Preparation for Kent test 2016

[mystery]

Seems very quiet on here about this kind of topic. Have people stopped preparing in Kent?

[salsa]

We are doing some English and Maths. Mainly Bond and Schofields, but Bond CEM too just in case and as Bexley is likely to be CEM.

[mystery]

Ah right, that sounds like a good way forward if you are doing Bexley too if that is going to be CEM again - is it? Maybe Bexley and Kent will swap test providers ......... then you'll still be fine!

[salsa]

Well. Bexley is likely to be CEM, but they haven't confirmed. The CEM timings are very off putting, even though the child may know they most likely won't be able to finish it.

[grgygirl]

Just posted on Bexley thread, but DS hasn't covered any CEM yet. I think i'll order the Bond CEM papers but have heard these are hard and don't want to dent his confidence at this early stage. Ds has been reading a lot over the summer so hopefully he'll keep this up. I had a loose 'strategy' but it seems to have gone a bit awry as there seems to be so much to do. I think I'll concentrate on covering the main KS2 syllabus and work on weak areas (for us at the moment these are compound words and area/volume).
Are any of you doing mock tests and when do you recommend a child takes these?

[mumsdarling2]

I would caution you about doing mocks too early. My personal opinion is that mocks should not be done before June. Firstly, the children would not have covered all the topics and built the skill level required. Secondly, the cohort you wish to compare your DCs performance against, will be probably be taking the mocks closer to the test. Therefore, if you do it too early, you might get a false picture.