Watford Grammar for Girls - Please help

Eleven Plus (11+) in South West Hertfordshire

Moderators: Section Moderators, Forum Moderators

Post Reply
11 Plus Mocks - Practise the real exam experience - Book Now
maznaq
Posts: 40
Joined: Sat Sep 18, 2010 6:49 pm

Watford Grammar for Girls - Please help

Post by maznaq »

Evening all. I'm a little upset so i thought I'd seek your advice. My daughter has come back from a mock test and hasn't come back with the results we hoped! she scored 70% in maths and 73% in VR. With the exams not to far away i know this is not enough, but I'm hoping that she can work on it. We have made such a big scarifice and moved homes just so we're in the catchment area. Although we are 582 meters away from the school, we're not taking any chance on the distance rule and need to work through the tests. so my questions are;

1. How much should i make her work during the day, at the moment she was doing a paper a day in the morning and not much else the rest of the day.

2. what should she work through? should she redo her tests paper? any worksheets i could get hold of, for the more difficult topics?

3. what realistic percentage should she be getting?

thank u!
Daogroupie
Posts: 11100
Joined: Wed Mar 04, 2009 3:01 pm
Location: Herts

Re: Watford Grammar for Girls; PLEASE HELP

Post by Daogroupie »

Which mock was this? Did you get the papers back so you can go through them. How different were the results to results you were getting at home. You can expect a drop of at least ten percent when your dd is in the exam environment. There is no point in keeping on doing papers at this late stage. What you need to do is find out where she is losing the marks and make up papers with those questions and keep on doing those until she understands them. VR is simply speed. Did she manage to finish? Did she lose the marks because she did not finish or beause she got them wrong? You need to be getting marks in the high eighties. The IPS papers come in ten minute tests, I found those very helpful in a little and often approach. I would try another mock especially one where you get the papers back. What materials have you been using? DG
maznaq
Posts: 40
Joined: Sat Sep 18, 2010 6:49 pm

Re: Watford Grammar for Girls; PLEASE HELP

Post by maznaq »

Daogroupie wrote:Which mock was this? Did you get the papers back so you can go through them. How different were the results to results you were getting at home. You can expect a drop of at least ten percent when your dd is in the exam environment. There is no point in keeping on doing papers at this late stage. What you need to do is find out where she is losing the marks and make up papers with those questions and keep on doing those until she understands them. VR is simply speed. Did she manage to finish? Did she lose the marks because she did not finish or beause she got them wrong? You need to be getting marks in the high eighties. The IPS papers come in ten minute tests, I found those very helpful in a little and often approach. I would try another mock especially one where you get the papers back. What materials have you been using? DG
hi DG, thanks so much for you reply.

the mock test was in a tuition center, we did get the papers back and the tuition center did go through the answers. she says she understands them now. At home we were doing walsh and she was getting 78% but i expected that as they are one of the hardest papers. i think i will follow your adivce and stop papers for now, what can she do to build on her basic knowledge any particular books?

she did manage to finish all the questions, she lost marks because she got them wrong as well as careless mistakes. i'll order the IPS papers. do you think its possible to work over these few weeks to bump the percentage up? im now beginning to panic!!!
Daogroupie
Posts: 11100
Joined: Wed Mar 04, 2009 3:01 pm
Location: Herts

Re: Watford Grammar for Girls; PLEASE HELP

Post by Daogroupie »

Absolutely! Your most important tool will be your dd's own work ethic and desire to get into the school. You need to nail where she is losing the marks and keep on going over those topics. How is she on timetables? That is a topic lots of ten year olds cannot really grasp as they don't have to read bus and rail timetables in primary school. I discovered just weeks before the exams that elder dd did not know how to read a timetable and was reading along instead of down. I went through all the papers and made a timetable paper and did it over and over until she got it and so she picked up those marks in every paper she sat. In some exams that was ten marks as the timetable would have several questions linked to it Learning together have some good papers that cover this. The Scofield and Sims revision guide for KS2 maths is excellent, everything you need to know for the Maths paper will be in that book. The forum shop will do free next day delivery if you order before 2pm and they have all these books. The Peter Robson books are also very good. Which VR questions is she weak on? DG
herty
Posts: 332
Joined: Tue Nov 24, 2009 11:23 pm

Re: Watford Grammar for Girls; PLEASE HELP

Post by herty »

Agree with daogroupie - no point doing endless papers unless she learns from them where she has gone wrong. Either you or a tutor need to go through every paper she does and with every question she gets wrong, work out why she got it wrong. If it was because she doesn't understand how to do the topic, you need to teach her the topic and give her some more practice questions on that topic - maybe not a whole paper as daogroupie did, unless you have a very patient child! If it's that she made careless errors, you need to start incentivising her to make less/no careless errors - the most important skill I taught my dd was never to assume she'd got the right answer and get in the habit of double-checking as a matter of course (in the maths paper, anyway - probably not time in the VR). If it's just that she didn't read the question correctly ie right answer to the wrong question, as opposed to careless adding up, say, then she needs more practice at focusing on the wording of the question, underlining key words/figures etc.

