DIY Route - A plan?

Eleven Plus (11+) in Gloucestershire (Glos)

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secondtimearound1
Posts: 2
Joined: Tue Oct 18, 2011 2:16 pm

DIY Route - A plan?

Post by secondtimearound1 »

Hi All,

I thought I would join and post whilst there are a lot of people around whose sons / daughters have just completed the 11-plus.

My eldest son took the GS test last year and in my opinion under performed on the day. He did however score highly enough to gain a place at the local GS. I kicked myself that I had been very naive about the process. We opted to home tutor due to the cost involved and the fact that I was confident in my own ability to tutor my son. The day of the test he came out and said there were a lot of question types he had not seen before. I was stressed for a week awaiting the results, hoping he had done well enough to pass and kicking myself I had not got a tutor for him. As much as he passed I expected his scores to be higher he did not have enough points for what would have been my 1st choice school. I used the NFER tests (pack of 4) and he could complete them scoring 98/99%.

My second son is currently in year 4 and I have vowed to make a plan to make sure he is well prepared when his time comes. To those out there who have tutored your own children when do you think the right time to start is? Also what materials would you recommend? I think the test papers I used with ds1 are known as the "easier" practise papers. Which are the "harder" ones? Can anyone suggest "a plan"??

Thank you in advance any advise will be greatly received.
stroudydad
Posts: 2246
Joined: Sat Oct 08, 2011 2:25 pm

Re: DIY Route - A plan?

Post by stroudydad »

Obviously this will be different depending on the 'type' of child, but lots of word games will help with vocabulary, for compound words, similar/opposite meanings etc.
menagerie
Posts: 577
Joined: Thu May 26, 2011 9:37 pm

Re: DIY Route - A plan?

Post by menagerie »

I've found getting the Bond How to booklets helps as they cover all questions. I've also got hold of National Curriculum KS2 & 3 Maths papers, so we can go through, very systematically any areas, that their rather laid back school hasn't covered in time for the exams.

For English we read a lot together and use quite adult vocab when chatting.

Rock solid grammar and multiplication tables are fundamental to success, confidence and speed.

For fun they do sudoku or word searches occasionally (not that often), play bookworm or play on Freerice. I've not found computer educational games that successful. If they're online they'd prefer to be doing what they want to do, so they have made the demarcation between work & play.
sarahfegan
Posts: 15
Joined: Sat Oct 15, 2011 12:54 am

Re: DIY Route - A plan?

Post by sarahfegan »

We were very late to the party and didn't start prep with DD till may, even then only doing an hour or two a week maximum.She was achieving 90-95% on the GL assessment tests and on the day scored 234 Ribston and Shs. starting too early you run the risk i suppose of "over doing it" but Vocabulary is one of the best to brush up on. give the child a page of a book and a thesaurus and ask them to rewrite it and simplify/formalise the language. My daughter is addicted to the brain training game on her DS anyway and checks her brain age daily, I swear this has really helped her problem solving and working to time. She also loves word searchs and crosswords and Once i printed out some Harry Potter ones she never viewed it as work!
Orson
Posts: 238
Joined: Sun Jan 13, 2008 7:18 pm
Location: Gloucestershire

Re: DIY Route - A plan?

Post by Orson »

Read, read and read - lots of different genres. Make sure mental maths is sharp and tables are solid.

GL Assessment - both packs are essential.
Bright Sparks - both packs are very relevant - good resources.
Bond - ok for practising but much is irrelevant.
Susan Daughtrey's VR books (1-7) - ok for practising but contain 35 types, many of which do not appear in the test.
menagerie
Posts: 577
Joined: Thu May 26, 2011 9:37 pm

Re: DIY Route - A plan?

Post by menagerie »

Orson - does the irrelevance of Bond not depend on where you live?
Orson
Posts: 238
Joined: Sun Jan 13, 2008 7:18 pm
Location: Gloucestershire

Re: DIY Route - A plan?

Post by Orson »

Yes. I'm commenting with regards to Glos :) .
secondtimearound1
Posts: 2
Joined: Tue Oct 18, 2011 2:16 pm

Re: DIY Route - A plan?

Post by secondtimearound1 »

Thank you to all of you for your advice. I don't want to go ott with ds2 but want to be sure he us well prepared.

Thanks again!
PaterGloucester
Posts: 152
Joined: Sat Oct 23, 2010 10:53 pm

Re: DIY Route - A plan?

Post by PaterGloucester »

secondtimearound1 wrote:Hi All,

To those out there who have tutored your own children when do you think the right time to start is? Also what materials would you recommend? I think the test papers I used with ds1 are known as the "easier" practise papers. Which are the "harder" ones? Can anyone suggest "a plan"??

Thank you in advance any advise will be greatly received.
All of these points have been answered with surgical precision in previous posts. Look back in the forums and you will find a broad selection of really helpful advice. Most people drop out of the forums after DC has taken the test, though some of us with kids close in age lurk.

All the help you need is here in the archives.
mum23*
Posts: 417
Joined: Tue Mar 02, 2010 1:28 pm

Re: DIY Route - A plan?

Post by mum23* »

If you want the slightly harder papers - then Walsh (I think there are 3 books but maybe more?), Tutors (download from this site) level 4 is quite hard and make sure you have the new Letts as well as the old because the new papers are harder. This advice is for VR as that is all we have to do here. There is a great thread in which Patricia goes through a list of resources and in which order to use them if you DIY. It might be in the Bucks section I think.
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