Tutoring for computerised entrance tests

[Waiting_For_Godot]

I've posted this on the inde section but it may be relevant elsewhere. DS2 has two terms and a summer holiday before he starts to sit his senior school entrance tests. Two schools use a computerised test, which apparently cannot tutored for - I'm not sure this is wholly true. DS1 cannot recall any of the questions but his scores were exceptionally high which makes me think they must be maths or logic based as his other subjects are quite weak. DS2 is weak in maths and logic but strong in English and linguistics so I have concerns about the test.

I'm seeking advice on how I can tutor him effectively for this test. I only want to do some home tutoring once a week and as there are a myriad of books on the market I'm not sure what ones to purchase that will tailor his learning towards the computer test. Any advice?

Thanks!

[mike1880]

I imagine it's probably this one?

http://www.pipsproject.org/RenderPage.a ... D=31710000

There's a short demo here (link halfway down):

http://www.cemcentre.org/intu/entrance-assessment

Our son did it a couple of years ago but I got no useful feedback from him. At that time it was adaptive (i.e. the more questions the child got right, the harder the questions got and vice versa - in effect, every child got a unique test) but from the description I'm not sure if it still is. I looked for information at the time but found practically nothing and tbh I doubt you'll find very much now (unless there's some sort of underground clique of indie parents who know how to go about it... ).

Preparation would presumably be similar to that for a CEM written test - assuming you're doing this for an 11-yr old - so have a look under the B'ham and Warwickshire sections and in particular look for fm's posts. If you'd said he was weak on the English side I would have said the vocab CD from this site would be an absolute must, but I haven't tried the Maths resources so I can't comment.

I would say that the general sense among those who've seen the B'ham test in operation over a number of years is that it's a fairly reliable way of identifying the genuinely clever, as opposed to the methodical plodder or the heavily coached (leaving aside any discussion of the environment required to achieve the prerequisite literacy standards...).

Good luck,
Mike

[Waiting_For_Godot]

Thanks Mike, I will have a look into your suggestions. DS1 cannot remember the test at all. In fact we were told he would forget it the moment he had finished and they were right!