Sharing Our Experience in 11 Plus Journey
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Sharing Our Experience in 11 Plus Journey
Hi All,
Wishing you a very happy and prosperous New Year 2019! As we have done the 11 plus journey successfully for our elder son in September 2018, we have received several emails for wishes and request to share our experience. It is difficult to reply to each individual for details of our experience and I replied as I would share my experience on 11 plus exam forum.
First of all, we would like to thank you all forum moderators, contributors and members especially DG, Guest55, ToadMum, Tiffinboy etc for their advice, valuable contribution and information in this forum.
I decide to share details of my experience as only then you can see the whole picture of 11 plus journey in general. I would like to express there is not only one particular method or approach to achieve your goal and you need to adjust to suit with your different circumstances. I hope some of our experience might useful to you in one way or other.
Our family has an Asian background and we moved to the UK 16 years ago. Both my wife and I graduated in our native country, moved and have worked in the UK since 2003. We were first aware of grammar schools in 2006 when a daughter of one of our family’s friends from our country got a place and joined HBS. At that time, their family mentioned that their daughter did not have any tuition at all. They just did Bond, Collins and Scholastic Books from WH Smith. Their daughter was born in the UK and started from nursery in a UK primary school. She attended HBS up to her A levels. Her GCSE results were very good with 9A*s and 3As. But unfortunately she didn’t do well in her A levels as expected and got 1A and 2Bs only. She later joined SOAS and has now graduated and started working.
In 2007, a daughter of another of our family’s friends sat for Watford, Mill Hill and Slough Consortium Exams. She got good scores for all of them. Again she didn’t take any tuition and did Bond and CGP Books at home. As her brother was already in a comprehensive school, she preferred to go to the same comprehensive school, turned down grammar school, and joined her brother subsequently. She got 6A*and 5A in GCSE, 1A* and 2A in A levels and joined Imperial College. Now she has graduated and started working.
In 2008, my eldest son was born. In 2008, twin daughter of another family friend sat for HBS entrance. Unfortunately, they couldn’t get through. Their family moved to UK just 2 year ago and as per their parents, failure was due to weakness in English and they didn’t know how to prepare properly and didn’t take any tuition at all. Later, they joined a Local near-by Comprehensive School. In Year 8 onward, they took one to one private tuition. Both twins got very good GCSE score of 7A* and 3A each. With such a good result, they tried entrance exam for Private School and elder twin daughter got a place in St. Paul Private Girl with 100% scholarship and other younger twin got a place in another Private School with 100% scholarship. Both of them got 2A* and 1A in A level and younger twin sister studies Medicine in Cambridge and elder one studies Medicine in Cardiff.
In 2009, a son of my classmate in university got a place in King Edward VI Grammar School in Chelmsford. His mum coached him Maths and he took one to one English Tuition in Year 4 and Year 5. As per my friend, he didn’t take any more tuition throughout his studies in King Edward and got very impressive 3A* and 1A in A level and now studying Medicine in UCL.
In 2010 my younger son was born. In 2011, our family went on holiday to our country. At that time, my wife requested me to stay with her family back home and let both of children attend school in our country until younger one finish nursery. As we have no close relatives in UK and I knew that it was very stressful for my wife to cope with two young kids and it is opportunity for our kids to learn our language and culture, I agreed and let her live with her family for a while. In 2012, my elder one started nursery in our country. I went back alone to London and continue to work. During summer holiday, my wife and two kids came back to London. After summer holiday, they went back to our country and elder son continued Reception. They used to come back summary holiday until elder one finish Year 1 and younger one was at the age to join nursery and moved back permanently to UK in 2014.
In 2013, elder son of another family friend got a place in QE boy. He took group tuition in Year 4 and Year 5 for Maths, English, VR & NVR. He sat not only QE exam, but also Slough, Tiffin and Watford Entrance Exams. He got through all exams he sat. He got 243 in QE Exam. He joined QE and now studying in Year 11. As per their parent, he took only English tuition in Year 8. They are aware that some but not all of friends in his group took tuitions since Year 7 to Year 11. He is in top set in some subjects and in second top set in some of the subjects. Now (in Year 11) he is planning to take tuition from next February half-term onwards.
In 2014, my elder one joined Year 2 and younger one, Reception at one of State Primary School near our home in London. I am glad that both of them can speak our language very fluently as I know a lot of children of our family friend couldn’t speak our language very fluently. But I was worrying a bit that there might be some English language barrier for them in Primary School. Fortunately, they cope well and catch up soon and both of them are in top sets in their classes. In that year, we have only swimming for 3 days a week as extra activities. Down side on the other hand is that they are too addicted to screen time. This is because their uncle and aunties (my wife’s sisters and brothers) are university students and they use spend too much time on mobile, i-pad, and tablets and chatting. So the kids use to have bad habits from them when they stayed back in our country. This is the main problem most of family are facing now a day. At that time, I got and knew some information and stuff about 11+. At first I plan to coach them by myself for Maths and take only English Tuition from Year 4 onwards. In Year 2 there was no extra works at all.
In 2015, my elder one was in Year 3. In 2015, five children of our family friends took 11+ exams. One got QE with 250, another one missed QE with one mark and joined Latymer, third one got Upton Court and two of the other didn’t get through. All of them took group tuition for all 4 subjects, Maths, Eng, VR & NVR as they sat 4 to 5 Entrance exams each. Now all of them are in Year 9. One who joined QE continues to take tuition since Year 7. As per his parents, over 60% of his classmates are taking tuition in the hope to get a good grade. He is in top set in almost all subjects until now. One who joined Latymer did not take any tuition in Year 7 and Year 8. In Year 9 he starts taking Maths and English Tuition. He is in second top set in some of subjects and in third set in most of the subjects so far.
When my elder one was in year 3, I started collecting more detail information about Grammar School Entrance Requirement, Tuition Centres, and Study Materials etc. and prepared myself for how to coach my sons. I visited a lot of 11 plus websites mainly elevenplusexams and *****. I also watched 11plus clips from you tube and compiled useful information and stuff. Start from the beginning of year 3, I first tackled their screen time. I tried to engage them more in sport activities to cut down screen time. They did drama class, swimming, football, karate and piano of five activities, one for every week day. Although total cost of such all activities for both children are very expensive for us, it is paid off and their screen time is cut down significantly to acceptable level. I also introduced them paper board game like chess, draught, scrabble, word games, snake and ladders etc. I took them to local library once a week. My elder one like Roald Dahl Books and so I bought the whole Roald Dahl Series of 15 books from Books People. After that series, I encouraged him to read Michael Morpurgo series but he didn’t like it. After that he read Enrid Blyton’s Mystery Series and Diary of Wimpy Kids series.
In October 2015, I attended a usual teacher parent meeting. My elder son’s Year 3 class teacher is very good and active. In that meeting, she advised me start to train 11 plus books of Age 7-8. She coached her own son who was in year 4 at that time with Target Maths and CGP Grammar, Spelling & Punctuation Book (Age 8-9). She joined this school only last year. She picked a few able students in her class and encouraged their parents to train with 11 plus books of relevant age. Her son was studying in the other school, not in our school. After October half term, she gave one piece of writing in every two weeks as extra on the top of normal home work to these able children in top sets including my son. She marked and gave them advice how to improve as well.
As per her advice, we started Target Maths Year 3 and CGP Grammar Books (Age 7-8) in November 2015 onwards. In Target Maths, we started on B Section and only score was less than 80% in B section, we went back to Section A. If we got over 80% in Section B, we moved on to Section C. On that basis, we worked on 5 to 7 pages per week for Target Maths. A part from 2 or 3 topics, we did Section B & C only. For CGP Year 3 Grammar Book, we worked on 2 to 4 pages per week.
Summary of our programme in Year3 November onwards are as follow:
Weekday
4:00 pm – Back home from school
4:00 to 5:30 – Free play and Snack time (Chess, Word Games, Lego etc.)
5:30 to 6:30 or 7:00 – Activities Time (Drama, Karate, Swimming, Piano and Football – One each on every week day) – Karate and football classes are at local sport leisure centre. Swimming is at another leisure centre for 10 minutes by car and Drama and Piano classes are about 30 minutes car journey. They go with my wife for these activities as she is a full time house wife and quit the job after two kids were born.
I usually get back home from work around 6:45.
7:15pm – Back home from activities
7:15 to 7:45 – Family Dinner
7:45 to 9:30pm – School homework or 30 minutes reading; time table test occasionally
If school homework and 30 minutes reading time finish, they can watch Children
TV Programme or Cartoon until 9:15pm. In reading time they can read whatever
books they like. He usually gets school homework book on Thursday and Return
on Monday. Usually, Thursday and Friday is for school homework and Mon to
Wed is for reading.
