11+ revision strategy

[SuperDad3g]

Hi All! I trust everyone had a relaxing summer holiday! Wishing all those parents whose children will be writing the 11+ exam in next few weeks all the best in advance!

With the 11+ exams fast approaching, I thought I'd ask for some advice and recommendations for the best material to use for revising for the 11+ exams in these remaining few weeks! Those parents who have been through the 11+ exam process: what revision material have you found most useful in the last few weeks of your child's prep? Any specific books or cards or other tools you've found helpful in your child's final prep? Please kindly share here or feel free to PM me?

I've recently noted that CGP are selling GL and CEM 11+ "Practice Question Cards" for Maths, English / VR and NVR. I've read the reviews on Amazon, and they are largely from "Vine customers": I'm not quite sure how objective these reviews are, as most of the reviewers don't seem to be 11+ parents? Can anyone please advise if they have used these cards or any other cards, and whether or not they found them useful? I've also noted a few other suppliers also selling 11+ / KS2 revision cards, and I'm not sure how useful they are. I guess the market is quite flooded and frankly quite confusing for some of us inexperienced folks!

Many thanks in advance for your help and advice!

[Octsmum]

Hi

If I remember back to when we did it at this point we were just keeping things low key & ticking over....so in the holidays we did some mocks (2 papers back to back short break in between) & gone over any trouble spots. I think we did a short 10 minute tests varying the content each time every few days. I don't think we did anything very much at all when we went back to school other than usual school work & reading.

Didn't bother with any revision cards just practice questions!

Good luck to you all.

[SuperDad3g]

Hi Octsmum. Thanks for your advice. Very helpful.

[reach4thesky]

Agree with Octsmum. Good to do practice papers now and go through exam techniques such as not dwelling on a single question for long, move on and revisit later if time permits and not to forget to guess the unanswered questions when its time up.

[loobylou]

By this stage dd was fed up and so wanted it all to be over. In the last 10 days or so I just gave her a practice paper every couple of days and asked her to pick out the ones she wasn't 100% confident with and have a go at those. She was pretty self-aware and did it properly. It worked for us because she was so bored of doing the same old questions, some of which she knew how to do easily.

[Deb70]

At this stage I would be just going over timing and strategy, making sure children know what to expect on the day. Other than that, just let them rest and try to keep things normal.

[SuperDad3g]

All - Thanks for taking the time to share your advice. Very helpful. Much appreciated.

[Octsmum]

At this stage I would be just going over timing and strategy, making sure children know what to expect on the day. Other than that, just let them rest and try to keep things normal.

I think making sure they know what to expect on the day is important too. We talked / made a plan on how we were getting to the test centre, where we would park, walk to school, that she would go in, be in a classroom, listen to recorded instructions, have a break part way through, go to the loo, about the fact there would be lots of other unfamiliar children, that some might get upset, that she should just try & focus on her work, that we would be there when she came out.....just like I do when we're going for a medical appointment / something she's not familiar with....

You know your DC best - do what works for them! Good luck to you all.

[Deb70]

Oh yes, it is VERY important that they go for a wee in the break,even if they don't need one. It's hard to concentrate if they then need to go and if they were to go during the test they would run out of time!!

[kenyancowgirl]

...although (a few years ago now), both of mine did go for a wee during their tests...but fortunately still managed to score well enough....