11 Plus Exams Forum

While browsing for what is 13+ I got digressed and found this particular publication. Their books look expensive and you have to pay £££ for answer books as well. Has anyone used these books? Are they enough on their own? Do you need additional workbooks/practice books? Went on the CGP site and found it equally confusing. How do they compare against each other? i.e even if Galore park books cost more, if I don't have to buy a series of books(as in CGP) the total cost may end up being same.
Any advice highly appreciated.

ps. I am not looking for 13+ books(my dd will not do 13+) but something that can be used for regular ks2/ks3 national curriculum.

Beware - none of the books out there will have been updated to match the new National curriculum. I would wait or use online resources (free) which have already changed.

Guest55, thank you for your quick reply.

1) What exactly has changed in the national curriculum?
2) CGP says on their website that their books have been updated for the new curriculum (2014 onwards)
3) Galore park, I don't know if they confirm to national curriculum as they are mainly for Indies schools(if I understood correct).

For some reasons I am still in the old all-in-one textbook world. Many online resources seem to be more of a distraction/game than learning taking much more time/effort to learn a small concept. I would prefer a very direct approach.

There's too much to explain briefly ... I do wonder how publishers have had time to change their books! I must compare my old CGP book to the new one and see exactly how many pages are different ...

Secondary online resources are good e.g. Kangaroo maths (Kenny's pouch section); their schemes of work are already updated.

The boys grammar schools recommend books and resources that fit in best with their teaching, only now in year 9 where there is heavy emphasis on testing is ds1 using the cpg books and we bought two of those at a discounted price through the school at their request.

Personally I cannot see any benefit from trying to cover ks3 work with a year 6 child, or from supplementing the given school work and texts in year 7, they have two hours homework a night anyway.
Your support will be welcomed occasionally as they do their homework, in year 7 I have found bbc bitesize and languages on line invaluable to remind me how to do it.

I use galore park for homeschooling, I find it very useful as it has fun activities ( English ) You don't necessarily need to buy all the answer books, math for example is quite straightforward and you can buy galore park second hand off Amazon.

Galore Park are often used in prep schools and do prepare specifically for the CE exam. Indeed I think Galore Park has some direct link with the ISEB who write the Common Entrance papers, so it really depends on what type of 13+ exam you are sitting for. A few day schools write their own exams to be taken in Nov-Feb year 8, other schools pretest or otherwise makes offers in years 6 and 7 and then set a requirement for common entrance in the summer term of year 8. Galore Park is a good resource for these tests, but may be different from what a state school would be looking for.

Yes, to getting it second hand. Yes, you will either need a separate answer book or else work everything out. I also have a memory that some of the geometry needed separate sheets again, but I might be wrong.

They use Galore Park books at the prep school I work at. They are not linked to the National Curriculum as they are teaching to the ISEB CE at 13+ and so will not be updated to the changes. Indies can teach what they want and how they want and tend to teach towards the exams the children will take at 13 and can be very school specific.

I have used them as an extra resource for extra questions to use in an area that someone might need extra practice in, but I would look at buying them second hand if you can rather than new as other have also advised.

Thank you very much for all your posts. No, I am not planning any 13+ for my DD as Oh has made it clear that he will not send her to an Indie school. I just found this publication mentioned and saw a number of books on their websites(including 11+) so wondered if these books are of any use for state schools.

Lack of resources knowledge, no books, negligible amount of homework in primary made us put DD for 11+ tuition. I do not want to put her in any tuition again so I wanted to know some good publications which I can read myself so I can help her with any homework/schoolwork.

Thank you for the second hand suggestion. It will save ££££s.

Does this publication cover more/less/same as national curriculum or something completely different?