11 Plus Exams Forum

My son who is currently in year 7 was tutored as part of a group (usually around 8 tutees). The usual procedure was for the kids to attempt a paper in the allocated time and then the tutor would read out the answers and the papers were marked by the person sitting next to you. Any incorrect answers would need to be re-attempted as homework. This would then be marked by the tutor the following week whilst the kids were doing their test. If the answer was still incorrect, that was it. The correct answer was never written in the book and no attempt was made to explain the correct answer.

I was not very happy with the tutor so I have decided to tutor DD myself this year.

My question is: should I explain why an answer is incorrect or should I let DD try and work it out for herself. I think that I should show her why she has got something wrong.

Dear Boletw

The tutor is babysitting while the child takes a test, thats not teaching, thats money for old rope and quite frankly disgraceful.

Yes you should explain where your child has gone wrong, is it a silly mistake, is it some unknown vocabulary, is it to do with using the wrong technique.

I leave tests to be completed for homework, when I arrive for the next session, I mark their homework while they are completing a 10 x 10 times table grid. I dangle a carrot, if they can finish before I have marked all the homework, I buy them a bar of chocolate of their choice. It takes them a few months to beat me, but eventually they manage it. 10 x 10 in about 3/4 minutes. I then reward them by including the 15 and then the 13 times tables...

The rest of my time with the child is then spent going through any errors on the test, discussing where they have gone wrong, followed by them completing sections at a time from various papers. Eventually I will time them for a section, giving then say 5 minutes for 7 long codes [type C] or 2 minutes for a section of short codes [type U] We will discuss words and techniques as we progress.

There is plenty of information on the website to DIY, with an abundance of members all eager to help you on your journey.

What part of the country are you from?

Patricia

Thanks Patricia.

My daughter will be trying for Tiffin. She is currently in Year 5 and I am slowly introducing her to the different question types. I have decided to spend about 15 – 20 minutes every day rather than having one big session and concentrating on no more than two types of questions at a time. She enjoys working through the questions. At the moment, I make her say out loud the method she is using so I can make sure she is tackling them in the correct way. Unfortunately, it is her vocabulary that is letting her down but we’ve got 12 months to work on this.

p.s. my son’s tutor had ten classes of 8 children at £30 a go. That’s a lotta money! She used badly photocopied papers that looked like they’d been set in the seventies. (and not multiple choice !)

boltew wrote:
p.s. my son’s tutor had ten classes of 8 children at £30 a go. That’s a lotta money! She used badly photocopied papers that looked like they’d been set in the seventies. (and not multiple choice !)

Dear Boltew

Tiffin use the same 21 types as Bucks.

Papers that are relevant: IPS, The Tutors, Madeliene Guyon [learning Lab] Walsh and Susan Daughtrey [only the packs of 4 tests, formerly known as Bright Spaks]

I introduce about 4 at a time, split into codes, maths, vocab, more vocab etc.
I leave a made up test for each session. Moving onto IPS short 50 question papers, then onto full 80 question tests.

Patricia

Like Patricia I am appalled at the way some tutors work.

How can the children improve if they don;t know which areas are weak points.

As there is no regulatory body for tutors it is difficult to ''out' them.

Like you, first time round I left it to the tutor, but this time I supplemented what she did. Our tutor (small groups, a fiver an hour, excellent) did not like the children getting "mummy's help" at home with the work she set. Quite right, too, since it warped her idea of their progress. And she gave mainly comprehension homework (this for VR tests) because of the vocab and the patience and the understanding. Question types were worked on in the lessons and full papers introduced towards the end - summer holidays probably at the end of Y5.

So I introduced the odd other paper (the kind I knew she didn't use so as not to clash or give him a false leg up). I timed him in sections so I could break down his aptitude. This was valuable for him, too, he could be proud that he was doing so well in the vocab based ones and taking between 10 and 15 seconds per question and also found it salutory to see the Z type and the 3 codes/4 words taking so very much longer. True he'd bought time for them by whizzing through the vocab ones but laurels are not to be rested on!

I would talk through the corrections with him, rather than leave him to tackle them on his own; to be honest there weren't often many and this way suited us - by then he'd "done" it and was a bit bored and, like eating cold soup, the paper was never quite as appealing second time round. He'd argue, I mean "reason", , but take eventual notice once confronted with the authority of the answer sheet. I was able to have control over his progress, work on the sections which were slow / accrued poorer marks and be absolutely focused.

For vocab try Stephen Curran (??) or Schonell - I don't know the latter but my son did a few crosswords in one of the former, the sort of thing he likes doing. You've got plenty of time, remember!