11 Plus Exams Forum

Hi Parents,
Any parent whose DC cleared the sutton grammer school exam , can guide as how they did the preparation and how much hard work is needed to clear the exam
Thanks.

I think this very much depends on your child and the standard of teaching in his current school. My DS is in year 8 at SG. He is bright but was not willing to spend more than one and a half to two hours at weekend starting in January year 5. Luckily his school did enough maths and English however not much verbal reasoning. he used get lots of homework in those two subjects which I felt was was preparing him sufficiently for the GS.I personally don't believe in private tutors .

Hi Makkar
My DS is in SGS Y7. He sat the old style tests that still included verbal and non-verbal reasoning. He practiced through Y5 taking part into a small tutor group. We felt that his tutor helped him with reasoning as well as with his essay writing. His school didn't do enough creative writing so some extra practise was needed there. We also made sure that he read a lot of books and not just adventure stories. Luckily he likes reading!

I think, like victoria123, that it depends on your child and the primary school they go to. I think the tutor kept the routine going and helped with exam techniques. He stopped going to the tutor quite early on in the summer and during the holidays he read a pile of books, wrote an essay a week and did some practise papers. Nothing overwhelming.

I hope this helps

Hi Ellamum , Thanks a lot for explaining it so well . Could u please explain how reading books help in preparation?

Makkar I can't believe you are asking that question! Reading books is an activity that every child should be doing every day. For enjoyment! But from an educational perspective...reading books increases a child's vocabulary and helps them to learn about creative writing by example. Make sure you read the same texts as your child and ask them lots of questions about the story or information. Don't just ask straightforward factual questions - ask them to think about the characters' feelings, for example, and get your child to deduce facts or ideas from the text or speculate about what might happen next. This will help with comprehension.

Hi Makkar

Like Peridot said, reading is one of the most important things you can do in preparation to the entrance tests. Especially now when all the reasoning has been removed from Sutton grammar schools and English plays even more important role. Reading a variety of books will help with spelling, punctuation, grammar, vocabulary, sentence structures, comprehension, creative writing...just to mention few.

Helps with Maths too! Problem solving for example can be tricky if it's a 2 or 3 step question. Reading helps one to understand the question.

zeinab wrote:Helps with Maths too! Problem solving for example can be tricky if it's a 2 or 3 step question. Reading helps one to understand the question.

Yeah. That's right. Maybe The Hobbit would be a suitable read for maths questions?