IPS 30 Min Papers

Advice on 11 Plus VR papers and problems

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Booklady
Posts: 522
Joined: Mon May 19, 2008 10:39 pm

IPS 30 Min Papers

Post by Booklady »

Hi - can anyone tell me how high at this point in the year the kids should be scoring in the 30min time limit. Reason for asking - my (almost) 10 year old sat one at the tutors, and whilst she gotall the questions she answered right - she only managed to do half the questions in the time - so received a score of 24 (out of 50) which she is obviously disappointed with. The issue seems to be the time - not the accuracy when she actually answers them - but how quickly will this speed up? Thanks for your thoughts!
yoyo123
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Location: East Kent

Post by yoyo123 »

how long has she been doing them?

Timing can be an issue to begin with, get her to move on if she is stuck on a question, she can always go back.
pixiequeen
Posts: 378
Joined: Thu Nov 27, 2008 12:06 am

Post by pixiequeen »

My DD is also doing these papers - we have done papers 1 - 6 out of 10 and she has never managed to get more than 30 questions (sometimes only 20) answered in time until paper 6, for which we told her to leave till last the 'Z' questions (the reading information ones) and to guess (and circle the question number for so she could come back to it) and move on from any question she was having difficulty with. She managed to answer 39 questions, all correct, which gives a decent percentage.

We were pleased, because like you, we were panicking about her timing. She is definitely getting faster but 'exam techniques' seemed to make a huge difference. Might be worth asking your DD if she was given this sort of advice before attempting the test, and if not, I wouldn't worry about it. There's still a long time to go. I reckon getting the answers right is more important at this stage (not that I have any previous experience with this!)
sherry_d
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Location: Maidstone

Post by sherry_d »

I think speed comes with practise, practise and more practise.

I have a DD who absolutely hates being timed but I am gently introducing timing and in my post here

http://www.elevenplusexams.co.uk/forum/ ... hp?t=14234

I got some really useful responses on how to time her.

At the moment she too takes too long but I am trying not to make too big a fuss now until we start practise papers in a few months. I am however introducing timing sneakly and so she knows that timing is crucial. I think because some of the questions are still a bit unfamiliar that could be the reason they take long at this stage.

Pixiequeen have you tried one of these papers youself? I tried 2 just to get a feel and what a :shock: :shock: :shock: I took nearly double the time and it just shows how important it is for them to keep practising and answer questions at rocket speed.
Impossible is Nothing.
pixiequeen
Posts: 378
Joined: Thu Nov 27, 2008 12:06 am

Post by pixiequeen »

Pixiequeen have you tried one of these papers youself? I tried 2 just to get a feel and what a I took nearly double the time and it just shows how important it is for them to keep practising and answer questions at rocket speed.
Sherry_d, no I haven't! I know I would be faster at the maths than my DD but I'm not sure I really understand those letter series questions! :shock: I suppose I should try one really. The standard and speed required of our poor 10 year olds is incredible. I'm pretty sure I would struggle to finish in time.

Thanks for the link to the other posts re: timing. I had a look and there's some really useful stuff there.
patricia
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Joined: Mon Jan 30, 2006 5:07 pm

Post by patricia »

Dear Booklady

Which area/school are you applying for?

Follows a copy and paste from an old post of mine. It talks about 50 minute papers but can be applied to the 30 minute tests too.


Timing, off the top of my head..

1] Speed writing, get your child to write out their name as quick as possible 10 times. Keep timing until they get quicker and quicker.

2] Do NOT write neatly, I tell my children, this is one itme they can write as scruffy as they want, as long as THEY can read it [because no one else will look at it]

3] Work directly from the answer sheet for types D H Q and E [ as identified by IPS]

4] When marking the answer sheet use one line from left to right [right handed children] I tell my children if you do one line then go back over it again, that second line takes approx half a second. 80 times half a second, thats 40 seconds wasted just drawing a line! 40 seconds thats a code answered or perhaps 5 easy questions...

5] Type Z MUST be left till last. Guess and move on.

6] Child must not panic, thinking that they must complete 40 questions in 25 minutes. Its NOT 30 seconds per question. If 2 types of codes and the bracket maths appear [ K ] in the first half of the paper, then they are probably not going to be anywhere near question 40.

7] Make notes! Some children [particulary boys] think that they have to keep everything in their head. Its actually quicker to make notes, particulary all the maths and code questions. When working quickly a child trying to keep figures and sequences in their head often either makes mistakes or forgets where they are and then have start again [wasting time]

8] Practice, Practice, Practice. There is no doubt about it, practice does make perfect.

9] 10 x 10 times table squares every week. [numbers mixed up, not in order and including the 11 and 12s] The answer 7 x 8 is 56 now not 5/10 seconds later. Eventually add the 15 then 13 times table.

10] Teach multiplication and division the old fashioned way. Not chunking and grids. I tell my children they do it my way for the 11 plus, they do as their teacher says for school.

11] Use, perhaps AFN papers during session time. Time each individual section. Say I am going to give you 5 minutes to answer this section of 7/8 codes. I am going to give you 3 minutes to complete this section of 7 bracket maths [ K ]

12] Photocopy papers [your own personal use, so its OK] have competitions with your child, can they beat you answering a section of finding the hidden 4 letter word or a section of codes etc etc.

13] .......

Patricia
Sassie'sDad
Posts: 459
Joined: Tue Jan 22, 2008 3:36 pm
Location: Rugby

Post by Sassie'sDad »

Sorry to be critical Booklady, but if your dd is only/ less than ten years old then this is overkill! Wherever you live and no matter how competitive the system you are in, there is real danger of turning off your bright child!
Here in Warwickshire, heaven knows, it is competitive enough, yet a substantial cohort of successful candidates NEVER get prolonged tuition or tutoring.
I also believe that the brightest children are actually harmed by being subjected to systematic tutoring.
It is useful to familiarise with NVR but you cannot teach it! Improve their maths instead.
patricia
Posts: 2803
Joined: Mon Jan 30, 2006 5:07 pm

Post by patricia »

Dear Sassies Dad

That will depend on when the child is taking the 11 plus. Should it be Bucks the child could well be just under 10 years old and will be taking their test this September/October. It would not be overkill at this stage.

Method/technique and Timing are very important.

Patricia
pixiequeen
Posts: 378
Joined: Thu Nov 27, 2008 12:06 am

Post by pixiequeen »

In Booklady's defence (and mine!), I think her DD is sitting the Glos. 11+ at the beginning of October. Unfortunately it is the norm in Glos. for even the brightest children to have tutoring which raises the standard required to get in to a ridiculous level. :evil:
Booklady
Posts: 522
Joined: Mon May 19, 2008 10:39 pm

Post by Booklady »

Thanks for your responses everyone! Most useful!! To answer the questions - my DD is almost 10, and we currently live in Bucks - but may be moving to Gloucestershire (depending on job interview - tomorrow!!) - Verbal reasoning is the exam in both areas - and is taken in Oct / Nov so most certainly not overkill at this stage I don't think! Our local Upper school is awful - she's not going there!! however the choices are better near where we may live if we do move. But we need to keep focussed for now I think!!
I have looked at the paper she did with the tutor - and will speak to the tutor this week - but I can see she did not get as far as the Z questions. However she also did not used the 'looking at the answer sheet' technique for some of the others - so I can see that would improve the speed. I am not too concerned right now - but will certainly use some of the hints posted to improve speed - whilst keeping accuracy high!
Thanks to all again! :D
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