9:15 – Preparation for Bedtime
9:30 – Bed Time
There is no computer, i-pad or game time on weekday
Saturday: Family day out
After breakfast, I go put to Park or Indoor Community Centre depends on weather. Children can play all sorts of sport activities in the play-ground. I stay with them for 1 to 2 hours and have family lunch in the park which we usually brought the packed lunch from home. If there is birthday party or some community function, we usually attend at the weekend. I usually leave after lunch and my wife look after kids and spend the evening in the park until 4:30.
Choosing Tuition Centre
At that time, I visit 11 plus tuition centre with family friends whose children are currently attending at that time. I try to meet with teachers and ask about their training procedure and results for past years. I also try to make friend with parents who are waiting for their children lesson at the centre and request them to speak to children if possible. If they permit, I ask their children about what they feel, what they learn at the tuition, how much home-work do they need to do per week etc. I also enquire their parents about their opinion. I went and visited 2 to 3 times to each centre to get overall view of the centre. During this year, I visited 10 tuition centres and 4 private tutors. All of the tuition centres only provide how many grammar school places secured by their students. But they couldn’t give me specific student names. When I asked whether these grammar places are counted as number of student for the school they finally join or not, they could not give me a definite answer. For example, my friend’s son who sat 5 or 6 exams, get through all and joined QE, whether they count as 1 for QE or 5 – 6 grammar school places for him. I got a vague answer. As per their reply, I think they counted 5-6 grammar school places as their student even if they pass the minimum score eligible to apply i.e. they count as a grammar school place if he score 210 in QE exam. Actually, he couldn’t secure a place in QE with 210. I also try to assess health and safety of class room, facility and style of teaching. Classes in some of the centre are not up to the standard of health and safety compliance. At one centre, there is no window in some of class rooms. Some of centres are dirty and not very clean. Some of centre have modernised facilities such as overhead projectors and reclining and adjustable chairs etc. But monthly tuition fees are expensive for my budget. Some of teachers are shouting too much at the students. Some of the tuition give quite a lot of home work per week need over 1 hr a day. Some of the centre can give you information about exam format and requirement for their targeting school and exam but some of them did not even know the specific exam format. Some of the centre need to attend all 4 subjects, Maths, English, VR and NVR since year 4 regardless of the exam student are targeting.
When assessing for the choice of the tuition, I take accounts the following factors as my requirement.
- Class room which are clean and have enough air flow (ventilation), enough natural light and comfortable chair (We don’t need reclining chairs)
- Passionate teacher who interested in teaching and not shouting too much at student and who know the subjects and exam format
- Can take only Maths and English at Year 4 (As I feel VR & NVR is not necessary to start at Year 4 as we can do practice book at home)
- Commute distance (within 45 minutes journey)
- Within my budget for tuition fee
- With a record of reasonable good result in past 11 plus exams
- With a reasonable amount of homework (My opinion – 2 hour of home work per week in Year 4 and 3 hr of home work per week in Year 5); not very excessive amount
Base on the above facts and after reading through pros and cons of one to one tuition, parent home tutoring and group tuitions from ***** website, I decide to choose a tuition centre (35 minute journey) to start at year 4 for Maths and English only.
When I coached my son inYear3, what I found out is that he followed the instruction of the teacher more seriously rather than the same instruction from me. For example, I explained and taught him step by step procedure how to calculate a Maths question. But he didn’t follow the step. He argued that he got the same answer at the end. I try to explain that step by step calculation is much better to get marks and to avoid silly and careless mistake. Unfortunately, he didn’t agree. But if the school teacher asked him to follow step by step, exactly same as me, he followed the instructions. So, even though I can teach him Maths very well at the 11 plus standard, I decide to provide him both Maths and English Group Tuition from Year 4. Another reason to choose group tuition is that it is cheaper and I feel he will be better off with peer competition in group tuition.
Target Schools
I read through admission criteria for QE, Slough, Mill Hill County, Latymer, DAO and CSSE from school websites, eleven plus exams websites, **** website and some tuition centre websites, I decided QE and Mill Hill as our target schools provisionally at that time due to commute distance and overall results and information we received.
Continuation on Saturday:
Around 4:30pm I come back to park or community centre, we packed up and go home.
5:00 – Get back home
5:00 to 6:00pm – Computer Screen Time for kids – they can play computer games
6:00 to 6:30pm – Tidy up and shower time for kids when we are preparing dinner
6:30 to 7:00 – Family dinner time
7:00 to 7:30 – They can watch TV when my wife and I are doing cleaning and washing dishes
7:30 to 9:00 – Study time – Target Maths and CGP Grammar; 5minutes break after 30 minutes study or 10 minute break after 45 minutes depend on topic. I usually sit with him, explain the topic and concept and do a few examples together. Then I let him do his worksheet by himself. When he is doing work sheet, I check his school homework which has been done on Thursday and Friday.
9:15 – Preparation for Bedtime
9:30 – Bed Time
Sunday:
9:30 to 11:00 – Study time, Target Maths, CGP Grammar Book, Time Table, Some Vocabulary Flash Card
11:00 to 12:00 – Golden Computer Time if he completes all of his target from last Mon to Sat
If he does not hit his target, there is no computer time for game, instead kids can
watch Children TV channels or play board games – chess, drought etc.
12:00 to 12:30 – Family Lunch
1:00 to 2:00pm – We visit a local library; they can return and borrow books.
2:30 to 6:00pm – We usually visit our community temple. Children can meet up and play with
family friend’s kids from our country in the backyard play field.
If there is birthday or other invitation, we usually go and visit to family friend’s
house during Sunday evening.
Even me and my wife do not like junk food, kids are too fond of McDonald or KFC and I agree them to have twice a month for treats of their choice if they behave. It is usually Sunday Dinner.
7:30pm – Get back home
7:30 to 8:30 – I usually go through with my son on the work sheets he has done and explain his mistakes if any. Then they need to tidy up, make ready school bag and bed time.
Half term: One day to Cinema, one day to Museum and one day to Play Ground (Water Park, Kidzania etc) of their choice. Other 2 days, stay at home for reading of their choice; play chess or board games. Computer game time is limited to 45 minutes per day during half term. Kids usually go out with my wife for Cinema and Play Ground. I usually take a day off on family visit to Museum. They are off week days of half term if there is no school homework. But weekend programme is as usual.
Summary of Study time in Year 3:
2 to 3 hours per week
What we achieved in Year 3:
I think the biggest achievement was cut down computer game time significantly from 2 hr per day to 3 hr per week max (including Golden Computer time). Extra sport and other activities absorb their time and make them exhaust, helps in this aspect.
Target Maths Year 3 – Complete 100% (Only Section B & C). Score – 89% on average
CGP Grammar Book Year 3 – Covered and completed around 75%. Score – 82% on average
Vocabulary Flash Card – only covered 30% of first pack out of 5 packs in total. He seems to be not very keen on flash card. My first target is to complete first pack and 50% of second pack.
General: He is good in time table and knows well about basic Maths operation core area. I think his vocabulary is OK due to reading books even though he is not keen on flash card.
Problems encountered:
They are still complaining that most of their class mates have over 1 hr per day for computer game time. Also as I did not buy any game software and disc, they also complain that they are the only one in their class and in their group from community centre who didn’t have Nintendo Switch. Instead of buying such thing, I bought Lego and reading books for them. Another problem is that they are too fond of ready- made burger and deep fried chicken. I explain them they are not healthy and have negative impact in long term when they grownup. But they are still not convinced and argue that they are in the range of healthy weight in regular school health check. To tackle it, I advised my wife to make home burger from lean minced meat from supermarket. But my wife is not very happy for it. Also even though I try to make my effort to stick with weekly programme as above, I think I achieved only 75% of the original plan. Some of parents meet in community centre and at school are very irresponsive and let their kid keep on playing hours and hours even on mobile phone. They leave the kids and chat with friends or spend on i-pad and watching your tube all the time.
Summer Holiday in Year 3:
No homework or study at all. Computer time is restricted to 45 minutes per day.
We went a week family holiday to Spain during the summer holiday.
We went a week holiday to a family friend in Manchester as well.
Year 4
We started weekly tuition for Maths and English at a Tuition Centre once a week, on Saturday starting from October.
To balance budget for tuition fee and time, I have to stop Drama Class and one of sport activities. Out of 3 sport activities, Karate, Swimming and Football, I ask my sons to choose 2 of them. Elder one proposed football and swimming, younger one prefers karate and swimming. Although swimming is common, if I chose swimming and another one, it might favour to only one and so I decide to pick karate and football to equal in their preference and stop swimming.
Week day plan is the same as year 3 apart from activities time for swimming and drama are replaced by tuition homework.
Saturday programme is changed. Family day out is reduced as playing time in the park near-by tuition centre after his weekly class. I let them play 1 hr after his tuition if weather is OK. But in this year, I need to let them have McDonald or KFC Meal once a week after tuition.