And speed, is of course, essential - esp in the VR. Get her to aim to do the whole paper and gradually cut down the time she has so she can fit them all in correctly - it will be a rush!

But don't panic - my dd failed to see the whole last page of questions in the WGGS exam and stil got in - we were convinced she hadn't! (But do learn from her mistake and REMEMBER TO TURN OVER THE LAST PAGE!!)
herty
Posts: 332
Joined: Tue Nov 24, 2009 11:23 pm

Re: Watford Grammar for Girls; PLEASE HELP

Post by herty »

Also, remember everyone's scores will probably be slightly lower this year, as the exams are earlier.
maznaq
Posts: 40
Joined: Sat Sep 18, 2010 6:49 pm

Re: Watford Grammar for Girls; PLEASE HELP

Post by maznaq »

Daogroupie wrote:Absolutely! Your most important tool will be your dd's own work ethic and desire to get into the school. You need to nail where she is losing the marks and keep on going over those topics. How is she on timetables? That is a topic lots of ten year olds cannot really grasp as they don't have to read bus and rail timetables in primary school. I discovered just weeks before the exams that elder dd did not know how to read a timetable and was reading along instead of down. I went through all the papers and made a timetable paper and did it over and over until she got it and so she picked up those marks in every paper she sat. In some exams that was ten marks as the timetable would have several questions linked to it Learning together have some good papers that cover this. The Scofield and Sims revision guide for KS2 maths is excellent, everything you need to know for the Maths paper will be in that book. The forum shop will do free next day delivery if you order before 2pm and they have all these books. The Peter Robson books are also very good. Which VR questions is she weak on? DG
Thats a good tip, thanks DG i'll check my daughters understanding of timetables tomorrow. with VR her biggest problem is vocabulary. We've made a book, where she has to look up new words, but we have to find ways for her to remember the meanings now. Today we went through the mock test papers and thats what came up, althought she didnt get many wrong each question held 2 or more marks which bought her percentage down!
maznaq
Posts: 40
Joined: Sat Sep 18, 2010 6:49 pm

Re: Watford Grammar for Girls; PLEASE HELP

Post by maznaq »

herty wrote:Agree with daogroupie - no point doing endless papers unless she learns from them where she has gone wrong. Either you or a tutor need to go through every paper she does and with every question she gets wrong, work out why she got it wrong. If it was because she doesn't understand how to do the topic, you need to teach her the topic and give her some more practice questions on that topic - maybe not a whole paper as daogroupie did, unless you have a very patient child! If it's that she made careless errors, you need to start incentivising her to make less/no careless errors - the most important skill I taught my dd was never to assume she'd got the right answer and get in the habit of double-checking as a matter of course (in the maths paper, anyway - probably not time in the VR). If it's just that she didn't read the question correctly ie right answer to the wrong question, as opposed to careless adding up, say, then she needs more practice at focusing on the wording of the question, underlining key words/figures etc.

And speed, is of course, essential - esp in the VR. Get her to aim to do the whole paper and gradually cut down the time she has so she can fit them all in correctly - it will be a rush!

But don't panic - my dd failed to see the whole last page of questions in the WGGS exam and stil got in - we were convinced she hadn't! (But do learn from her mistake and REMEMBER TO TURN OVER THE LAST PAGE!!)
thanks herty! I think i will get her to underline the key words as she reads the question thats a good idea! Although she is finishing the paper in time, she doesnt have enough time to double check. shall i reduce her time? (Will def remind my daughter to check the very last page!!! :) )
herty
Posts: 332
Joined: Tue Nov 24, 2009 11:23 pm

Re: Watford Grammar for Girls - Please help

Post by herty »

In maths, she should aim to have enough time to double check, but if she's finishing VR in time, she's doing well - few have extra time to check VR when there's 45 mins for 100 questions.
Post Reply
11 Plus Platform - Online Practice Makes Perfect - Try Now