Is there any 11 plus tutoring or home d I y in Warwickshire?

[mystery]

Or has having c e m exams for the last few years stopped this happening?

[guest201]

I think most kids are tutored here, if not by a tutor then by a parent. Certainly at my DDs school most, if not all, of the kids who sat the exam and would be considered capable of passing (eg. tops sets) had some type of tutoring.

[JamesDean]

Personally, I think it would be unfair on the child to send them in completely unprepared! DS had never seen an NVR question before July, so not to show him some over the summer would have meant he was unable to attempt 2 of the sections in the test! Or else he'd have spent most of the short amount of time available working out what to do!

These tests may or may not be tutor-proof, but just a few minutes on a site like this gives parents a vague idea of what type of questions to expect. My DS did a variety of practice papers over the summer, covering NVR and VR, so that I was happy he wouldn't get any shocks on the day - and he came out saying there wasn't anything on the papers he hadn't seen before.

Whether we did enough, or the right things, remains to be seen - perhaps we'll know mid-October ...

JD

[ginx]

Last year, at dd2's school, most dp's denied having used a tutor; but their dc admitted they had seen a tutor (several shared); the rest of us DIY'ed. I don't think anyone sent their dc into the exam without some kind of practice.

Dc need experience of doing a timed test, and my dd2 had never seen nvr before, it would have been cruel to send her into an exam without having seen it. I only know of one name, though, as I think she advertises (or used to) so don't know where these children went.

I don't know how much tutoring helped. The year before that, a friend had tutoring and said nothing she had done for a whole year of lessons and homework had any relevance to the exam whatsoever. What a waste of time, effort and money, but she passed anyway.

[Brum Mum]

I originally said that I wouldn't tutor or prepare and was of the opinion that the child should be able to walk in and do their best (I even thought that what was required would be taught in school as part of the curriculum ).

I soon realised that this was very naive!

Having spoken to a number of parents it became apparent that the majority were receiving some form of tutoring (whether DIY or otherwise) and that I would not be offering DS a fair crack of the whip by not providing any.

[leanmeamum]

I think going into any type of test or competition unprepared would be putting the child/person under huge stress. In these exams you have no time to waste trying to work out what needs to be done - parents or tutor needs to show the child what to expect.

You wouldn't send in your football team for a match without showing them a pitch, teaching them the rules or practising the game!

[Fatnorville]

I agree with the opinions above. You would be putting you DC at a great disadvantage if you didn't do some tutoring.

I guess the real question is how much tutoring should you do? I guess it is down to the ability of the child and the anxiety of the parent.

In my case my DS is able and hard working. His father is a worrier.....So I insisted he had a lot of tutoring.

[mystery]

Thank you. Next question - did the introduction of c e m papers ( I do not know what you had before) make any difference to the cross section of children that qualified for a selective place?

[guest201]

I have a friend who has kids in GS, two did the old test and one did the CEM test, she says that there are a number of children who struggle at GS in the older kids year groups (they did the old test) but in the younger child's year group (CEM test) this is not the case. She is convinced that the CEM test is a better selection test.

[mystery]

That's interesting. Has anyone else made that observation? Do the schools themselves see a difference? Have their overall results changed relative to similar schools that did not make the change to C E M?