Practice Paper one day before

[Manny0311]

Hello
Just seeing what thoughts are on doing a paper the evening before the real thing?
DS is keen on doing this

[bravado]

First of all good luck to your DS for the up-coming test.

Secondly, there are probably as many thoughts, opinions, approaches and plans of attack, as there are children. My thoughts on it are based upon my experience with two completely different learning types as far as children are concerned ie the self-motivator who loves work and the self-motivator who needs a gentle prod

I'd say that only you know your son. What you have to be careful of, is that he doesn't dip, confidence-wise, so close to the real thing. Is he wanting to do it for himself and even if it is, is it out of a sense of panic, ie I'm not confident in my abilities or out of a sense of let's keep up the momentum cos I love it? Either way, I 'd probably chose which paper he does, with some care ie have a look and assess whether it's a little too challenging and therefore a risk, as far as his results are concerned. You could always let him sit it and then neither you, nor he look at it, in terms of marks, or results. If you have some 10 minute tests, then perhaps he could do those, rather than a full 50 minute paper (if that's what your son sits on the day)

My DD asked me if she could do tests the day before and I only let her do 10 minute tests. I trusted that she was asking because she wanted to and not out of a sense of panic. She said it actually helped her to still do them that close to the test itself, calming the nerves. We didn't do anything after she came home from school that day - we wanted her to have a rest, mentally and emotionally - not that it was possible, in reality but we tried.

I've asked if, with the benefit of hindsight, she felt it was the right move to do this and she's said yes.

All I'd say is, play it by ear. Life's a gamble, isn't it and the 11+ is full of dilemmas?

[Manny0311]

Bravado

First of all thank you for your kind words and wishing us all the best. I too was thinking more along the 10 min tests. I still have some IPS short tests left over.

[bravado]

Manny0311

You're very welcome

IPS are perfect - not too hard, not too easy

[Manny0311]

Lets hope the real papers are the same standard !

[dlb]

Good Luck! I kept my child off school day before GS entrance exams. Rest at home and just went through some vocab that always comes up and some NVR techniques! Quiet day and early night!

[secondtime]

As already said, only you know your child.

The first week of our tests I did not send my DD swimming on the Friday eve before as it does not finish in the pool until 9pm and is a challenging set.
However, by the second week/paper, I decided it was best to stick to our normal routine and she swam as normal.

One Mum did say to me - we did 3 papers last night and she struggled with them all - not the best approach!

If your child is keen, let them do one but choose carefully as already said.

Good Luck (or "good skill" as I joked with my DD).

[mattsurf]

On the Thursday before the exam (on Saturday) DS did 3 papers and did not do too well on them. However, on Friday DS did 3 more papers, but with support and encouragement from me rather than doing them under exam conditions. He did really well (best papers he ever did). On the day of the exam DS felt really good and said that he did really well. I think that we because he had done well the day before.

It really depends on your child - We definately made a mistake doing a test under exam conditions on Thursday, however, doing a "supported" test worked really well. I recommend taking this approach, focus on exam technique, and make it fun.

[Stocky]

Having put 2 (different) DC's through this 2 years running, I concur with all previous advice, go with your instinct and only follow the advice of others if you see similarities with your own DC. You know them and the situation better than anyone, so take the advice bits applicable to you. DD only had 5 weeks to prep for the 11 plus and never delivered less than 90% on a paper, she did what I thought was her last paper on the thursday before the test saturday, her confidence was sky high, I certainly was not going to give her a paper the day before to have a disaster (i'm sure it wouldn't have happened but we were in a good place, don't try and fix what isn't broke!!), but as mattsurf says, we chatted about do's and don'ts on the day. She passed spectacularly. DS, different character, aside of being just 10 sitting the test (DD was 10yrs 11m), can he do it absolutely, will he who knows, find out soon. But I saw with him the negative effect of scoring badly and the positive effect of scoring well and we have had a rollercoaster few months. But that wasn't down to ability, more, areas needing more attention, nonetheless, a bad score for him leaves us with a lot of work to do emotionally. In the 6 weeks prior to both tests he never 'failed' a paper, sometimes close, sometimes not, but that left him firmly believing he can do this, so Thursday was the final day for me, he matched his highest score, there was no way I would send him into an exam on a higher note than that (if we'd had a bad score, may be I would say differently as happened with mattsurf and the need for DS to do 3 papers the day before, but that gave him the reassurance they both needed), DS went in and came out believing. The friday before both tests, we looked at 1 paper together but only carefully selected questions based on where he was dropping his marks and just to reassure. My advice is, the day before, focus and enhance what you have and don't do anything that could send you several steps back - only you can call that one. Or do absolutely nothing and draw your cut off point, several days before and only overrun it if your gut feel is to.

[mattsurf]

I think that the best advice is to make sure that you leave practice on a high in the week before the exam

Fingers and toes crossed, as results will be posted on Friday