Tutoring at home - how long?

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Rugbymum
Posts: 349
Joined: Mon Oct 08, 2007 12:05 pm

Tutoring at home - how long?

Post by Rugbymum »

To settle an argument with my child, could you please tell me how many hours per week you spent tutoring your children?
Sam's Mum
Posts: 181
Joined: Wed Mar 05, 2008 12:58 pm

Post by Sam's Mum »

About an hour and a half.
Charlotte67
Posts: 893
Joined: Thu Oct 11, 2007 8:59 am
Location: Cloud 9

Post by Charlotte67 »

Hi Rugbymum,

We hadn't started in earnest at this time last year. Were probably doing a bit of Bond at the weekends - maybe 45 mins or so. Started beginning of August with a 2 hour session once per week (with friends, so involved quite a bit of larking about too!), backed up with 20 mins 2 - 3 times a week to work on areas that needed it.

Hope this helps!

Just to let you know that DD's main problem was speed; even up to 3 weeks before the exam - this was not an issue in the end & she finished with loads of time to spare.
katel
Posts: 960
Joined: Thu Jan 11, 2007 11:30 pm

Post by katel »

I did about 3 hours a week over the summer between years 5 and 6, about an hour a week over the autumn term and about an hour a day over the Christmas holidays before the test in early January.
Bexley Mum 2
Posts: 851
Joined: Sat Nov 17, 2007 9:55 pm
Location: Bexley

Post by Bexley Mum 2 »

Very roughly, we did the following:

For Bexley tests in November my son started in a tutor group doing 1hr 20 mins a week (term time only) from around Easter

Nothing during summer holidays

September to mid-November:

Continued at tutorial centre and did about an hour a week until 3 or 4 weeks before the tests when we switched to about 20 mins 4 or 5 times a week (I'm a great believer in little and often the closer you get to the tests - keeps them ticking over but without the pressure of having to complete whole papers).

Nothing at all from mid-November to early January for Kent tests

Nothing specific for entrance exam in January
Warks mum
Posts: 538
Joined: Thu Nov 22, 2007 11:30 am
Location: Warwickshire

Post by Warks mum »

We bought a pack of papers in English, another in Maths, another in Verbal Reasoning and another in Non-Verbal Reasoning. We then invested in the four relevant NFER papers for Warwickshire.

The sum total of our tutoring was going over these papers when our daughter had completed them under "exam conditions"... in fact I don't think she even did all the papers in the sets!

I don't regret such little preparation - but I did have a few months of torture when I read this site and realised just how much work everyone else's children seemed to be doing and I thought I had let my daughter down!!
Snowdrops
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Joined: Wed Nov 21, 2007 5:20 pm

Post by Snowdrops »

My DD takes the 11+ in September

We began in February and do about 20 mins 4 evenings a week and about 45 mins on Saturday and Sunday.

I'm working through the Bond papers and finding odd bits which need working on like methods in adding up etc. Currently trying to expand her vocabulary - even though she's just done optional sats and come out with level 5, as ever it's the vocab (which seems to be the universal thing with all of them) we need to concentrate on now.

Have already completed a few tests under strict timings and she finished within the time allowed. The only 'blip' we had is when she couldn't get about four of the answers and she flipped (couldn't handle not being able to do something) which I (hopefully) turned into a positive and talked her through the fact it was a learning curve (which is WHY we were timing etc) and she had to deal with it by moving on and coming back to them when she'd finished.

Have the NFER papers ready to start working on probably (but am open to advice here) one of each (only VR and NVR being taken) a week for the last two weeks of August and two in the week leading up to the exams (which I believe are on 9th, 12th and 16th September).

I have noticed on two occasions when we haven't done anything for a week (due to other commitments) she took a day or two to get back into it - or perhaps it's because she was just tired? Who knows!!!
andyb
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Joined: Tue Dec 04, 2007 10:27 am
Location: Buckinghamshire

Post by andyb »

My son (Y5) does 1 50 minute test most weeks and we then spend however long it takes going over anything he got wrong. Some weeks he does nothing at all. I have strong feelings about not coaching him to pass an exam and then maybe have him struggle through grammar school, but I want him to be familiar with the test papers.
hermanmunster
Posts: 12817
Joined: Fri Sep 15, 2006 9:51 am
Location: The Seaside

Post by hermanmunster »

It is VR and NVR only in this area and DD was a private school were they did one lesson a week on "reasoning" throughout year 5 - presumably about 45 mins long.

We didn't do any more at home as this seemed enough to get familiar with the types of questions they would come across in the exam.
Road Runner
Posts: 410
Joined: Thu Sep 14, 2006 8:32 pm

Mel x

Post by Road Runner »

Hi there

I guess I am doing similar to andyb. My dd and I sit for an hour and a half once a week with the first half hour going through vocab work and also over the previous weeks test. DD then does a 50 minute test. This I guess is the most structured work we do.

I am also encouraging her to do some extra work using the software we have but she fits that in as and when she pleases and I am happy with that. I have told her that as of next month we may add on the extra a bit in a more structiored way. Having said that as she appears to be doing well on what we've done so far I don't want to push her.

Mel :P
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