Tuition centre is run by group of qualified teachers. In weekly tuition lesson, my son need to do one comprehension, 20 spelling and meaning test, 10 minutes paired reading, plan for one piece of writing for English and 2 to 3 pages of work sheets and time table speed test in Maths. In Maths, they use their own handouts and in English, they use extracts from First Aid in English. Weekly tuition home work is 20 spelling with meaning, one piece of writing in English and 2 to 3 pages of work sheets in Maths. Teachers mark weekly homework during the tuition hour and return back at the end of the lesson.
I totally rely on tuition for English and top up only Maths at home with AE work Book and Target Maths Year 4. As I research regular on internet about 11 plus book, I come across AE Maths work book and the way they explain is quite good for concept. I use AE Maths work book 1 to 3 to explain concept and then let my son to do the section B & C of the same topic in Target Maths Year 4. After he finish find out meaning and learning his weekly spelling, I test him on Friday before tuition. I also introduce my son Schofield & Sims and Letts VR and NVR for Age 8-9.
Sunday programme is almost the same apart from a little bit cut down to visit to family friends. Another thing I would like to stress is that even you send children to tuition; you need to check at least whether they do their homework and in which area they are weak. Parents’ involvement plays a significant role in the progress of children’s studies.
Half-term programme is almost the same. But this time, he needs to study extra 30 minutes for 3 days in each half-term.
Revising plan
January 17 when my son was in Year 4, Regeneration plan in the area where we live come up and CPO (Compulsory Purchase Order) is guaranteed to developer. As per CPO, we have to move between 2017 and 2020 at the latest. We can move early if we want. Another option is that to take equity share ownership in new development in 2020. At that time, I realise to take advantage of opportunity and moving home for some other Grammar School with non-catchment places. I discussed with my family and come into conclusion that I have to work out which other grammar school exam we can take. I take accounts the following facts when deciding which Grammar school exam we have to take.
- If moving it should be within 45 minutes commute to school
- If moving house price in this area should be within our budget
- If moving it should be within 1 hour commute to my work
- If moving there should be reasonable number of non-catchment places
After considering these facts, I come up with conclusion that we should take Sutton Consortium and Slough Consortium Exam in addition to QE and Miil Hill as per original plan. Although I fancy CSSE as we can see the past paper physically and assess the exam paper standard, it is 1 hr and 30 minutes to commute from Chelmsford to my work; I sadly take out CSSE from my list.
In March 2017, after national offer day one of my work colleague told me that one of his family friend secured QE with very high standardised mark of 270+. I requested him to introduce me to his friend. The family is very friendly and give me information of tuition centre that their son had attended and told me there was an award night ceremony organised by the tuition centre during the ester holiday. I went to visit tuition centre. This tuition centre have very good track record of high ranking achievers and it was very impressive. They can also provide me name of their past students and invite me to join their award ceremony with my request. During ceremony, I have a chance to meet up and interviewed with students who got high scores in QE, CSSE, Ilford and Kent and their parents. I got information that there was an assessment after ester to join their centre. But I think I should finish Year 4 with current tuition and decide to join them only in year 5.
School opening Day
In June and July, we visited School Opening Day for QE, Wilson, Sutton and Mill Hill. We are impressed with QE, Wilson and Sutton. My son like all of them especially QE.
Summary of Study time in Year 4:
3 to 4 hour per week on the top of tuition once a week in term time
2 hr per week additional study time during half-term holiday
What we achieved in Year 4:
On top of tuition work sheets, we completed the following as additional work.
& Sims NVR Age 8-9 – 100% Completed – Average Score 92%
Schofield & Sims VR Age 8-9 – 100% completed – Average Score – 87%
Letts – NVR Age 8-9 – 100% Completed – Average Score – 96%
Letts – VR Age 8-9 – 100% Completed – Average Score – 88%
AE Maths – Work Book 3 – 100% Completed (Use only for explanation of concepts)
AE Maths – Work Book 4 – 100% Completed (Use only for explanation of concepts)
AE Maths – Work Book 5 – 60% Completed (Use only for explanation of concepts)
Target Maths Year 4 – 100% Completed (Section B & C only) – Average Score 90%
During summer holiday in Year 4, we went holiday to our native country for 3 weeks.
During summer holiday, we worked on Heinemann Maths Word Problem Book 5, completed 40% and scored 95%.
Year 5
At the beginning of Year 5, we contacted to the tuition centre and enquired about assessment test date. As they are still busy with revision class for 11 plus exam in September, they said earliest available date was mid-October and can join corresponding year 5 group according to assessment score. So I subscribed an online 11plus website for 2 months before he can join the tuition centre.
So in September and October study programme is a usual apart from online work sheet on week day for 15 minutes per day in place of Saturday tuition. In mid-October, my son did the assessment test and joined their tuition centre in first week of November. I stopped subscription for online 11 plus website. This time we took NVR & VR class on Saturday and Maths & English Class on Sunday. I prefer such two class rather than long hour class for all 4 subjects. Some of the tuition have long hour for all 4 subjects in one session.
His tuition centre provide list of recommended books for extra work. They use their own work sheet together with Target Maths Year 5 and 6, Peter Robson Book 1 to 4 for Maths, Bond Comprehension Book for English, their own work sheet for spelling, NVR, VR, punctuation and grammar, First Aid in English for vocabulary, Schofield & Sims for NVR. They recommended to do Bond and CGP for Maths, English, VR and NVR for extra work if you have time.
They give weekly home work as 1 to 2 their work sheets for each Maths, English, VR & NVR together with some pages from Target Maths, Peter Robson and Bond Comprehension.
During Christmas holiday, we started working on extra recommended book. When I used Bond Assessment, they did not give explanation for correct answer. They just give correct answer is A or B etc. CGP give you explanation for correct answer. In this aspect, I prefer CGP and I am not a fan of Bond. I stopped Bond book after we finished first Bond English Assessment Age 9-10. We continued to work on other recommended CGP assessment books.
In summary we use the following as extra to tuition homework.
Maths – We continue to finish AE work book 3 and move on to 4 and 5 for explanation for concepts. We use Target Maths Year 5 and Peter Robson Books on the same topic as exercises.
We also did CGP Maths Assessment (CEM) Age 9-10 in January to March.
English – We used First Past the Post Essential Comprehension (Classic), (Contemporary), Essential English (Spelling & Grammar) and Vocabulary in Context.
We also did CGP English Assessment (GL) Age 9-10 in January to March
For NVR & VR, we did not do any extra exercise apart from tuition work sheet and home work.
In each half- term From February onwards, his tuition run a holiday course for 3 hrs per day for 3 days. They did tests on topic which have been taught in the class. From ester holiday onwards they introduced actual test paper starting from CSSE old papers in holiday course. After each course, they sent out a detailed report.
So, during each half-term, we have only visit Cinema to one day and museum to one day. The other 3 days are absorbed by holiday course.
Second week of ester holiday, we went a week holiday to a family friend in Birmingham.
By the end of March, Mill Hill County registration is opened. The other slough, QE and Sutton registration started to open. I did registration in late May and early June. I will give details in later part.
After Ester Holiday, I started actual practice paper. First some CGP Paper, then GL paper, followed by FPTP paper and AE Practice Paper.
We took 4 mocks 2 CEM types and 2 GL as order of priority target schools are 1) QE (GL) 2) Sutton Maths & English (Own Paper but GL is useful) 3) Slough (CEM).
My son did his first mock (CEM) organised by his tuition centre during May half-term holiday.
He got rank 5 in his first mock.
Although, we fancied Sutton PTA mock, due to travelling time and clash with current tuition time, we couldn’t do it.
In June he took his second mock (GL type) organised by an outside provider. We got a report his actual score and statement that he is in the top 10% but did not provide the rank.
In July just after school holiday, he sat for third one (CEM) at his tuition centre. At that time he got rank 1.
After this mock exam, we went a week holiday to our family friend in Manchester. I gave my son one week off totally when we back from holiday apart from restriction of computer time for 45 minutes per day. Next week after off, we started work slow as 1 hour per day. I increased 2 hour per day for next week and 3 hour per day the week after. My son attended 3 days Summer Revision Course for 3 hour per day at his tuition centre in mid-August. He did his 4th mock (GL Style) organised by Eleven Plus Exams Centre in August and got an overall rank of 3.
Summary of Study time in Year 5:
5 to 7 hour per week on the top of tuition twice a week in term time
3 hr per day for 3 days attending holiday course during half-term holiday
What we achieved in Year 5:
We worked on additional work mentioned above. The following are summary of Practice Paper and Score. Please note that I kept GL Paper 8 for the night before actual QE exam. It is strictly under 50 minutes as exam time.
