11 Plus Exams Forum

Is anyone out there panicking about their child taking over an hour to complete a VR practice paper? My DS has no sense of urgency and is taking on average an hour and 5 mins to complete a paper. With less than 3 months to go, I'm at my wits end. Are other parents experiencing the same problem and if so, what steps are you taking to address this?

Thanks

No real advice I'm afraid but just wanted you to know you're not alone! My DS is exactly the same. It's so frustrating - he can score well over 90% on a paper... but in 50 mins we're lucky if he can get 75% and sometimes it's less. The other day I timed him on one of the question types (If AB is to CD what is EF to?) and found he was taking about 1 1/2 minutes on them. His excuse was it was 6 letters apart! I asked him if it really took him over a minute to count 6? I kept timing him and eventually he realised he could do it in 25 seconds. I'm going to try doing that on some other question types, so might be worth trying it on your DS if you know which type(s) are slowing him down. I'm hoping that lots of practice, plus the pressure on the day will speed him up.

Tixy, same here.

I have similar issues with DS at times. To stop the general procrastination/looking out of the window/playing with the rubber I set the timer on my phone and put it in front of him. That seems to work.

I just hope on the day the focus will be there. I'm not aware of him not completing tests at school in the allotted time so I'm hoping the same will apply on 11+ test days

bondgirl wrote:ITo stop the general procrastination/looking out of the window/playing with the rubber I set the timer on my phone and put it in front of him. That seems to work.

I also do this so DD can see the seconds ticking away - it does seem to help

DS also finishes tests in school and even has time to go over answers...but to be honest, I think the 11+ is more demanding in terms of questions in the time given.

Nor did mine

Nor mine - scored 66% after the allowed time was up, but 92% on the complete paper when she (eventally!) finished it.

I found that as my DS did more practise papers, the quicker he got. The last couple of months before 11+ exams his speed improved as the questions became familiar. He was taking longer than the allotted time at the start but by the 11+ he finished all papers in all exams he took.

Three months is a huge amount of time. Both my DCs were having trouble finishing papers even in August and suddenly it all came together. Both finished with plenty of time to check answers in the real thing (and passed ).