Study materials

[Choccy74]

Hi

My DD is currently using the Age 9-10 study books, but should she already be using the Age 10-11 books instead?? She isn't ten until July, and I'd read that we should use the age appropriate books, but I don't want to suddenly find that she should have been aiming at the next level up all along.

Any ideas please?

[cazien]

I would gauge her progress as to how well she is performing. If she is finding 10-11 not very challenging then raise her to the next level.

[Skip]

Use the books based on her ability and go back a year if needed. When ours did 11+ we found it built their confidence to do ‘easier’ examples / books first. When they are solid on an area move up. So for maths this might mean doing percentages from the age 9 book but angles from the age 11 books for example. Both DC had choice of all schools so worked for them. Introduce them to Exam techniques a few weeks before actual test e.g eliminating wrong answers etc. Try not to get too stressed as you will pass it on to her (when you know how to do that tell me how!). Good luck.

[Choccy74]

Thanks for the replies

I'm happy to jump between the different age level books to help her in weaker areas, and sorry if this is sounds daft, but presumably she'd need to be up to the level of everything in the 10-11 books by the time she's taking the exam??

[Mamaofthree]

Following as we are in the same situation! My son is July. We are working through 9-10 apart from the NVR which he found easy so moved onto 10-11. I have the 10-11 book for maths but it is too hard for him at the moment so we are still on the 9-10 but I don't know how much time to spend on the next stage?

[Choccy74]

Hi Mamaofthree

I've messaged the tutor we're using to see what he recommends, I certainly don't want to wait until my DD is ten before moving to the 10-11 books, two months before the exam, but nor do I want to demotivate her by using materials she's not ready for. I'll let you know what he says.

[Choccy74]

Ok, so he says to work on the 9-10 books now and move up to the 10-11 books in mid-June...although of course this could just be based on my DD's current level of ability!

He also said that we should be working 'little and often' from now on, 15-20 minutes at least five days a week. We're currently doing about 20-30 minutes three or four times a week, but we can easily step that up a bit.

HTH

[Mamaofthree]

Thanks, that's really good to know.

We are doing a bit of the 10-11 maths book but definitely finding it harder than the 9-10 book and I don't want to knock DS's confidence. He's seeing a tutor one hour a week and then we do odd practice in the week- unfortunately (or fortunately!) he's very sporty and into drama so has quite a busy week so might not be spending as much time on it as we should....but I don't want to push him too hard and he's motivated enough to pick up the books himself now and then and have a go at it.

[Choccy74]

I've only just bought the 9-10 CGP 10-minute test books, on the first test my DD got 11/12 and completed it in 8 mins 36 seconds...so if she continues in that vein then I'm guessing we might need the 10-11 ones sooner rather than later

It'll be interesting to see the change in difficulty between them, they must go into far more detail as there are only three 9-10 books, but it looks like there are SIXTEEN 10-11 books!

I know what you mean about time spent on extra-curricular things, we have four nights a week where my DD does other clubs (thankfully one is only until Easter) and I don't know if we should maybe take a break from one or two until after the exam, just so she can focus more on her 11+ practice.

[Glos18]

I think it is very tempting to plough through the endless study books that are produced for the 11+ and you can end up in a panic when you realise the number of books available. 10 minute tests are great, but you probably only want to do a couple after a hard day at school, so that can be easily fitted around clubs. It really doesn't matter if they haven't done them all by September.
The CEM advice of 'read lots of books and do lots of maths' really annoyed me, but looking back, they were right. You need to make sure all the maths topics have been covered. Also reading together every night is great - improves fluency, vocab, familiarity with different writing styles eg Victorian books, you can discuss points 'why was Peter reluctant to get into the boat?' which will help to develop their comprehension skills. Beyond that, it is working on timings, exam strategy etc. and making sure you fit in a couple of mocks for experience.