April May Jun July Aug Before Exam
GL Maths (1) 48/50 46/50 49/50
GL Maths (2) 44/50 46/50 48/50
GL Maths (3) 48/50 47/50
GL Maths (4) 45/50 46/50 49/50
GL Maths (5) 42/50 46/50 45/50
GL Maths (6) 47/50 48/50 50/50
GL Maths (7) 48/50 50/50
GL Maths (8) 50/50
FPTP GL Maths (A) 48/50 50/50 49/50
FPTP GL Maths (B) 48/50 50/50
FPTP GL Maths (C) 49/50 47/50 48/50
FPTP GL Maths (D) 47/50 49/50 50/50
AE GL Maths (9) 45/50 48/50
AE GL Maths (10) 46/50 48/50
AE GL Maths (11) 48/50 48/50
AE GL Maths (12) 46/50 49/50
Exam Paper Plus 48/50 49/50
(Sutton Test 3)
GL English (1) 42/49 44/49 45/49 46/49
GL English (2) 43/49 42/49 47/49
GL English (3) 46/49 47/49 45/49
GL English (4) 45/49 43/49
GL English (5) 45/50 48/50 46/50
GL English (6) 45/50 47/50
GL English (7) 48/50 49/50
GL English (8) 47/50
FPTP GL English (A) 44/50 48/50 46/50 50/50
FPTP GL English (B) 47/50 49/50 49/50
FPTP GL English (C) 48/50 45/50 49/50
FPTP GL English (D) 48/50 47/50
AE GL English (2) 44/49 48/49
AEGL English (3) 47/49 48/49
AE GL English (4) 43/49 47/49
Exam Paper Plus 75/80 77/80
(Sutton Test 3)
CGP CEM
(Set A Paper 1) 62/77 65/77 69/77
CGP CEM
(Set A Paper 2) 71/80 72/80 75/80
CGP CEM
(Set B Paper 1) 66/77 69/77 71/77
CGP CEM
(Set B Paper 2) 69/80 68/80 72/80
Letts CEM
(Test C Paper 1) 81/87 84/87
Letts CEM
(Test C Paper 2) 76/82 82/82
Letts CEM
(Test D Paper 1) 63/73
Letts CEM
(Test D Paper 2) 72/82
GL VR (6) 77/80
GL VR (7) 72/80 75/80
GL VR (8) 72/80
FPTP VR (A) 77/80
FPTP VR (B) 77/80
FPTP VR (C) 74/80
FPTP VR (D) 77/80
Walsh VR (11) 76/80
Walsh VR (12) 73/80
GL NVR (6) 59/68 63/68
GL NVR (7) 62/72 67/72
GL NVR (8) 60/72 64/72
At the actual exam, my son has achieved the following standardised score.
QE (Boys) - Maths 140, English 140, Total 280
Slough - 134
Mill Hill County - 271 out of 282
Sutton - Met required standard to apply for both Sutton Grammar School and
Wilson School
I would like to share the following 3 policies, 3 KYC (Know your child) and 3 pitfall which I use in preparation of 11 plus exam.
3 Policies
1. Be well organised and well prepared
File work sheets in order
Set time table for weekly studies
Set achievable target
Regular review of work done
Revisit weak area again
Be aware of required criteria for target school
Be aware of registration dead line of target school
Set how many exams to be taken (should consider at least 2 to max of 5)
Be aware of exam type (GL or CEM – Maths/ English /VR/ NVR Multiple Choice or Standard)
Set how many mock to be taken and time (Should be May onward) 2 for each type of exam i.e. if you take GL only take GL type exam, take first one in May or June and second one in August.
Regular check and visit 11 plus forum for new and updated information
Check exam arrangement and time
Do dummy run to school before exam (Use public transport if possible)
Do Practice Papers (from Ester onwards)
Prepare list items need to be taken (pencil case, exam arrangement email)
2. Try your best
Set regular study time and stick to it
Sit with children and do correction or prepare for next topic when the child is doing homework.
Watching you tube, browsing internet/face book or chatting on mobile while the child is doing homework is not a way of try your best.
Avoid long haul holiday in Year 5 (Short holiday for 2 to 3 days is OK)
Temporarily reduce sport and other activities (1 activity is enough for child’s physical wellbeing)
3. Accept what you have achieved and learn from mistakes
If you get low score in mock test, revisit weak area again. Missing a grammar school place is not the end of the world. As I mention in early, there are a lot successful stories about children from comprehensive school who join to top universities.
3 Strategies (I call it 3 KYC – Know your child)
1. Know what sort of learning approach suitable for your child?
i.e. Some of children need soft approach or some need hard approach – Shouting does not get a good result out of a child need soft approach. But some children do not start working until you raise your voice. Some children are better off in group session and healthy peer competition but some are not. These facts need to be considered choosing tuition or home tutoring by parent.
2. Know stress level of your child for optimum performance
Some children are doing well if there is no stress at all.
Some children need some extent of stress to get optimum performance.
3. Know your child’s performance is better in morning or after noon
It is important when you register for exam to get a time slot.
As we live in stone away distance from current primary school, my son used to get up late around 8:00 in the morning. Knowing it and he can perform better in after noon (I call it afternoon boy), I try to get afternoon time slot when I register for exam. How?
Most of entrance exams allocate time slot as first in first served. So register only before 2 to 3 weeks before dead line boost well the chance of getting afternoon time slot. If your child is morning child, register as soon as possible when registration is opened. For example, QE registration starts open on 1 May and closes on 13 July. I did registration on 2nd week of June and got the afternoon slot. Please bear in mind, waiting too late and too many applicants also lead to get morning slot of 2nd day.
3 Pitfalls
1. Early peak
Due to over enthusiastic parent, the child reach his peak in early i.e. well before the exam and couldn’t get the best result in actual exam. Introducing practice paper too early is harmful in this aspect. Bear in mind that the child can maintain his peak only 2 to 3 weeks. Prepare well for time schedule is the best way to avoid this pitfall.
2. Under preparation
Some parent leave too late for preparation result in not covering all the topics for the exam. Knowing topics to be covered and exam format well in advance sort out this problem.
3. Performance dip
Need to aware performance dip. If the child show signs of stress and performance dip, take a break, bring him/her to Museum or playground or take a short trip holiday for 2 to 3 days. Re-introduce study time gradually i.e. 30 minutes for 2 to 3 days and increase to 45 minutes for another 2 to 3 days and so on.
Hope our experience is useful in your preparation for 11 plus exam. Please consider rationally when you decide ways of tutoring and set up time table and strategy. Wish you best of luck in your 11 plus journey.
Regards,
KWY
Wishing you a very happy and prosperous New Year 2019! As we have done the 11 plus journey successfully for our elder son in September 2018, we have received several emails for wishes and request to share our experience. It is difficult to reply to each individual for details of our experience and I replied as I would share my experience on 11 plus exam forum.
First of all, we would like to thank you all forum moderators, contributors and members especially DG, Guest55, ToadMum, Tiffinboy etc for their advice, valuable contribution and information in this forum.
I decide to share details of my experience as only then you can see the whole picture of 11 plus journey in general. I would like to express there is not only one particular method or approach to achieve your goal and you need to adjust to suit with your different circumstances. I hope some of our experience might useful to you in one way or other.
Our family has an Asian background and we moved to the UK 16 years ago. Both my wife and I graduated in our native country, moved and have worked in the UK since 2003. We were first aware of grammar schools in 2006 when a daughter of one of our family’s friends from our country got a place and joined HBS. At that time, their family mentioned that their daughter did not have any tuition at all. They just did Bond, Collins and Scholastic Books from WH Smith. Their daughter was born in the UK and started from nursery in a UK primary school. She attended HBS up to her A levels. Her GCSE results were very good with 9A*s and 3As. But unfortunately she didn’t do well in her A levels as expected and got 1A and 2Bs only. She later joined SOAS and has now graduated and started working.
In 2007, a daughter of another of our family’s friends sat for Watford, Mill Hill and Slough Consortium Exams. She got good scores for all of them. Again she didn’t take any tuition and did Bond and CGP Books at home. As her brother was already in a comprehensive school, she preferred to go to the same comprehensive school, turned down grammar school, and joined her brother subsequently. She got 6A*and 5A in GCSE, 1A* and 2A in A levels and joined Imperial College. Now she has graduated and started working.
In 2008, my eldest son was born. In 2008, twin daughter of another family friend sat for HBS entrance. Unfortunately, they couldn’t get through. Their family moved to UK just 2 year ago and as per their parents, failure was due to weakness in English and they didn’t know how to prepare properly and didn’t take any tuition at all. Later, they joined a Local near-by Comprehensive School. In Year 8 onward, they took one to one private tuition. Both twins got very good GCSE score of 7A* and 3A each. With such a good result, they tried entrance exam for Private School and elder twin daughter got a place in St. Paul Private Girl with 100% scholarship and other younger twin got a place in another Private School with 100% scholarship. Both of them got 2A* and 1A in A level and younger twin sister studies Medicine in Cambridge and elder one studies Medicine in Cardiff.
In 2009, a son of my classmate in university got a place in King Edward VI Grammar School in Chelmsford. His mum coached him Maths and he took one to one English Tuition in Year 4 and Year 5. As per my friend, he didn’t take any more tuition throughout his studies in King Edward and got very impressive 3A* and 1A in A level and now studying Medicine in UCL.
