where to start with CEM preparation

[bibi_a]

Hi All

My DD is in year 5 and I need to prepare her for the 11+ exams in September. We are looking into school such HB and Slough grammar school. Both I think are CEM papers and HB has writing on the second round.
Her main weakness is lacking speed and this will be something I need to start working on as soon as possible according to all the information I have read on this forum.
I have started to work on her maths using the progress papers maths schofield and sims book 1.
VR , we will be doing CGP CEM book
English schofield and sims comprehension book.
Vocabulary, learning the list of words from this website with antonyms and synonyms.

please let me know if I am on the right path, what else should I work on for vocabulary. We are reading books , classic book like Christmas Carol which she is finding quite tricky to understand. any idea on what kind of book she should be reading which will help her with vocabulary.
When do I also start the past papers, April ?
Which papers should I work on, there is only two CGP pack for CEM.

[Daogroupie]

Speed is the number one focus for CEM. I know of very bright hard working girls already sitting with offers from NLCS and will get offers from Habs and St Albans who did not get through to the second round of HBS because they were outwitted by the timing. So put timing at the top of your list. In my opinion CEM is all about timing and format. Have you signed up for the Sutton Mocks? DG

[berks_mum]

OP, you are at the right place.

Schools:
1) Slough schools have VR,NVR and Maths. So most of the publications in the market should be fine apart from the old type VR questions(Codes type).
2) HB, Henrietta Barnet does not test on NVR. Only maths and English.

Although it is hard to compare 11+ with national levels, for super selective schools like HBS, Tiffins, Kendrick as a rule of thumb prepare your DD up to level 6 Maths/English.

Publications:
Papers don't have to be CEM specific. If you look in the Shop section of this website you will find a variety of publications. Try and cover as many publications as you can moving from the easier ones to harder ones as you go along. According to last year's experience most of the DCs found CGP and Bond CEM papers quite hard so don't be surprised if your DC drops score on those ones. Bond(other than CEM), Athey, Walsh, Learning together, Alpha series, Bright sparks are easier than CGP. Doing them before the harder ones may help your DC to build stamina and speed thus developing readiness for the harder papers.

Speed:
In my experience DCs pick up speed as their learning phase tapers and as they do more and more papers. May be after the first 5-10 papers you may notice a sudden rise in speed. You may not want to panic your DC by timing from paper no. 1. You can however discreetly time your DC and see which direction it is going with the next few papers.

Any other questions post here and folks here will help you as best as they can. Good Luck to your DC

[Daogroupie]

Good post but HBS does do VR in their CEM paper but it is the English aspect of VR, cloze and vocabulary and missing letters. DG

[bibi_a]

Thanks Berks_mum and Da0groupie

Can you also please advise me on which reading book she should be reading which will help her with comprehension and vocabulary.

Should I start with the easy past papers now?

[Daogroupie]

If you are applying to HBS you are competing against girls who have been avid readers for years and will have also started working on CEM papers. It is seven months to go. In three weeks time on offer day you won't hear anyone complaining they did too much but lots realising they did not do enough. She needs to apply the vocabulary so it becomes part of her writing. DG

[bibi_a]

I totally agree with you Daogroupie.
would you be able to tell me what kind of books she needs to read, do you have a reading list that can help me.

[sonasona]

There's no real list we can give you telling which books to read, I would suggest reading as much as you can, books, newspapers, websites, fictional and non-fictional. There are loads of non-fictional books you can you buy for a fiver in smiffths which give great knowledge to the child which will help in cloze and grouping type questions.

Otherwise keep looking at News websites and making up your own material from them. I've already told you about the mock exams.

The key is to keep a dictionary nearby to look up any words you don't know. The child wont remember all of them but sometimes the tiniest clue is enough! Any Vocabulary for CEM is good Vocabulary as there's never enough time to learn it all!

Sona

[Daogroupie]

Have you signed up for Paper A and Paper B at the Sutton mocks? DG

[sa05]

Bibi-a it's not too late at all. DD started cem specific preparation quite late due to health
reasons. We started after Easter but majority of it was covered in the summer holidays last year. So you have plenty of time if you focus now. We covered a variety of CEM material and other papers. We did everything we could get our hands on regarding cem through various websites as well. DD was very focused in the last few months. Maybe DD starting late helped her as she was very enthusiastic about the exam. Some DDs I know ran out of stamina near the end.