11 Plus Exams Forum

How do people help their DC do this? I am getting so frustrated with DS's lack of consistency. When he's awake etc. he'll GENERALLY remember that a particular question has several parts to it, but just lately there seem to be more and more where he's calculated the percentage and not taken it away from the original amount, or given the wrong bit of the fraction, or whatever.

Do people get their DC to number the different parts, so they don't forget them, or how else do you tackle this? He's not working through a paper so quickly that he has enough time to check all his answers sufficiently thoroughly, so I really need him to get them right first time.

any advice please

I ask DC to picturise it and draw a cartoon, putting the given information in place and a question mark next to what is required. When I say ' draw', I mean a basic flowchart of given and required numbers.

fatbananas wrote:so I really need him to get them right first time.

any advice please

There are no shortcuts I am afraid. He will need to do tons of practise (of longer superselective type Q and not Bond, GL type) to get first time right and sharpen the revision skills to get from 90% to 100%. Try giving some additional playtime (minecraft) when no silly mistakes are made or the score is in excess of 90%.

Always check at the end that you have answered the question that was actually asked.

We had a similar situation with dd. I taught her the same method that was ingrained in to me by an excellent maths teacher many years ago. There is rarely a day when I do not employ the same reasoning in my professional life.

As soon as one comes across a wordy multi-part question, the first thing to do is underline all the relevant parts and draw a squiggly (could be a circle or any sign that is likely to draw one's attention) under the part which details the answer that is being sought.

Example : Four dog walkers in Hyde Park are walking five dogs each. Each dog has three toys. If half of half of the toys are squeaky, then how many toys are non squeaky?

Unfortunately, I cannot find an option for a squiggly underline, hence the red colour.

Now look at the question. The relevant bits stand out. It should prompt one to proceed in the desired direction.

Hope this helps.
Tagore

Good for home learning but would'nt recommend underlining & circling for the real exam due to time constraints.

CEM is approx 30 secs per Q. But questions are not difficult either.
Superselective - harder questions but approx 45 sec - 1 mins per Q.

Best option is - get it right first time and then revise hard.

Thank you everyone for taking the trouble to reply. I wasn't really looking for shortcuts, Parent 2013, just strategies for reducing errors. You've all made some very helpful suggestions and I shall try to implement them in the coming days.

You could always try the politically incorrect "RTBQ" method....read the b****y question!!!

kenyancowgirl wrote:You could always try the politically incorrect "RTBQ" method....read the b****y question!!!

I was looking to try something new