Feel like I've made a terrible mistake

Advice on 11 Plus NVR papers and problems

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Automaton
Posts: 19
Joined: Mon Sep 08, 2014 10:35 am

Feel like I've made a terrible mistake

Post by Automaton »

DS has his 11+ papers tomorrow and Friday. We've been practicing with the Bond exams and the odd paper from other publishers. The real papers are published by GL, and he has done some GL papers with varied success, but as there's a lot of Bond material available and very few GL VR / NVR papers, we've concentrated largely on Bond.

He came out of his NVR familiarisation paper last week having been unable to finish and feeling pretty down, so we did a couple of Bond NVR papers, for which he achieved 99% and 100%. Yesterday, I picked a GL NVR paper at random, without reading the related threads and gave him the seemingly infamous Pack 1 Paper 1. The result: 65%, he was devastated and now thinks he's going to fail. I now know GL have had letters about this paper before and that it was written something like 20 years ago. I'm gutted, I just wish I'd read the threads on this site sooner :(
Daogroupie
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Joined: Wed Mar 04, 2009 3:01 pm
Location: Herts

Re: Feel like I've made a terrible mistake

Post by Daogroupie »

Were you planning to do all the GL papers at the end and did not get round to it? I don't understand why you would do Bond papers instead of GL papers when there are GL papers available and lots of GL format papers also available such as FPP and CGP and your exam is GL, not Bond. Why did you wait until yesterday to start doing GL format papers? My advice would be to order in his favourite food and work your way through as many GL papers as you can together starting straight after school. When is his exam? If it is PM keep him off school and do more. In my opinion Bond is for areas where 30% of students get places and they are just not hard enough for selective schools in areas where there is high demand and low supply. There is so much material available that is so much better than Bond. I have never and will never use it with the very notable exception of their CEM papers which remarkably are suitably hard. Good luck, keep a clear head and do the papers together so you can help him as you go along. Do not leave him to do them on his own as he is already at a low ebb and that will make it worse. You are not alone, at least you realised with a bit of time to spare. Some parents only find out when their students comes out of the exam having been unable to finish. I do hope you can make some progress. DG
Automaton
Posts: 19
Joined: Mon Sep 08, 2014 10:35 am

Re: Feel like I've made a terrible mistake

Post by Automaton »

Hi DG,

We didn't leave the GL stuff to the end, he's been working through the papers in no particular order and doing ok, we've concentrated more on VR recently, because NVR was looking very strong. The problem is that there are only 8 GL papers, and I didn't want to get through them all too early. I think my main mistake is that the last paper he's attempted was 2 days before his first real exam and was a disaster. I didn't realise that there were other GL style papers available that were any good. We've tried other publishers' multiple choice papers but found them too easy.

I'll take your advice though, we only have a couple of papers left that we haven't attempted, so we'll run through both of those tonight and hopefully give him a lift.
berks_mum
Posts: 939
Joined: Sat Dec 28, 2013 4:52 pm

Re: Feel like I've made a terrible mistake

Post by berks_mum »

Automaton,
If timing was not a problem you may want to give him other GL NVR paper (easier than paper1) to boost his confidence. Alternatively, with the time in hand you may want to work together with him to plug any learning gaps. Good luck to your DS.

(x posted)
Daogroupie
Posts: 11099
Joined: Wed Mar 04, 2009 3:01 pm
Location: Herts

Re: Feel like I've made a terrible mistake

Post by Daogroupie »

Did you try First Past the Post and CGP? Those are the main GL format papers. I am surprised you found papers that were easier than Bond but it is good news that you have done other GL papers. Hopefully there are some tricky questions causing problems that you can work through with him this evening and see if you can sort out some of the issues. Hope it goes well. DG
Automaton
Posts: 19
Joined: Mon Sep 08, 2014 10:35 am

Re: Feel like I've made a terrible mistake

Post by Automaton »

Thanks for the support - I was panicking a bit there and struggling to figure out the best approach. I walked through the awful paper 1 with him, and then he did paper 3 timed, but I sat with him as he did it. He got 97% and finished every section ahead of time. How can there be such a huge discrepancy between papers in the same pack? I'm pretty sure this wasn't just a poor performance yesterday, and if it was, then better here than in the exam hall. So he's gone to bed feeling pretty confident, which is a huge turnaround. I feel completely drained, and I'm not the one taking the test :roll:
Ladymuck
Posts: 1240
Joined: Wed Jul 01, 2009 2:04 pm

Re: Feel like I've made a terrible mistake

Post by Ladymuck »

It may be useful to emphasise that he really could end up with a fiendishly difficult paper, but so will everyone else! He is competing against other children taking the same paper, and it isn't his absolute score that matters, but his score relative to everyone else. So U'd talk to him about the paper again, and how the standardisation works.

Good luck!
Automaton
Posts: 19
Joined: Mon Sep 08, 2014 10:35 am

Re: Feel like I've made a terrible mistake

Post by Automaton »

Thanks LM, we've been through the format, purpose, possibilities, etc. He's pretty well prepared, I just panicked when I saw Sunday's result. I guess everyone goes through the whole "what happens if s/he has a bad day?" thing. It's a lot of pressure for a 10 year old. It's a huge amount of pressure for a 40-something year old :lol:

Still, not much we can do now, except wait with everyone else...

Thanks again,
A
Daogroupie
Posts: 11099
Joined: Wed Mar 04, 2009 3:01 pm
Location: Herts

Re: Feel like I've made a terrible mistake

Post by Daogroupie »

It sounds like you used your remaining time very wisely. The 97% should have made him feel that he was ready to tackle the paper today. I always want the papers to be hard, easy papers make students over confident and they start to rush, making more silly mistakes. Hard papers either make them panic or slow down and really think. Do let us know who he gets on, we are all thinking of him. DG
doodles
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Joined: Tue Oct 27, 2009 9:19 pm

Re: Feel like I've made a terrible mistake

Post by doodles »

This will make you laugh Automaton.

As I tucked DS1 up after the first day of the 11+ he just happened to mention "Mr *** was very kind to me after the test" ; "Oh" I said "why was that?" "Cos I was crying in the first test" replied my DS :shock: and thus ensued many sleepless nights!!

He's now at yr11 at a SS grammar so hold on in there Automaton it'll all be over very soon!!
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