11 Plus Exams Forum

My dc will be staring y5 in September and I would like to home tutor him for 11 +. We will be trying for Latymer/Ilfort county. I have various books recommended on the forum, tests etc but i am struggling to devise a plan of action for the coming year. Would any of you advice/share/help me create a schedul for organising resources and how to work throughout the year. There is so many resourses that i am getting lost. I am hoping to sketch up a tuition schedule for the year that will clearly show which resources to use week by week, starting from easiest leaving the hardest towards the end, and will help me to share the amount of work equally between all the weeks, I wouldn't like to end up with too many resourses undone towards the end. Doing book by book until we finish all of them, or different way, practising various skills, eg comprehensions, maths drills, new vocab..? Please help, I am sure a good tutor has got this kind of plan. I'd be grateful if your suggestions name the resourses as well and how to work with them. I have bond tests, cgp, haydn, letts, ae tuition, s&s etc etc, but your suggestions can include anything, if i don't have any book, i can get it, no problem. I would really like to work through as many resourses as we can, to increase his exposure to new vocab, trying as mny things as possible, but i am simply lost.

Haydn Richards Junior English 4 and Peter Robson Maths 1 - 5 are very useful books.

I would make sure that he is really good with tables and mental arithmetic. Read lots and find outthe meanings of new words. Jigsaws and hidden object games help wuth NVR.

Make it fun, it does not have to be endless papers

Ditto Yoyo.

However do remember it is good to have variety of materials to practice with when you start doing papers as DC will be more prepared, variety is the spice of life . Therefore not a waste of money if you don't complete every paper or use up every resource. (As you can tell this is an area I struggle with - I hate waste )

Tolstoy wrote:Ditto Yoyo.

However do remember it is good to have variety of materials to practice with when you start doing papers as DC will be more prepared, variety is the spice of life . Therefore not a waste of money if you don't complete every paper or use up every resource. (As you can tell this is an area I struggle with - I hate waste )

Yes, I hate waste, too - but I am rather boggled by the amount of stuff you have purchased . I really hope it's because you have been panicked into doing it for some unnecessary reason (reading some posts on this forum, possibly???). How is your DS generally - hopefully an enquiring mind, enjoys working hard at school (after all, you're already getting that 'tuition' for free) and meeting / exceeding expectations? Without prompting, seeking out reading material ahead of his chronological age and understanding what he is reading (or at least, looking things up when he comes across something unfamiliar)? All these things are desirable attributes in a child who is going to do well in an academically-selective school, not just allow themselves to be coached into beating enough other kids in the test.

Personally - and yes, do have three grammar-school DC (even if one did get there by the 'pretty route') for whom we would never even have considered paying for tutoring - I would concur with making sure that he is solid in the basics and add in some 'real life' sources. If he enjoys, say, a particular sport, try reading a report /feature piece in a good quality newspaper - discuss what the writer is saying, what words s/he could have used instead to convey the same or the opposite meaning and so on.

Also check what's involved in the exams. I know nothing about Ilford County but Latymer doesn't have comprehension or creative writing but does have vocabulary tests. They use CEM papers so I guess it's worth making sure your books include some CAM style questions.

Toadmum I think you have hit the nail on the head. This site can panic people into buying too many resources. The problem is people are all keen to advise and have all done a variety of different things so where do you stop and draw a line. Also there is the added factor of the unknown to CEM.

Oh for the simplicity of purchasing a couple of VR books and ensuring competence with those 15 /21 types

And now we have to add in the must have modern accessory of a mock exam.

Don't get me wrong this site is a valuable resource with some very knowledgeable posters giving good advice but its hard to see the wood through the trees at times and I've been here a while. I do pity some of the new members.

loobylou wrote:Also check what's involved in the exams. I know nothing about Ilford County but Latymer doesn't have comprehension or creative writing but does have vocabulary tests. They use CEM papers so I guess it's worth making sure your books include some CAM style questions.

It's the same exam for ICHS / WCHS / Chelmsford County High School.

Remember that apart from the short sample / familiarisation papers on the schools' websites, no publications are actually anything to do with CEM itself - the actual question types could change radically from year to year, although the short, 'rapid fire' section format seems to be a constant.

Oh, and as for the 'necessity' of paying for a 'mock' exam 'to get him used to being in a room full of people if doesn't know' etc - you know your child best but is he really so unused to crowds, schools other than his own and so on? If you want to teach him not to panic, try taking him shopping at Westfield Stratford on a Saturday afternoon and let him find his way to you in John Lewis a couple of times. Great place for a restorative hot chocolate nearby as well .

Tolstoy wrote:Oh, and as for the 'necessity' of paying for a 'mock' exam 'to get him used to being in a room full of people if doesn't know' etc - you know your child best but is he really so unused to crowds, schools other than his own and so on? If you want to teach him not to panic, try taking him shopping at Westfield Stratford on a Saturday afternoon and let him find his way to you in John Lewis a couple of times. Great place for a restorative hot chocolate nearby as well .

HA HA That made me laugh. So true didn't consider mock exams for the first DS but even I felt the necessity this time round If you had posted this advice earlier i could have saved myself £50 and left him loose in the Trafford Centre on a Saturday afternoon.

I'd love to take credit for that excellent advice cleo but sadly the accolades belong to ToadMum.