing them) and see how they get on. That should give you a good idea of how much practice/ help they are going to need. If there are things they cannot understand, and you can't help, there are various "how to.." books available from WH Smith or this site. Don't worry if the first attempt seems poor, a couple of practice papers can make a BIG difference. After that, you know your own child best and must be the judge of how much practice they need to feel reasonably confident without just getting stressed out/ fed up with the whole thing.
Re: Help needed
Was very relieved to read Kent99's post as was beginning to think I was only person in the whole county not doing extensive preparation for this September's papers! Although I am for the most part confident in my DD2's ability, it is sometimes hard to maintain that confidence when you hear of all the tutoring that other children are having!
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Beginning2Fret
- Posts: 10
- Joined: Fri Jun 04, 2010 7:23 pm
- Location: kent
Re: Help needed
Many thanks Kent99, I feel a little bit better now to read what you`ve got to say and relised that my lack of prep is, I hope, not too serious. My DC has never been very confident and one of those children who holds back, but over the last year this has built up, thanks to his great group of teachers, which I think has boosted his work at school.
His maths has improved such a lot and his reading, he never had trouble with as he loves this.
His maths has improved such a lot and his reading, he never had trouble with as he loves this.
Re: Help needed
I agree totally with Kent99.
The only thing I will add though is to make sure you do the 11+ papers under timed exam conditions during the summer holidays, and make sure DC know all the little tricks eg, not spending too long on a question they can't answer and making sure they answer all the questions, as it is multiple choice.
I'm not for too much practice or tutoring but I do think familiriasation and confidence is very important. If they go into the proper test knowing what to expect and the fact that they probably won't be able to answer all the questions, and won't need to in order to pass, then they won't been thrown at the first hurdle they come across.
The only thing I will add though is to make sure you do the 11+ papers under timed exam conditions during the summer holidays, and make sure DC know all the little tricks eg, not spending too long on a question they can't answer and making sure they answer all the questions, as it is multiple choice.
I'm not for too much practice or tutoring but I do think familiriasation and confidence is very important. If they go into the proper test knowing what to expect and the fact that they probably won't be able to answer all the questions, and won't need to in order to pass, then they won't been thrown at the first hurdle they come across.
Re: Help needed
Yes I would strongly echo posts above as you are not trying for a superselective (although of course if your child is borderline 11+ candidate, or schooling to date has been poor for some reason you may need to do more than a minimal amount to give your child the best chance of a pass).
I would really emphasise the points others have made about child being prepared to face a mix of questions he can and can't get right. The top 25% of the population pass these papers, and to pass they need to get roughly half the answers right (varies from year to year).
Therefore your child needs not to be shaken by questions that he /she doesn't understand. For these questions he / she needs to be trained to put down an answer (as it is multiple choice, and no penalties for incorrect answers) even if he knows he can't do the question - has a one in five chance of guessing correctly. Then he needs some kind of way of noting which questions to go back to at the end in case he has time and realises he really can do that question.
This also helps to eliminate possible errors in completing the answer sheet caused by not answering a question e.g. putting the answer to question 8 in question 7 box and so on.
Practice using the answersheets in the same format as the exam your child will be sitting.
In maths practice in speed and accuracy helps (as there is no calculator) just as much as covering new topics. This way child will get more of the questions right that he does understand, and other questions he cannot do can fall by the wayside.
Good luck.
I would really emphasise the points others have made about child being prepared to face a mix of questions he can and can't get right. The top 25% of the population pass these papers, and to pass they need to get roughly half the answers right (varies from year to year).
Therefore your child needs not to be shaken by questions that he /she doesn't understand. For these questions he / she needs to be trained to put down an answer (as it is multiple choice, and no penalties for incorrect answers) even if he knows he can't do the question - has a one in five chance of guessing correctly. Then he needs some kind of way of noting which questions to go back to at the end in case he has time and realises he really can do that question.
This also helps to eliminate possible errors in completing the answer sheet caused by not answering a question e.g. putting the answer to question 8 in question 7 box and so on.
Practice using the answersheets in the same format as the exam your child will be sitting.
In maths practice in speed and accuracy helps (as there is no calculator) just as much as covering new topics. This way child will get more of the questions right that he does understand, and other questions he cannot do can fall by the wayside.
Good luck.
Re: Help needed
according to pupils who sat the test this year, there was far less algebra than in the test papers and a lot of the questions were problem solving types.