In 2010 my younger son was born. In 2011, our family went on holiday to our country. At that time, my wife requested me to stay with her family back home and let both of children attend school in our country until younger one finish nursery. As we have no close relatives in UK and I knew that it was very stressful for my wife to cope with two young kids and it is opportunity for our kids to learn our language and culture, I agreed and let her live with her family for a while. In 2012, my elder one started nursery in our country. I went back alone to London and continue to work. During summer holiday, my wife and two kids came back to London. After summer holiday, they went back to our country and elder son continued Reception. They used to come back summary holiday until elder one finish Year 1 and younger one was at the age to join nursery and moved back permanently to UK in 2014.
In 2013, elder son of another family friend got a place in QE boy. He took group tuition in Year 4 and Year 5 for Maths, English, VR & NVR. He sat not only QE exam, but also Slough, Tiffin and Watford Entrance Exams. He got through all exams he sat. He got 243 in QE Exam. He joined QE and now studying in Year 11. As per their parent, he took only English tuition in Year 8. They are aware that some but not all of friends in his group took tuitions since Year 7 to Year 11. He is in top set in some subjects and in second top set in some of the subjects. Now (in Year 11) he is planning to take tuition from next February half-term onwards.
In 2014, my elder one joined Year 2 and younger one, Reception at one of State Primary School near our home in London. I am glad that both of them can speak our language very fluently as I know a lot of children of our family friend couldn’t speak our language very fluently. But I was worrying a bit that there might be some English language barrier for them in Primary School. Fortunately, they cope well and catch up soon and both of them are in top sets in their classes. In that year, we have only swimming for 3 days a week as extra activities. Down side on the other hand is that they are too addicted to screen time. This is because their uncle and aunties (my wife’s sisters and brothers) are university students and they use spend too much time on mobile, i-pad, and tablets and chatting. So the kids use to have bad habits from them when they stayed back in our country. This is the main problem most of family are facing now a day. At that time, I got and knew some information and stuff about 11+. At first I plan to coach them by myself for Maths and take only English Tuition from Year 4 onwards. In Year 2 there was no extra works at all.
In 2015, my elder one was in Year 3. In 2015, five children of our family friends took 11+ exams. One got QE with 250, another one missed QE with one mark and joined Latymer, third one got Upton Court and two of the other didn’t get through. All of them took group tuition for all 4 subjects, Maths, Eng, VR & NVR as they sat 4 to 5 Entrance exams each. Now all of them are in Year 9. One who joined QE continues to take tuition since Year 7. As per his parents, over 60% of his classmates are taking tuition in the hope to get a good grade. He is in top set in almost all subjects until now. One who joined Latymer did not take any tuition in Year 7 and Year 8. In Year 9 he starts taking Maths and English Tuition. He is in second top set in some of subjects and in third set in most of the subjects so far.
When my elder one was in year 3, I started collecting more detail information about Grammar School Entrance Requirement, Tuition Centres, and Study Materials etc. and prepared myself for how to coach my sons. I visited a lot of 11 plus websites mainly elevenplusexams and *****. I also watched 11plus clips from you tube and compiled useful information and stuff. Start from the beginning of year 3, I first tackled their screen time. I tried to engage them more in sport activities to cut down screen time. They did drama class, swimming, football, karate and piano of five activities, one for every week day. Although total cost of such all activities for both children are very expensive for us, it is paid off and their screen time is cut down significantly to acceptable level. I also introduced them paper board game like chess, draught, scrabble, word games, snake and ladders etc. I took them to local library once a week. My elder one like Roald Dahl Books and so I bought the whole Roald Dahl Series of 15 books from Books People. After that series, I encouraged him to read Michael Morpurgo series but he didn’t like it. After that he read Enrid Blyton’s Mystery Series and Diary of Wimpy Kids series.
In October 2015, I attended a usual teacher parent meeting. My elder son’s Year 3 class teacher is very good and active. In that meeting, she advised me start to train 11 plus books of Age 7-8. She coached her own son who was in year 4 at that time with Target Maths and CGP Grammar, Spelling & Punctuation Book (Age 8-9). She joined this school only last year. She picked a few able students in her class and encouraged their parents to train with 11 plus books of relevant age. Her son was studying in the other school, not in our school. After October half term, she gave one piece of writing in every two weeks as extra on the top of normal home work to these able children in top sets including my son. She marked and gave them advice how to improve as well.
As per her advice, we started Target Maths Year 3 and CGP Grammar Books (Age 7-8) in November 2015 onwards. In Target Maths, we started on B Section and only score was less than 80% in B section, we went back to Section A. If we got over 80% in Section B, we moved on to Section C. On that basis, we worked on 5 to 7 pages per week for Target Maths. A part from 2 or 3 topics, we did Section B & C only. For CGP Year 3 Grammar Book, we worked on 2 to 4 pages per week.
Summary of our programme in Year3 November onwards are as follow:
Weekday
4:00 pm – Back home from school
4:00 to 5:30 – Free play and Snack time (Chess, Word Games, Lego etc.)
5:30 to 6:30 or 7:00 – Activities Time (Drama, Karate, Swimming, Piano and Football – One each on every week day) – Karate and football classes are at local sport leisure centre. Swimming is at another leisure centre for 10 minutes by car and Drama and Piano classes are about 30 minutes car journey. They go with my wife for these activities as she is a full time house wife and quit the job after two kids were born.
I usually get back home from work around 6:45.
7:15pm – Back home from activities
7:15 to 7:45 – Family Dinner
7:45 to 9:30pm – School homework or 30 minutes reading; time table test occasionally
If school homework and 30 minutes reading time finish, they can watch Children
TV Programme or Cartoon until 9:15pm. In reading time they can read whatever
books they like. He usually gets school homework book on Thursday and Return
on Monday. Usually, Thursday and Friday is for school homework and Mon to
Wed is for reading.
9:15 – Preparation for Bedtime
9:30 – Bed Time
There is no computer, i-pad or game time on weekday
Saturday: Family day out
After breakfast, I go put to Park or Indoor Community Centre depends on weather. Children can play all sorts of sport activities in the play-ground. I stay with them for 1 to 2 hours and have family lunch in the park which we usually brought the packed lunch from home. If there is birthday party or some community function, we usually attend at the weekend. I usually leave after lunch and my wife look after kids and spend the evening in the park until 4:30.
Choosing Tuition Centre
At that time, I visit 11 plus tuition centre with family friends whose children are currently attending at that time. I try to meet with teachers and ask about their training procedure and results for past years. I also try to make friend with parents who are waiting for their children lesson at the centre and request them to speak to children if possible. If they permit, I ask their children about what they feel, what they learn at the tuition, how much home-work do they need to do per week etc. I also enquire their parents about their opinion. I went and visited 2 to 3 times to each centre to get overall view of the centre. During this year, I visited 10 tuition centres and 4 private tutors. All of the tuition centres only provide how many grammar school places secured by their students. But they couldn’t give me specific student names. When I asked whether these grammar places are counted as number of student for the school they finally join or not, they could not give me a definite answer. For example, my friend’s son who sat 5 or 6 exams, get through all and joined QE, whether they count as 1 for QE or 5 – 6 grammar school places for him. I got a vague answer. As per their reply, I think they counted 5-6 grammar school places as their student even if they pass the minimum score eligible to apply i.e. they count as a grammar school place if he score 210 in QE exam. Actually, he couldn’t secure a place in QE with 210. I also try to assess health and safety of class room, facility and style of teaching. Classes in some of the centre are not up to the standard of health and safety compliance. At one centre, there is no window in some of class rooms. Some of centres are dirty and not very clean. Some of centre have modernised facilities such as overhead projectors and reclining and adjustable chairs etc. But monthly tuition fees are expensive for my budget. Some of teachers are shouting too much at the students. Some of the tuition give quite a lot of home work per week need over 1 hr a day. Some of the centre can give you information about exam format and requirement for their targeting school and exam but some of them did not even know the specific exam format. Some of the centre need to attend all 4 subjects, Maths, English, VR and NVR since year 4 regardless of the exam student are targeting.
When assessing for the choice of the tuition, I take accounts the following factors as my requirement.
- Class room which are clean and have enough air flow (ventilation), enough natural light and comfortable chair (We don’t need reclining chairs)
- Passionate teacher who interested in teaching and not shouting too much at student and who know the subjects and exam format
- Can take only Maths and English at Year 4 (As I feel VR & NVR is not necessary to start at Year 4 as we can do practice book at home)
- Commute distance (within 45 minutes journey)
- Within my budget for tuition fee
- With a record of reasonable good result in past 11 plus exams
- With a reasonable amount of homework (My opinion – 2 hour of home work per week in Year 4 and 3 hr of home work per week in Year 5); not very excessive amount
Base on the above facts and after reading through pros and cons of one to one tuition, parent home tutoring and group tuitions from ***** website, I decide to choose a tuition centre (35 minute journey) to start at year 4 for Maths and English only.
