11 Plus Exams Forum

Hi Ginx
Very best wishes with your endeavours. I think it is probably natural to panic at this stage.
I am still dithering about using practice books or papers. The paper was really useful as I did n't know she was struggling on the opposites questions and can concentrate on those. I might go back to the books for a couple of days though to help her with her problem solving technique.
very best wishes

Hi Goldengirl

I am still panicking. I read somewhere on here some children are doing 5 papers a day, we're lucky to do one and go through it afterwards. My husband and I feel going through a paper is best but our dd has had enough!
I am going to try and make her do another paper this afternoon. I am beginning to resort to bribery. We will try and alternate papers and books, I don't know whether it's best to work till the end or have a break.
Good luck to your dd! I am at least confident that my daughter will do well wherever she goes - it is just a matter of overcoming shyness and going to a new school. It is unfortunate for us that she preferred the grammar school and believes her friends will all go there (unlikely).
Good luck.

I get my DS to do a paper every other day now - and the days inbetween he is going through the errors from the prev test so thats 10 mins - he has had enough and says he is not even trying (which i dont mind as we go through the errors next day and he knows the answers) hes gettting mid 80s so I hope he gets more if he was trying I think at this stage its a case of just keeping it refreshed and repeating it but I cant see anyone doing 5 full tests a day - blimey thats all day everyday, I thought I was strict
Only 2 weeks left for us and to be honest Im sick of doing it too...roll on 18th October for results

Five papers a day? What a load of rubbish. Such a workload is completely counter-productive and unrealistic. People shouldn't believe all they read and hear.

I don't really believe anybody could do five papers a day ... surely not ...

On the Forums section of Bond online - posted just under 3 weeks ago

My son has his grammar test in just over 5 weeks. He is achieving between 70 and 80% and is doing about 5 papers a day. What is the pass mark needed to be in a good chance of passing his 11 plus test. He is sitting in birmingham

IMHO, more than two papers a day is not much beneficial. But parents know their children better. Some may have energy and drive to do more papers.

We now do two papers in one sitting, four days a week, with 10 -15 minutes break in between. Often find lower scores in the 2nd paper, which suggest element of fatigue and loss of concentration setting in.

I too would doubt that the five papers a day claim. A paper takes about 50 mins isn't it, so even if they're leaving just ten minute breathers in between that'll take nearly 5 hours of the day. If they're also stopping for meals, toilet breaks etc. that'll be most of their waking hours. That isn't preparation it's slave labour! More likely it's five Bond 10-minute tests a day .

I think if your dc was only scoring70-80 after doing 5 tests a day then something is not working think they would definitely be showing fatigue. It's so hard to gauge what's right but I'm sure we can all see the finishing post and just want to pass it.

Absurd..

I believe in regular/frequent practice but 5 a day is ridiculous..

What works for us is doing a paper every other day and at this time I am concentrating on the Walsh papers (Bucks)

In between the days, concentrate on the errors and practicing/learning the vocab - similar/opposites/closest in meaning

Works perfectly