Lastminute.com ?..HELP

[Mama2]

Hello

I posted on here a few months ago as we thought we were moving to Kent, then our house sale fell through so we did not worry about the 11+ as we currently live in an area that has never heard of 11+

Long story short, we are now moving to Kent (Tonbridge)and done NO preparation and in a blind panic. The HM of DDs new school is rather keen that she tries the 11+ and told her to relax about it!!!!!!!

So major help and advice needed from all you lovely experienced parents.

What books are the best for the Kent Test( well be in Tonbridge) and any approaches that are useful. I will be doing D.I.Y as won't have time to find a tutor and we don't actually move until middle to end of August.

DD is rather anxious about doing the test and with relocating will find it difficult enough starting a new school, so don't want to load her with too much pressure.

I'm thinking short sessions everyday maybe rather than hours or days of practice/tutoring.

Advice please

[penguin]

Hi and welcome to the forum and Kent


I moved here in Dec last year

My advice is cobbled together from this excellent forum.

just incase you're sat there biting your nails - enough small talk for the mo.

Have you registered for the test already?

look at the stickies at the top of the Kent forum

http://www.elevenplusexams.co.uk/forum/ ... 05#p311805" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

will show you required raw scores for previous years showing also therefore how many questions to expect in the test.

I'd say go straight for the GL assessment papers which are the closest thing to Kent test in NVR, VR and maths - you can access the details from the shop tab above.
there will be 2 packs per subject and 4 packs per paper

Actually doing these will highlight any areas for concern and then you can work with your DD on them

your timescales for the move and test are very tight and you have my genuine sympathy, I was rubbish at both packing and unpacking and am still in a bit of a state.

Any spare time work on getting time tables super fast and increasing range of vocabulary.


Good Luck

[pheasantchick]

Welcome to the forum, and good luck with the preparation!

The Kent test covers non-verbal reasoning, verbal reasoning and maths. plus a story for borderline situations. The bond books are also good to go over basics. The format for the test is multiple choice.

Please feel free to post any questions, however trivial they may seem, about anything (11+ exams,. Kent schools, how to clean criciket whites...). You've come to the right place. There are alot of dedicated Kentish (and non-Kentish) people on here, who will be willing to help.

[yoyo123]

Suitable books are suggested here

http://www.elevenplusexams.co.uk/shop/Kent/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The GL papers are the nearest in format to the Kent test and will get her used to the 'feel' of the papers.

Good sites for maths practice

http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/math.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

http://www.arcademicskillbuilders.com/g ... eteor.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk ... index.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


games like online mahjong, tetris , jigsaws and spot the difference help with NVR skills

Vocab

play Scrabble and Boggle type word games - allow use of a dictionary to help find new words.
http://www.freerice.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://www.scholastic.com/wordgirl/synonym_toast.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Just ask if you need any more help/advice or even a sympathetic ear to yell into.

[Minty]

There is a very big private all boys school in Tonbridge which runs 11+ practice courses in the Summer holidays - not sure if they would still have availability but you could check their website/call them to see if they have any spaces.

Best of luck (with the house move too).
Minty

[Mama2]

Thank you so much everyone. I've had a good look around this site and it is so daunting and so much material out there, it's difficult to know where to start

Does anyone know if the Bright Sparks books by Susan daughtrey are any good?

[yoyo123]

The Susan Daughtrey Books cover far more types of question than there are in the Kent test and as it is late in the day you would be better off using Tutors , GL , Bright Sparks tests or IPS Techniques

This is really good
http://www.elevenplusexams.co.uk/shop/9 ... oning.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; explains how to do the tests but also has lots of puzzles and word games.

[mystery]

I think that with the short amount of time you have the best thing is to buy the GL assessment practice papers - two packs for each subject, 8 papers in all per subject, in maths, verbal reasoning and non-verbal reasoning. Try GL Assessment website if it's not clear from the shop on this website - there should be pack 1 and pack 2 in each subject.

Also GL assessment produce two books which explain how to do their questions - verbal reasoning explained and non-verbal reasoning explained.

I don't think you can do better than that. If you do that you'll be just as well prepared as anyone else . don't think you can do other practice papers as well in t he time that you have and do justice to the GL assessment questions. GL assessment sets the Kent paper so you are not going to get anything closer than this.

Don't worry about the written task - that's just used if your child's mark is borderline. If you go to appeal if your child fails you can use other evidence.

Good luck!

p.s to get a pass (for Weald of Kent) only your daughter needs to get approx 50% right on each paper, and for Tonbridge Grammar for Girls more than that (but not sure exactly what as it varies each year). So you don't need to get hung up on getting 90% plus - the posts on here get rather scary in that respect.

What is your child's current NC grade in maths?

[Mama2]

Mystery- her latest report (last week) shows that her levels are 5Cs in the three Rs, 4B in science. She is on AG and T list for literacy so would like to think I wouldn't have to worry about the written task

[yoyo123]

she should do well, just need to make sure she is familiar with teh format,as Mystery try the GL papers