starting the 11+ maths journey...

[Bazelle]

Hello there, I wish to prepare my DD for the 11+ in Jan 2016 at a not that selective West London school. Her English is excellent, she reads for England, but her maths are a concern. I have downloaded the past maths papers of the North London Independent Girls' Schools' Consortium and I believe I can manage that myself without the help of an external tutor. I was wondering if there were "easier" papers out there though to start our journey? thanks for your help. x

[Juanita Bananas]

You could start by doing some Bond books. They have different age ranges .....

[Bazelle]

yes of course, but I was ideally aiming for proper papers. I was told that the common entrance ones could be easier, I just didn't manage to find them on Google yesterday. I'll try again. found something : http://www.commonentrance.net/supportpack.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Amoda]

I'm not sure if diving into papers is really the answer if you have some concerns about her maths.

You have plenty of time until 2016 so you may want spend the next few months making sure all the topics have been covered thoroughly before embarking on papers. You could use the Bond books, as Juanita Bananas has suggested, alongside teaching of the topics. Once that's all done, then start the papers - starting with easy ones first and then ramping up the level of difficulty.

[Daogroupie]

Common entrance will be harder not easier as they are for 13 plus. The Dulwich papers are worth a look. Is your target schl in the NL Consortium? DG

[Bazelle]

Yes, the more I think about it the more this makes sense . Making sure her foundations are solids, with no gaps in knowledge.

[Bazelle]

The Bond no nonsense maths is the way forward. We tried a 11+ common entrance exam this morning, they do exist, and she had a massive tantrum. So I got a Bond 9-10 no non sense book and her confidence came back, as she found the first 2 lessons easy. We will carry on like that and move to the next book before embarking on papers, and looking at Dulwich as suggested. I am thinking Notting Hill as we are locals, but heard lots and lots of conflicting reviews, so I don't really know. But there is no harm in improving her confidence in maths in the meantime. Thanks for the good advices