Advice needed on what to concentrate on in the last weeks

[colchestermum]

Hi Everyone

Just a little advice needed.
DS weakest area is english - about 10-12% less than the other two in practice.
What I want to know is do I get him to do lots and lots of practrice on this (he hates comprehension and this is his weakest area - esp last years paper - but then how can you teach a 10 yr old to understand Dickens? I struggle my self!! lol) or do I make his strong areas stronger? Given that VR is worth twice as much as english and is his favourite one?
Maths he is getting over 90% average.

What should I do? given that there is only 3 weeks and his birthday is next week and i've promised him a couple of days off to celebrate etc!!

So should I:
a-spread practice between all three
b- concentrate on getting VR best it could possibly be
or c- concentrate on getting english score up?

Would really appreciate everyones comments
Thanks in advance

[marigold]

My son did the exam this time last year, I really feel for you, I can remember the anxious pit in my stomach far too clearly.

His weakest paper was definitely the English so we concentrated on VR to try and get that score as high as possible and the English revision was mainly focused on getting him to read the question properly and take his time reading the passage rather than skimming through it, all his mistakes seemed to be from rushing.

We slowed down about a fortnight before the exam and did nothing in the actual week ( it was his birthday too ) and it worked for him.
Good luck to you both.

[Moonlight]

Hi Colchestermum, my DS also sat his 11+ exam last year. We concentrated more on verbal reasoning, as this accounts for 50% of the overall mark, and we felt that this would hopefully boost the final score should there be a dip in maths or english on the day. We found it very difficult, however, to prepare DS for the english paper as it was sometimes a struggle to get him to read texts thoroughly before answering any questions. Also, the passage that they are expected to read on the day is far harder than anything they will have come across in Year 6. It was quite a stressful time leading up to the exam for all of us but it was worth it as DS has just started at CRGS and is really enjoying it there. Good luck to you and your DS.

[colchestermum]

Thanks for your replies x
my instinct was to get VR the best it can possibly be. I don't want to make him hate the English before the exam which I think he would if I overdid it now.Like you my DS tending to rush/ not read the passage properly.
It is such a stressful time but this forum is great. Everyone is so supportive! Thank you :wink

[moved]

I recommend that my pupils keep going on all three.

Don't over emphasise English papers at this stage, the last thing you want is for him to worry. With my weaker pupils I tend to choose a text and work through together looking for the picture that the author has "painted". If you are working with your son then get him to make a word section with you to do. He should use a thesaurus and replicate the section from a paper (line numbers included). Most children enjoy torturing Mummy!

Ensure that he can get full marks for the punctuation section. Choose passages from the same text that you are using for the word section and remove the punctuation so that your child can put it back in again.

As everyone else has said the VR is double, try and get the maximum score that you can for this.

I always recommend stopping a week before the exam. Play with words during the last week, have early nights, good food and plenty of relaxation.

For my mock recently I was looking for a score of 180 for a Colchester school. This was a 50 mark English paper, a 45 mark maths paper and an 80 mark VR paper (double score for VR).

[Minesatea]

Hi moved -

For my mock recently I was looking for a score of 180 for a Colchester school. This was a 50 mark English paper, a 45 mark maths paper and an 80 mark VR paper (double score for VR).

Can I ask - was this using real CSSE papers or ones you have written? Which brand of VR paper? (trying to judge standard!)

[moved]

Papers that I have written and Bright Sparks 8. The papers were of a similar level of toughness to the 2010 papers.

[tee tee]

My DS is in year 4 and will sit the 11 plus in 2012. I have already identified English as being the weakest of the 3 areas. I have started encouraging him to read classical story books and getting him to replace difficult words with synonyms. My advice is to introduce kids to such diction as early as possible. Also, we are working on punctuations at present to ensure this sticks from an early age. Good luck to all the kids sitting the exam this November.

[moved]

Tee hee

I recommend to early starters that they keep a word diary along side their reading book. Each time a new word is found it should be written in the diary. This way you have a log to keep.

[tee tee]

Thanks a lot for this "moved". Very useful tip.