Final 12 weeks strategies

[Jeanieeveritt]

Dear all ,
How do you make good use the final 12 weeks? I started to ask my DS to do one VR and one Maths paper a week and lots of my friends said it was not enough at all . How much work do you ask your child to do ?

Thx in advance !

[baljeetdogra]

I have asked my daughter to simply practice papers and use the app for 30 mins a day. To be honest, I am not putting too much pressure on my daughter as I am not too serious about grammar schools. She wants to try it so we are giving it a shot.
Oh and mock tests whenever possible.

[Deb70]

I don't think the GL papers are very helpful in the final weeks before the test (I am referring to the ones with about 80 questions and they get about an hour). This isn't realistic and my advice is practice the same length papers that they will do in the real test. This information will be provided in your guidance. It's quite late to be learning new material so practice technique. Also try and get the child "de-stressed", ie talk to them so they know what to expect on the day, and reassure them that they just need to give it their best effort on the day and see what happens.

[Scorch]

Hi,

I think I just need some moral support. My DS will be sitting the 11+. I ordered all the books and we have done bits and pieces since Oct 2018. So we didn't start too early and any work has just been done at home. His teacher said that he was a good candidate for the 11+ and so we decided to go for it but he is very laid back and doesn't seem that interested in doing too much work or sample papers etc.

At this stage, he may pass or maybe not I really don't know. Perhaps I am overthinking this and just need to let it happen.

[StowMum]

Hi,

This time last year, we just focused on the areas we know needed extra work - this was creative writing. By now you should have a good idea on their strength and weakness. We would work on this 30 mins three times week in the summer holidays with 1 practice paper in maths and NVR (his favourite topic). We also made sure DS1 kept on reading every night. Towards the last 4 weeks we added in more practice papers and stopped the creative writing as this was covered in the papers. There is no use going over work that they know well all summer. The practice papers were to reinforce the timing and make sure he completed the papers without getting stressed. He sat a mock in the beginning of the holidays and in the middle which helped with this. Finally we had a break in the holidays and kept up all summer activities so life was not just about the 11+. DS2 takes the exam this summer and his weakness in comprehension. We will use the same format and hopefully get him into a grammar school too.

Good luck

StowMum

[saffronLondon]

Great advice above!
My problem is that DS is getting a bit fed up with all the studying and seems to resent me asking him to do work after school(1 hour) DH has delegated the nagging to me so I appear to be the bad cop!
How do I encourage DS to carry on without flagging (or hating me!) ? We've dangled the carrot of holiday in America .......

[Deb70]

One hour every night sounds too much. I would go over any weak areas but mainly focus on timing and technique. Have enough sleep and relaxation too.