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St Olave's- Testing 2011

Posted: Fri Jan 14, 2011 11:34 am
by layla22
I thought I would start a new thread for all those parents whose DS' are preparing for the exam this Nov. 2011. Perhaps we could share strategies. My DS has been going along at a moderate pace now with S& Sims and Bond books. We are also preparing for Bex and Kent tests. Currently he is on the 10- 11+ Bond books and S& Sims MA Book 5. Not too sure if he is ready for past papers yet. The real sticking point at the moment- the usual thing for a lot of boys- essay writing and comprehension. I bought the Bond "How to do Comp...". Whilst it's very good, DS did find the comp. quite tough- "The Lion, The Witch.... "Anyway we thought we would continue with the Bond comp 10-11+ practice books.
Does anyone have anymore thoughts?

Re: St Olave's- Testing 2011

Posted: Mon Jan 17, 2011 11:47 am
by malibu
Hi Layla, we are also preparing for St Olaves, Bex and Kent exams; but am worried that we are going a bit too slowly. We are still on the Bond Books 9-10; but I'm using them as a teaching tool... so I'm sitting next to him, and helping with topics he doesn't fully understand, or hasn't been taught at school. Yes, DS is finding comprehension and composition difficult too. I've bought the S&S MA books too - but we haven't been using them much. Are you finding them helpful? We also plan to use past SATs English papers to help with comprehension. Don't want to start using past 11+ Papers until May or so...

You seem far ahead of us, I'm starting to panic :mrgreen:

Re: St Olave's- Testing 2011

Posted: Thu Jan 27, 2011 6:00 pm
by shahinoor
When do you have to start registering your child for the tests for both St Olvaes and bexley schools?

We have so far in the middle bond Maths 10-11 and VR 10-11 but way behind on English (Although bexley doesn't seem to require this). also brough NFER exam papers which seem really good

Re: St Olave's- Testing 2011

Posted: Sat Feb 05, 2011 9:10 pm
by dunemigrating
Just out of interest, do any of your boys do much comprehension or essay writing at school? I just wondered

Re: St Olave's- Testing 2011

Posted: Sat Feb 05, 2011 11:45 pm
by malibu
My DS doesn't seem to do any essay writing at school at all and only does comprehension during SATS :shock:

Re: St Olave's- Testing 2011

Posted: Mon Feb 07, 2011 2:04 pm
by shahinoor
We also need to work on essay and comprehension;
Trying to use Collins English as a starter and plenty of reading

Re: St Olave's- Testing 2011

Posted: Tue Feb 08, 2011 5:08 pm
by layla22
Hi Everyone,
Sorry I have been away from the forum for a while- Can't imagine why?!
I have been using the S&S MA books for quite a while as I did for my daughter. What I found is that it pulled both their maths up in the class. I found it good to have running in the background, whilst the Bond Maths is good for making sure all topics are covered. He has just started doing SATs maths papers. He has done ok, but I do believe they are much easier than the actual 11+ papers.
As for English comp I am trying to find some Eng comp MCQ that are not as challenging as the Bond Eng. Remember that St Olave's English comp is MCQ and there won't be all that writing to do, you know "if this question is worth 2 points you have to find 2 clues from the text...etc"I know my son finds these exceedingly hard. I have the Collins Eng. which is very useful for the writing part of the test as it has lots of help with the different type of texts, eg. persuasive writing.
At school eng comp seems to be done when there is testing going on and essay writing seems to drawn out and not within a certain time limit. It's a shame I think our children could really benefit from this.
Shahinoor- registering for Bexley exams is in June /July this year. If your son goes to a Bexley school they will inform you. St Olave's- around Sept/ Oct time , just before the exam.

Re: St Olave's- Testing 2011

Posted: Wed Feb 09, 2011 4:44 pm
by dunemigrating
I agree with you Layla22, I think comprehension and story writing /essays should be done much more in schools. It's a good stepping stone to senior school and it gets children, especially boys, in practice. I'm not goin for St Olaves as I don't think my son is up to it, but I wish you all luck with the English paper anyway.

Re: St Olave's- Testing 2011

Posted: Fri Feb 11, 2011 5:39 pm
by malibu
Yes, I'm worried about the writing part of the test too. Layla22 and shahinoor, you both mentioned Collins English - are you able to provide the ISBN number of the book? Not sure if that's against forum rules...

Re: St Olave's- Testing 2011

Posted: Tue Feb 15, 2011 6:30 pm
by layla22
Collins KS2 English- Revise and Shine ISBN 000717599X and also S&S English KS2 revision guide is good.BA is also very good although a bit hard to plod through. I guess if you pick out bits and do them in small bites it maybe easier on the DS!!