When I coached my son inYear3, what I found out is that he followed the instruction of the teacher more seriously rather than the same instruction from me. For example, I explained and taught him step by step procedure how to calculate a Maths question. But he didn’t follow the step. He argued that he got the same answer at the end. I try to explain that step by step calculation is much better to get marks and to avoid silly and careless mistake. Unfortunately, he didn’t agree. But if the school teacher asked him to follow step by step, exactly same as me, he followed the instructions. So, even though I can teach him Maths very well at the 11 plus standard, I decide to provide him both Maths and English Group Tuition from Year 4. Another reason to choose group tuition is that it is cheaper and I feel he will be better off with peer competition in group tuition.
Target Schools
I read through admission criteria for QE, Slough, Mill Hill County, Latymer, DAO and CSSE from school websites, eleven plus exams websites, **** website and some tuition centre websites, I decided QE and Mill Hill as our target schools provisionally at that time due to commute distance and overall results and information we received.
Continuation on Saturday:
Around 4:30pm I come back to park or community centre, we packed up and go home.
5:00 – Get back home
5:00 to 6:00pm – Computer Screen Time for kids – they can play computer games
6:00 to 6:30pm – Tidy up and shower time for kids when we are preparing dinner
6:30 to 7:00 – Family dinner time
7:00 to 7:30 – They can watch TV when my wife and I are doing cleaning and washing dishes
7:30 to 9:00 – Study time – Target Maths and CGP Grammar; 5minutes break after 30 minutes study or 10 minute break after 45 minutes depend on topic. I usually sit with him, explain the topic and concept and do a few examples together. Then I let him do his worksheet by himself. When he is doing work sheet, I check his school homework which has been done on Thursday and Friday.
9:15 – Preparation for Bedtime
9:30 – Bed Time
Sunday:
9:30 to 11:00 – Study time, Target Maths, CGP Grammar Book, Time Table, Some Vocabulary Flash Card
11:00 to 12:00 – Golden Computer Time if he completes all of his target from last Mon to Sat
If he does not hit his target, there is no computer time for game, instead kids can
watch Children TV channels or play board games – chess, drought etc.
12:00 to 12:30 – Family Lunch
1:00 to 2:00pm – We visit a local library; they can return and borrow books.
2:30 to 6:00pm – We usually visit our community temple. Children can meet up and play with
family friend’s kids from our country in the backyard play field.
If there is birthday or other invitation, we usually go and visit to family friend’s
house during Sunday evening.
Even me and my wife do not like junk food, kids are too fond of McDonald or KFC and I agree them to have twice a month for treats of their choice if they behave. It is usually Sunday Dinner.
7:30pm – Get back home
7:30 to 8:30 – I usually go through with my son on the work sheets he has done and explain his mistakes if any. Then they need to tidy up, make ready school bag and bed time.
Half term: One day to Cinema, one day to Museum and one day to Play Ground (Water Park, Kidzania etc) of their choice. Other 2 days, stay at home for reading of their choice; play chess or board games. Computer game time is limited to 45 minutes per day during half term. Kids usually go out with my wife for Cinema and Play Ground. I usually take a day off on family visit to Museum. They are off week days of half term if there is no school homework. But weekend programme is as usual.
Summary of Study time in Year 3:
2 to 3 hours per week
What we achieved in Year 3:
I think the biggest achievement was cut down computer game time significantly from 2 hr per day to 3 hr per week max (including Golden Computer time). Extra sport and other activities absorb their time and make them exhaust, helps in this aspect.
Target Maths Year 3 – Complete 100% (Only Section B & C). Score – 89% on average
CGP Grammar Book Year 3 – Covered and completed around 75%. Score – 82% on average
Vocabulary Flash Card – only covered 30% of first pack out of 5 packs in total. He seems to be not very keen on flash card. My first target is to complete first pack and 50% of second pack.
General: He is good in time table and knows well about basic Maths operation core area. I think his vocabulary is OK due to reading books even though he is not keen on flash card.
Problems encountered:
They are still complaining that most of their class mates have over 1 hr per day for computer game time. Also as I did not buy any game software and disc, they also complain that they are the only one in their class and in their group from community centre who didn’t have Nintendo Switch. Instead of buying such thing, I bought Lego and reading books for them. Another problem is that they are too fond of ready- made burger and deep fried chicken. I explain them they are not healthy and have negative impact in long term when they grownup. But they are still not convinced and argue that they are in the range of healthy weight in regular school health check. To tackle it, I advised my wife to make home burger from lean minced meat from supermarket. But my wife is not very happy for it. Also even though I try to make my effort to stick with weekly programme as above, I think I achieved only 75% of the original plan. Some of parents meet in community centre and at school are very irresponsive and let their kid keep on playing hours and hours even on mobile phone. They leave the kids and chat with friends or spend on i-pad and watching your tube all the time.
Summer Holiday in Year 3:
No homework or study at all. Computer time is restricted to 45 minutes per day.
We went a week family holiday to Spain during the summer holiday.
We went a week holiday to a family friend in Manchester as well.
Year 4
We started weekly tuition for Maths and English at a Tuition Centre once a week, on Saturday starting from October.
To balance budget for tuition fee and time, I have to stop Drama Class and one of sport activities. Out of 3 sport activities, Karate, Swimming and Football, I ask my sons to choose 2 of them. Elder one proposed football and swimming, younger one prefers karate and swimming. Although swimming is common, if I chose swimming and another one, it might favour to only one and so I decide to pick karate and football to equal in their preference and stop swimming.
Week day plan is the same as year 3 apart from activities time for swimming and drama are replaced by tuition homework.
Saturday programme is changed. Family day out is reduced as playing time in the park near-by tuition centre after his weekly class. I let them play 1 hr after his tuition if weather is OK. But in this year, I need to let them have McDonald or KFC Meal once a week after tuition.
Tuition centre is run by group of qualified teachers. In weekly tuition lesson, my son need to do one comprehension, 20 spelling and meaning test, 10 minutes paired reading, plan for one piece of writing for English and 2 to 3 pages of work sheets and time table speed test in Maths. In Maths, they use their own handouts and in English, they use extracts from First Aid in English. Weekly tuition home work is 20 spelling with meaning, one piece of writing in English and 2 to 3 pages of work sheets in Maths. Teachers mark weekly homework during the tuition hour and return back at the end of the lesson.
I totally rely on tuition for English and top up only Maths at home with AE work Book and Target Maths Year 4. As I research regular on internet about 11 plus book, I come across AE Maths work book and the way they explain is quite good for concept. I use AE Maths work book 1 to 3 to explain concept and then let my son to do the section B & C of the same topic in Target Maths Year 4. After he finish find out meaning and learning his weekly spelling, I test him on Friday before tuition. I also introduce my son Schofield & Sims and Letts VR and NVR for Age 8-9.
Sunday programme is almost the same apart from a little bit cut down to visit to family friends. Another thing I would like to stress is that even you send children to tuition; you need to check at least whether they do their homework and in which area they are weak. Parents’ involvement plays a significant role in the progress of children’s studies.
Half-term programme is almost the same. But this time, he needs to study extra 30 minutes for 3 days in each half-term.
Revising plan
January 17 when my son was in Year 4, Regeneration plan in the area where we live come up and CPO (Compulsory Purchase Order) is guaranteed to developer. As per CPO, we have to move between 2017 and 2020 at the latest. We can move early if we want. Another option is that to take equity share ownership in new development in 2020. At that time, I realise to take advantage of opportunity and moving home for some other Grammar School with non-catchment places. I discussed with my family and come into conclusion that I have to work out which other grammar school exam we can take. I take accounts the following facts when deciding which Grammar school exam we have to take.
- If moving it should be within 45 minutes commute to school
- If moving house price in this area should be within our budget
- If moving it should be within 1 hour commute to my work
- If moving there should be reasonable number of non-catchment places
After considering these facts, I come up with conclusion that we should take Sutton Consortium and Slough Consortium Exam in addition to QE and Miil Hill as per original plan. Although I fancy CSSE as we can see the past paper physically and assess the exam paper standard, it is 1 hr and 30 minutes to commute from Chelmsford to my work; I sadly take out CSSE from my list.
In March 2017, after national offer day one of my work colleague told me that one of his family friend secured QE with very high standardised mark of 270+. I requested him to introduce me to his friend. The family is very friendly and give me information of tuition centre that their son had attended and told me there was an award night ceremony organised by the tuition centre during the ester holiday. I went to visit tuition centre. This tuition centre have very good track record of high ranking achievers and it was very impressive. They can also provide me name of their past students and invite me to join their award ceremony with my request. During ceremony, I have a chance to meet up and interviewed with students who got high scores in QE, CSSE, Ilford and Kent and their parents. I got information that there was an assessment after ester to join their centre. But I think I should finish Year 4 with current tuition and decide to join them only in year 5.
