For those of us who can’t afford expensive tutors in the ever growing 11+ industry, would like to hear from other parents (both with Year 5 children and those who’ve already been through the process), what’s the best cost effective strategy to ensure that when Year 6 starts in September child is ready for their exam (neither rusty nor exhausted from too much prep)! Any thoughts, please kindly share here. Alternatively, please feel free to PM me. Thanks in advance

Great question - I am just going to do some of the CGP 10 minutes tests and spend some time on areas which my DS is weaker on (punctuation).

Hi. My child sat the exam last year. I bought some exam papers online during the summer, that followed the exact format of the real test, and they were the most useful things we did.
Make sure child knows
* What the order of the tests is
* What sections are in each test
* How long each section is and how many questions, hence roughly how long to spend on each question
* The invigilators in my child's exam did not write the start and finish times up on a board, just told them how long the section was and when there were 5 minutes left. In this case it's a good idea for the child to make their own note of start/finish times so they can keep an eye on time
* VR : if there are several question types within a section that can be answered in any order, leave tricky ones until last
*NVR : it's virtually impossible to answer 10 in five minutes. My child marked "D" for numbers 7-10 then attempted 1-6 spending just under a minute on each. This avoided brain scramble of trying to work out answer in 30 seconds, and for a couple of sections he was able to rub out the "D"s and work out the answer.
* Make sure child knows there will be other children talking about all the work they've done, but not to be worriedabout this - bragging doesn't equal passing. Stay focussed and don't worry.

Good luck to all parents coming up to eleven plus.

Did your child pass Deb70?

Personally, I think it is risky to be so prescriptive about the format of the test in advance. Far better to teach your child to listen carefully to the instructions given, and any on the test paper and to ask if they do not understand them. CEM particularly are known for mixing things up with no notice and a child that has been so rehearsed is likely to get in a tizz if they are then faced with something different.

‘Expect the unexpected’ is a good motto for CEM I believe.

Does the OP say their exam is CEM?
I am referring in my post to GL. If you have seen other posts of mine you will know that my child did not pass but qualified via selection review. My elder child passed CEM. So I speak from very bitter experience....
Yes, CEM try to be unpredictable so my strategy would be to make sure child is good at maths and English, knows vocab and so on. But I would say GL is very prescriptive and children do need to actually be coached in exactly what to expect. My child (GL) could do the questions with ease, it was all the rest of it (timing, technique, nerves etc) that was the problem. If I was putting another child through a GL test I would really concentrate on those things over the summer. By the way, the exam provider will give the information about order of tests, timing etc in your info before the test.

Not on this thread but the OP has mentioned CEM on other threads.

Aha. I'm not glued to this forum any more so haven't noticed the CEM in the other threads. But those are my thoughts/experiences for what they are worth. I wish someone had said that to me last year!!

Firstly relax. If they're relaxed they'll do better

Secondly at this late stage practice papers are what you should be focusing on. One a week, one every 2 weeks and patch up the knowledge gaps in between

But mainly relax

Thanks Proudmumregardless. I agree. Relaxing is important.