Hi apologies but i have been very confused about 11 plus for a very long time.My son is currently attending 11 plus course at explore learning but hasnt been to any other specific 11 plus tutor.Is it too late for him to start the 11 plus journey ? i want to register for slough and sutton school.We are in woking surrey at the moment and these 2 are the closest options for us.Please can any 1 guide me if i should be hopeful ...my son is good at maths but obviously havent been rigorously trained in the 11 plus style.What should i do give up or try harder?Any advice TIA

Hi
Hope you take this in the spirit it's intended and don't be discouraged.
I've known a lot of pupils to undertake study for the exam in 3 months and I don't know a single one that got into the school of choice. That's not to say they 'failed' but just didn't score high enough. One DS did but declined the offer of going to any of the Southend schools as he didn't want the to travel that far.

If you're asking me honestly, I'd say yes but it's not my decision. Factors, I'd consider if it were my child: Could they cope with a demanding workload? Remember many children have been preparing for a year or more. Doesn't mean they are capable but they have a distinct advantage. Does your child really want to go to a grammar? What other school options have you considered? What about the 'disappointment' of not getting a place? Can they cope with not getting a place? Studying is based on a long term plan and a 3 month accelerated 'cram' rarely works IMO.
On the plus side,If he has been studying already for a while then you'll have an idea of the syllabus. I've no idea about Explore but if they have done their homework then there may be some skills he's already practised.

It's a big decision but don't get too stressed about it.

Ultimately it would be your decision, but I would like you to consider few things when you take the decision

- You said that your DS goes to a tuition centre for 11+, so you or him are not exactly new to this journey.
- There is no fixed time period one should prepare for 11+. Some do it for few years starting from year3 and some do it only in the summer break after year 5 and most people do it for something in between. You cannot really say that the first set are always successful (success being getting a place in the desired school) and the second set are never successful.
- Are you and your DS ready to start the journey even if the end result may not be what you desire. Can you manage the disappointment in that case? This probably would be the most worrying impact.

My personal suggestion to many parents is to give it a go without getting too much attached to the end result. As long as you can manage the disappointment of not getting a favourable result, you are not going to loose anything by preparing. Learning is learning after all.

You may as well give it a go! We did all our prep in the month before the exam. Not ideal, but we were new to the area so it had to be last minute. This forum was very helpful for guiding me which materials were relevant to the (Kent) test. My son did about 2 hours work first thing for about 15 days of the holidays. We identified unfamiliar areas using the practise tests suggested for our area, then targeted these areas with him. He was motivated by the promise of a big treat after taking the test, rather than for the result. There was no stress because we didn’t have a particular school in mind, we just wanted to keep his options open. It worked well for him because he achieved a high mark, and when we looked round the schools he absolutely loved one of the super-selectives and is now very excited about starting there in September. If he had not passed the test then he would still have benefitted from the extra maths and English (probably not from the VR and NVR) and would have been pleased to have earned his treat from us for having worked hard.

You may as well give it a try.

We didn't have tutoring for my Ds, we did a vr workbook to familiarise him with vr and went through past English papers, spoke about how both past papers had a certain type of questions which was easy to complete and worth the same as the question where he had to write a page of work...so it would be worth making sure he did the easy one for the easy marks.

So in all he did the vr book, 2 past papers in English and a past vr paper.

He passed the exam and is off to GS in sept, so it can be done with little preparation.

That’s great news.

Although you didn’t pay a tutor and did the work yourself that’s still ‘tutoring.’

I was very lax with tutoring my daughter. All self done and mainly spent time doing exam practice, the knowledge should be already there from schooling if he's one of the exceptionally bright ones and gets extension work.

She passed easily.

Stress not. Focus on exam practice and if he doesn't pass never mind

3 months of familiarization with papers/format and time management - yes, of course.

3 months of tutoring, introducing extensive vocab and new math problems - no, and it would be cruel to do so over the summer.

I would add familiarization with the maths topics not quite secure in, rather than 'new' topics.