School opening Day
In June and July, we visited School Opening Day for QE, Wilson, Sutton and Mill Hill. We are impressed with QE, Wilson and Sutton. My son like all of them especially QE.
Summary of Study time in Year 4:
3 to 4 hour per week on the top of tuition once a week in term time
2 hr per week additional study time during half-term holiday
What we achieved in Year 4:
On top of tuition work sheets, we completed the following as additional work.
& Sims NVR Age 8-9 – 100% Completed – Average Score 92%
Schofield & Sims VR Age 8-9 – 100% completed – Average Score – 87%
Letts – NVR Age 8-9 – 100% Completed – Average Score – 96%
Letts – VR Age 8-9 – 100% Completed – Average Score – 88%
AE Maths – Work Book 3 – 100% Completed (Use only for explanation of concepts)
AE Maths – Work Book 4 – 100% Completed (Use only for explanation of concepts)
AE Maths – Work Book 5 – 60% Completed (Use only for explanation of concepts)
Target Maths Year 4 – 100% Completed (Section B & C only) – Average Score 90%
During summer holiday in Year 4, we went holiday to our native country for 3 weeks.
During summer holiday, we worked on Heinemann Maths Word Problem Book 5, completed 40% and scored 95%.
Year 5
At the beginning of Year 5, we contacted to the tuition centre and enquired about assessment test date. As they are still busy with revision class for 11 plus exam in September, they said earliest available date was mid-October and can join corresponding year 5 group according to assessment score. So I subscribed an online 11plus website for 2 months before he can join the tuition centre.
So in September and October study programme is a usual apart from online work sheet on week day for 15 minutes per day in place of Saturday tuition. In mid-October, my son did the assessment test and joined their tuition centre in first week of November. I stopped subscription for online 11 plus website. This time we took NVR & VR class on Saturday and Maths & English Class on Sunday. I prefer such two class rather than long hour class for all 4 subjects. Some of the tuition have long hour for all 4 subjects in one session.
His tuition centre provide list of recommended books for extra work. They use their own work sheet together with Target Maths Year 5 and 6, Peter Robson Book 1 to 4 for Maths, Bond Comprehension Book for English, their own work sheet for spelling, NVR, VR, punctuation and grammar, First Aid in English for vocabulary, Schofield & Sims for NVR. They recommended to do Bond and CGP for Maths, English, VR and NVR for extra work if you have time.
They give weekly home work as 1 to 2 their work sheets for each Maths, English, VR & NVR together with some pages from Target Maths, Peter Robson and Bond Comprehension.
During Christmas holiday, we started working on extra recommended book. When I used Bond Assessment, they did not give explanation for correct answer. They just give correct answer is A or B etc. CGP give you explanation for correct answer. In this aspect, I prefer CGP and I am not a fan of Bond. I stopped Bond book after we finished first Bond English Assessment Age 9-10. We continued to work on other recommended CGP assessment books.
In summary we use the following as extra to tuition homework.
Maths – We continue to finish AE work book 3 and move on to 4 and 5 for explanation for concepts. We use Target Maths Year 5 and Peter Robson Books on the same topic as exercises.
We also did CGP Maths Assessment (CEM) Age 9-10 in January to March.
English – We used First Past the Post Essential Comprehension (Classic), (Contemporary), Essential English (Spelling & Grammar) and Vocabulary in Context.
We also did CGP English Assessment (GL) Age 9-10 in January to March
For NVR & VR, we did not do any extra exercise apart from tuition work sheet and home work.
In each half- term From February onwards, his tuition run a holiday course for 3 hrs per day for 3 days. They did tests on topic which have been taught in the class. From ester holiday onwards they introduced actual test paper starting from CSSE old papers in holiday course. After each course, they sent out a detailed report.
So, during each half-term, we have only visit Cinema to one day and museum to one day. The other 3 days are absorbed by holiday course.
Second week of ester holiday, we went a week holiday to a family friend in Birmingham.
By the end of March, Mill Hill County registration is opened. The other slough, QE and Sutton registration started to open. I did registration in late May and early June. I will give details in later part.
After Ester Holiday, I started actual practice paper. First some CGP Paper, then GL paper, followed by FPTP paper and AE Practice Paper.
We took 4 mocks 2 CEM types and 2 GL as order of priority target schools are 1) QE (GL) 2) Sutton Maths & English (Own Paper but GL is useful) 3) Slough (CEM).
My son did his first mock (CEM) organised by his tuition centre during May half-term holiday.
He got rank 5 in his first mock.
Although, we fancied Sutton PTA mock, due to travelling time and clash with current tuition time, we couldn’t do it.
In June he took his second mock (GL type) organised by an outside provider. We got a report his actual score and statement that he is in the top 10% but did not provide the rank.
In July just after school holiday, he sat for third one (CEM) at his tuition centre. At that time he got rank 1.
After this mock exam, we went a week holiday to our family friend in Manchester. I gave my son one week off totally when we back from holiday apart from restriction of computer time for 45 minutes per day. Next week after off, we started work slow as 1 hour per day. I increased 2 hour per day for next week and 3 hour per day the week after. My son attended 3 days Summer Revision Course for 3 hour per day at his tuition centre in mid-August. He did his 4th mock (GL Style) organised by Eleven Plus Exams Centre in August and got an overall rank of 3.
Summary of Study time in Year 5:
5 to 7 hour per week on the top of tuition twice a week in term time
3 hr per day for 3 days attending holiday course during half-term holiday
What we achieved in Year 5:
We worked on additional work mentioned above. The following are summary of Practice Paper and Score. Please note that I kept GL Paper 8 for the night before actual QE exam. It is strictly under 50 minutes as exam time.
April May Jun July Aug Before Exam
GL Maths (1) 48/50 46/50 49/50
GL Maths (2) 44/50 46/50 48/50
GL Maths (3) 48/50 47/50
GL Maths (4) 45/50 46/50 49/50
GL Maths (5) 42/50 46/50 45/50
GL Maths (6) 47/50 48/50 50/50
GL Maths (7) 48/50 50/50
GL Maths (8) 50/50
FPTP GL Maths (A) 48/50 50/50 49/50
FPTP GL Maths (B) 48/50 50/50
FPTP GL Maths (C) 49/50 47/50 48/50
FPTP GL Maths (D) 47/50 49/50 50/50
AE GL Maths (9) 45/50 48/50
AE GL Maths (10) 46/50 48/50
AE GL Maths (11) 48/50 48/50
AE GL Maths (12) 46/50 49/50
Exam Paper Plus 48/50 49/50
(Sutton Test 3)
GL English (1) 42/49 44/49 45/49 46/49
GL English (2) 43/49 42/49 47/49
GL English (3) 46/49 47/49 45/49
GL English (4) 45/49 43/49
GL English (5) 45/50 48/50 46/50
GL English (6) 45/50 47/50
GL English (7) 48/50 49/50
GL English (8) 47/50
FPTP GL English (A) 44/50 48/50 46/50 50/50
FPTP GL English (B) 47/50 49/50 49/50
FPTP GL English (C) 48/50 45/50 49/50
FPTP GL English (D) 48/50 47/50
AE GL English (2) 44/49 48/49
AEGL English (3) 47/49 48/49
AE GL English (4) 43/49 47/49
Exam Paper Plus 75/80 77/80
(Sutton Test 3)
CGP CEM
(Set A Paper 1) 62/77 65/77 69/77
CGP CEM
(Set A Paper 2) 71/80 72/80 75/80
CGP CEM
(Set B Paper 1) 66/77 69/77 71/77
CGP CEM
(Set B Paper 2) 69/80 68/80 72/80
Letts CEM
(Test C Paper 1) 81/87 84/87
Letts CEM
(Test C Paper 2) 76/82 82/82
Letts CEM
(Test D Paper 1) 63/73
Letts CEM
(Test D Paper 2) 72/82
GL VR (6) 77/80
GL VR (7) 72/80 75/80
GL VR (8) 72/80
FPTP VR (A) 77/80
FPTP VR (B) 77/80
FPTP VR (C) 74/80
FPTP VR (D) 77/80
Walsh VR (11) 76/80
Walsh VR (12) 73/80
GL NVR (6) 59/68 63/68
GL NVR (7) 62/72 67/72
GL NVR (8) 60/72 64/72
At the actual exam, my son has achieved the following standardised score.
QE (Boys) - Maths 140, English 140, Total 280
Slough - 134
Mill Hill County - 271 out of 282
Sutton - Met required standard to apply for both Sutton Grammar School and
Wilson School
I would like to share the following 3 policies, 3 KYC (Know your child) and 3 pitfall which I use in preparation of 11 plus exam.
