Hello everyone,

I normally read but don't post . Wishing everyone great success. Just to say I have DIYed for 2 kids and my second son made it today , high scores. Don't know if we are allowed to share so wouldn't . First son is in grammar and we DIY'ed too, hoping this encourages someone.
We were told our kid's' would not make it because we diy'ed, they DID.

Good luck everyone and to the kids too.

Thank you VERY much for posting this. Looking at the results thread I was wondering if any of them DIYed

WHatvdies DITed mean? Does it mean didn’t I see tutor?

Glad this was helpful. When I first started I looked here for any one who taught their kids themselves and passed and couldn't find anyone. I was confident in teaching my son at the time but when the results were to come out I panicked thinking that if he failed then it was my fault . Neighbours, friends and even his school told me he wouldn't pass the exams because he was 'mum taught'. Hope someone is encouraged to do it themselves especially if they have no funds....

All the best Exams2018

DIY, it means do it yourself. So we as parents taught our kids without using tutors .

Congratulations! Both my boys never had a tutor. Both just sat a few practice papers at home a couple of weeks before. DS1 (a couple of years ago) got a very comfortable score , DS2 fell short (last year) but got in on appeal . I must say, many high scorers who were tutored soon start falling short once at Grammar... yet the DIY kids seem to find it a breeze!!

We had a tutor but it would be enormously helpful to other parents on here if you shared your DIY journey, books used, schedule etc to benefit others.

We DIYed. DS just passed with 353. We'd have loved to get somewhere closer to a Skinners' score, but we're still very very happy with his result after all his hard work (and mine!). Perhaps we could have got closer to a Skinners' score with a tutor starting two years ahead, but to be honest I was quite against putting in so much effort to raise him above his natural level through tutoring. I wouldn't want him to go to Skinners' if he spent his whole school life trying to catch up. My approach was to make sure he was as prepared as he could be for the style of test and questions, etc, but really wanted him to only pass if he was naturally capable of it.

We are currently out of county so I didn't know the system, and this website was sooooo valuable in helping me handle it all by myself without a tutor. We only decided in May we were moving to Tunbridge Wells, so we didn't have much time, just four months. We spent the summer going through the GL Assessment CGP books. We did the study book for each subject and then the practice book for each, and then worked through all 8 test papers for each subject. It was *just* about enough time to work our way through all those books. We did a couple of nights a week for 30-60 minutes while he was still at the school, and then did 1-1.5 hours a day for about 5 days a week when it was the summer holidays.

It was difficult to get into the habit of the studying at first, but as soon as DS got on board with the whole idea of a grammar it was a lot easier once I had his cooperation. If he'd have been a child who showed resistance to the whole thing and was set on going to go to the local comp with his friends, for example, I don't we'd have managed it. Fortunately as we had already decided to move that wasn't an issue for him.

Also my advice to other DIY mums would be to do the benchmarking tests to find out your child's starting point, to consider whether you want to go through the process at all. I found my DS achieved in the end a similar result to his benchmark tests before all of our studying, so they are quite accurate indicators. He got about 70% of the questions correct in the benchmark tests. If he had been more borderline in benchmark tests I'm not sure it would have put him through the process. It was stressful and a lot of work and only worth it now because he passed, and I was dreading the impact on his self-esteem if he had not passed.

But if your child does well in benchmarks I see no reason why mums can't help their children pass doing it DIY.

I bought some Bond books... each child did about 5 or 6 10min tests from each.. just to familiarise themselves really.