3 Policies
1. Be well organised and well prepared
File work sheets in order
Set time table for weekly studies
Set achievable target
Regular review of work done
Revisit weak area again
Be aware of required criteria for target school
Be aware of registration dead line of target school
Set how many exams to be taken (should consider at least 2 to max of 5)
Be aware of exam type (GL or CEM – Maths/ English /VR/ NVR Multiple Choice or Standard)
Set how many mock to be taken and time (Should be May onward) 2 for each type of exam i.e. if you take GL only take GL type exam, take first one in May or June and second one in August.
Regular check and visit 11 plus forum for new and updated information
Check exam arrangement and time
Do dummy run to school before exam (Use public transport if possible)
Do Practice Papers (from Ester onwards)
Prepare list items need to be taken (pencil case, exam arrangement email)
2. Try your best
Set regular study time and stick to it
Sit with children and do correction or prepare for next topic when the child is doing homework.
Watching you tube, browsing internet/face book or chatting on mobile while the child is doing homework is not a way of try your best.
Avoid long haul holiday in Year 5 (Short holiday for 2 to 3 days is OK)
Temporarily reduce sport and other activities (1 activity is enough for child’s physical wellbeing)
3. Accept what you have achieved and learn from mistakes
If you get low score in mock test, revisit weak area again. Missing a grammar school place is not the end of the world. As I mention in early, there are a lot successful stories about children from comprehensive school who join to top universities.
3 Strategies (I call it 3 KYC – Know your child)
1. Know what sort of learning approach suitable for your child?
i.e. Some of children need soft approach or some need hard approach – Shouting does not get a good result out of a child need soft approach. But some children do not start working until you raise your voice. Some children are better off in group session and healthy peer competition but some are not. These facts need to be considered choosing tuition or home tutoring by parent.
2. Know stress level of your child for optimum performance
Some children are doing well if there is no stress at all.
Some children need some extent of stress to get optimum performance.
3. Know your child’s performance is better in morning or after noon
It is important when you register for exam to get a time slot.
As we live in stone away distance from current primary school, my son used to get up late around 8:00 in the morning. Knowing it and he can perform better in after noon (I call it afternoon boy), I try to get afternoon time slot when I register for exam. How?
Most of entrance exams allocate time slot as first in first served. So register only before 2 to 3 weeks before dead line boost well the chance of getting afternoon time slot. If your child is morning child, register as soon as possible when registration is opened. For example, QE registration starts open on 1 May and closes on 13 July. I did registration on 2nd week of June and got the afternoon slot. Please bear in mind, waiting too late and too many applicants also lead to get morning slot of 2nd day.
3 Pitfalls
1. Early peak
Due to over enthusiastic parent, the child reach his peak in early i.e. well before the exam and couldn’t get the best result in actual exam. Introducing practice paper too early is harmful in this aspect. Bear in mind that the child can maintain his peak only 2 to 3 weeks. Prepare well for time schedule is the best way to avoid this pitfall.
2. Under preparation
Some parent leave too late for preparation result in not covering all the topics for the exam. Knowing topics to be covered and exam format well in advance sort out this problem.
3. Performance dip
Need to aware performance dip. If the child show signs of stress and performance dip, take a break, bring him/her to Museum or playground or take a short trip holiday for 2 to 3 days. Re-introduce study time gradually i.e. 30 minutes for 2 to 3 days and increase to 45 minutes for another 2 to 3 days and so on.
Hope our experience is useful in your preparation for 11 plus exam. Please consider rationally when you decide ways of tutoring and set up time table and strategy. Wish you best of luck in your 11 plus journey.
Regards,
KWY
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Daogroupie
- Posts: 11106
- Joined: Wed Mar 04, 2009 3:01 pm
- Location: Herts
Re: Sharing Our Experience in 11 Plus Journey
Thank you very much for taking the time to share your experiences.
I am interested to know if you will be doing anything differently for your younger son?
I am surprised to hear your feedback about students continuing with tutors once they get to selective school.
Will you be expecting to do this with your son?
Do you live in Herts or Barnet?
Will you be needing to move to be closer to QE?
DG
I am interested to know if you will be doing anything differently for your younger son?
I am surprised to hear your feedback about students continuing with tutors once they get to selective school.
Will you be expecting to do this with your son?
Do you live in Herts or Barnet?
Will you be needing to move to be closer to QE?
DG
Re: Sharing Our Experience in 11 Plus Journey
..... [edited by moderator]kwy wrote: Her GCSE results were very good with 9A*s and 3As. But unfortunately she didn’t do well in her A levels as expected and got 1A and 2Bs only. She later joined SOAS and has now graduated and started working.
KWY
In theory it is good to 'share your experiences', but when you start dictating what families should and shouldn't be eating, and producing detailed daily schedules accounting for every minute of every day then it all gets a bit controlling and obsessive doesn't it?
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streathammum
- Posts: 1252
- Joined: Sat Oct 01, 2016 6:02 pm
Re: Sharing Our Experience in 11 Plus Journey
What he actually said is that she didn't do as well as expected.
We don't know whether she was predicted higher grades and had a blip, in which case his comment is reasonable, or whether there's a genuine belief that ABB is a poor result.
We don't know whether she was predicted higher grades and had a blip, in which case his comment is reasonable, or whether there's a genuine belief that ABB is a poor result.
Re: Sharing Our Experience in 11 Plus Journey
No, the actual wording is quoted above: ' she didn't do well AS EXPECTED' - in other words she was expected to do well but didn't. Then 'got 1 A and 2 Bs ONLY'. There is only one inference to be drawn here.
The meaning is pretty clear.
The meaning is pretty clear.
Re: Sharing Our Experience in 11 Plus Journey
I didn’t see this as dictating anything. The OP has helpfully spent time sharing what their family did, in case it’s useful for anyone else to learn from. That’s all.piggys wrote:
In theory it is good to 'share your experiences', but when you start dictating what families should and shouldn't be eating, and producing detailed daily schedules accounting for every minute of every day then it all gets a bit controlling and obsessive doesn't it?
Re: Sharing Our Experience in 11 Plus Journey
Hi DG,
Regarding your question, we need to do a little bit differently for our younger one as Sutton and Slough are off the card from our target schools. We have to focus only GL (no more CEM) when he will be in year 5. Another reason is they are different in character. Elder one is better in Maths and younger one is better in vocabulary. We live in Barnet and do not need to move home now for QE (35 minutes by car in the morning). Actually we might need to move by the end of 2020 if we can't afford new home as share equity ownership in development. For the mean time, prices of new home in share equity ownership have not come out yet and I don't know exactly whether we can afford to move to new home in development.
Experience we share in this post is information we received when we met old students and their family (None of our own comment included).
Regarding our own experience are actual facts we went through.
I plan no more tutoring for my son in secondary.
To Piggy - This is exactly what she said when we met her and her family. She said " I didn't do well as expected and got 1A and 2Bs only". I mention in my post that there is not only one particular way to achieve your target and missing a grammar school place is not the end of the world. I also mention to consider rationally and adjust to suit with your different circumstances.
Regards,
KWY
Regarding your question, we need to do a little bit differently for our younger one as Sutton and Slough are off the card from our target schools. We have to focus only GL (no more CEM) when he will be in year 5. Another reason is they are different in character. Elder one is better in Maths and younger one is better in vocabulary. We live in Barnet and do not need to move home now for QE (35 minutes by car in the morning). Actually we might need to move by the end of 2020 if we can't afford new home as share equity ownership in development. For the mean time, prices of new home in share equity ownership have not come out yet and I don't know exactly whether we can afford to move to new home in development.
Experience we share in this post is information we received when we met old students and their family (None of our own comment included).
Regarding our own experience are actual facts we went through.
I plan no more tutoring for my son in secondary.
To Piggy - This is exactly what she said when we met her and her family. She said " I didn't do well as expected and got 1A and 2Bs only". I mention in my post that there is not only one particular way to achieve your target and missing a grammar school place is not the end of the world. I also mention to consider rationally and adjust to suit with your different circumstances.
Regards,
KWY
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Daogroupie
- Posts: 11106
- Joined: Wed Mar 04, 2009 3:01 pm
- Location: Herts
Re: Sharing Our Experience in 11 Plus Journey
Thank you.
Are you glad to see the back of CEM?
Which format did your ds prefer? CEM or GL?
Are you in DAO catchment if you are in Barnet?
Does your younger ds also want to go to QE?
Are other students from your study centre or your school also going to QE with your ds?
Will he know anyone at QE when he starts?
Thanks DG
Are you glad to see the back of CEM?
Which format did your ds prefer? CEM or GL?
Are you in DAO catchment if you are in Barnet?
Does your younger ds also want to go to QE?
Are other students from your study centre or your school also going to QE with your ds?
Will he know anyone at QE when he starts?
Thanks DG
Re: Sharing Our Experience in 11 Plus Journey
Thanks for sharing your experience.
Re: Sharing Our Experience in 11 Plus Journey
Thanks for sharing your experience. Best wishes to your DS for QE.