Exam conditions preparation

[blondegirl]

We are preparing for the 11+ at the very last-minute! My son has been doing small amounts of prep every day during the holidays and is doing pretty well. He's in the top group at his school, which is the 'best' school in the borough by a long way so academically he should be fine (despite his - and mine - massive HATRED AND LOATHING of NVR, which is a whole other topic for another day).

But, I just wondered what I could be doing to prepare him for the actual test?

Are there any tactics or things he should be remembering? He did a mock test recently where they weren't allowed to wear a watch and consequently messed up the timings and only answered half the questions (to be fair, he'd never done even a practice test with me at that stage). I do have some practice tests for him to try. But any other ideas?

[Daogroupie]

It is over six months since you first posted on Feb 10th about starting prep so it is not really last minute or did you post and then decide not to do anything and then recently change your mind?

Being on top table in the best school in the borough does not help him compete against all the non catchment applicants for St Olaves.

As you can see in other posts there are a large group of parents who trawl the country looking for non catchment schools to apply for and so you will be up against many very well prepared boys who have been very focused for some time.

There must have been a clock visible to him in the mock test he did so having his watch removed cannot be the reason why he only managed half the questions.

Exams are all about timing. It is not what you can do but what you can do in the time, everything you do with him must be timed so he starts to understand how much time he will have in the exam. Its great that you are doing prep every day but you really need to be doing timed papers.

In my opinion a timed test and then working through the answers every other day would be better than non timed prep every day.

At this stage you need to be 100 percent focused on the reality of the actual exam.

Is St Olave your first choice? Did you do the mocks? I know they did not sell out as I know of students who booked at the very last minute. DG

[MrsB]

In my opinion a timed test and then working through the answers every other day would be better than non timed prep every day.DG

One question about the mock: are you very confident that the issue was the timing rather than anything else - did you get feedback from whoever administered the test? I ask because focusing on timed tests is important but not at the expense of a fundamental concept that he has not quite got.

In terms of tips, have you covered basic exam techniques like moving on when you get stuck and making a note to come back, and also being alive to which questions carry the most marks (that's assuming that the exam does include questions with different levels of marks). Also being aware that if there are easy (or at least easier) marks to be picked up in some questions, making sure he doesn't lose them by carelessness and making sure he knows what the question is aiming at.

If you do some timed tests, working through the answers together afterwards is very important as you need to understand where any problems lie and then identify whether there are specific areas where you need to go over the concepts together again, and have some more intensive practice, or whether it is carelessness etc, as well as just practicing speed.

[blondegirl]

Oh blimey. I didn't realise my previous posts would be scrutinised.

We have done bits and pieces since February but not much. We've really only been focused since the holidays. And I actually think that being top of the best school in the borough SHOULD be all you need to pass the 11+ and if it's not, then the system is wrong not my child.

He loves St Olave's but I wasn't at all impressed (to my surprise, as lots of my friends and my brother went there, I went to Newstead, and I'd always sort of assumed he'd go there). He is the sort of boy who'll be happy anywhere but I'm not convinced Olave's is the right place for him - he's a good all-rounder and is creative and very sporty as well as being interested in maths and science. He did do the mock and did brilliantly in the comprehension and much less well in the other sections. Since then, though, we've done lots of work on those other types of questions and he seems to have grasped most things well. Certainly so far, we've not identified any concepts he's not understanding (I have, though, identified many concepts I don't understand - there are shocking gaps in my maths ability!).

From the work we've done this summer, I think timing and carelessness are his problems. He either rushes and doesn't read the questions properly, or he takes too long and doesn't finish. He's been doing lots of 10-minute tests, but I have longer ones so I might concentrate on those now and get him to do them in as close to exam conditions as possible. Some good tips there, thanks.

[streathammum]

And I actually think that being top of the best school in the borough SHOULD be all you need to pass the 11+ and if it's not, then the system is wrong not my child.

I'm afraid the system is probably wrong, then. I'm not sure exactly which test your DC is going to be sitting, but if it's like the ones in Sutton or Wandsworth then the exam will be testing some things that they are not taught in school, no matter how good it is. Luckily, it sounds like your DC is a high achiever so should be able to master these things, but he will need to be taught them somehow. Good luck.

[Daogroupie]

Primary schools are not designed to teach students what they need to know for the 11 plus, even the best one in the borough.

Does your school offer anything for the 11 plus?

The St Olaves exam is open to any ds in the country, so among the applicants there will be lots of boys who are not attending the best school in the borough and are likely to be much better prepared than your ds as they have been working towards the exams for a lot longer.

However it sounds like you had some good feedback from your mock which is promising. Also it is great news that you have not identified any key areas that he does not know. Carelessness is a lot easier to fix than gaps in knowledge at this late stage.

I would ditch the ten minute tests and only do papers that are the same length as the exams he is going to be doing so he can get used to the time he has available.

Which schools will he be sitting apart from St Olaves? DG

[blondegirl]

Urgh, just wrote a long reply and lost it.

Anyway, he's doing the Bexley test and as he's sporty we're considering trying for a scholarship to Eltham College. I'm not so fussed about Olaves even though it's very near us, because I took against it quite strongly at the open day (it was the second time we'd seen it, which is odd - I'm not sure what changed in a year for me!), but he wants to do the test, so I don't see any harm in it. I'm not expecting him to pass, though.

After your helpful hints earlier, I got him to do a longer test. He did well in the questions he answered but ran out of time. So I guess we just keep going with the practice papers for this last month. I asked him if there was a clock in the room when he did the mock and at first he said there wasn't, then he said there was but he didn't look at it. He is a strange mix of really wanting to pass the tests and being reluctant to do the work. But then once he's doing the work, he really enjoys it and does well. We have a slight issue in that one of his best friends is super, super bright, has been having 3 hours of tuition weekly since y3, and tells my son he's "dumb" regularly, so his confidence has been knocked a bit ("what's the point in trying? I'm not as good as him" etc) even though his y5 teacher was particularly brilliant at sorting that out.

His school has done a couple of familiarisation sessions but they seemed very short and I'm not sure how useful they were, really. I'm quite shocked that some boroughs test on stuff that's not taught in schools as it immediately means kids from families without the means or ability to tutor or do extra work at home are excluded. Not the point of grammar schools, surely?

Sorry, didn't mean to waffle on for so long. We shall persevere with the practice papers.

[ToadMum]

We have a slight issue in that one of his best friends is super, super bright, has been having 3 hours of tuition weekly since y3, and tells my son he's "dumb" regularly, so his confidence has been knocked a bit ("what's the point in trying? I'm not as good as him" etc) even though his y5 teacher was particularly brilliant at sorting that out.

Any of our three might have pointed out that the poor lad's own parents obviously don't think he's all that bright, if they think he needs all that extra tuition .

And I'm sorry, but they would probably have something to say with regard to the job they are doing of raising their child, if that is the kind of attitude he is allowed to take with his friends...

[ToadMum]

We have a slight issue in that one of his best friends is super, super bright, has been having 3 hours of tuition weekly since y3, and tells my son he's "dumb" regularly, so his confidence has been knocked a bit ("what's the point in trying? I'm not as good as him" etc) even though his y5 teacher was particularly brilliant at sorting that out.

Any of our three might have pointed out that the poor lad's own parents obviously don't think he's all that bright, if they think he needs all that extra tuition .

And I'm sorry, but they would probably have something to say with regard to the job they are doing of raising their child, if that is the kind of attitude he is allowed to take with his friends...

[blondegirl]

Any of our three might have pointed out that the poor lad's own parents obviously don't think he's all that bright, if they think he needs all that extra tuition .

And I'm sorry, but they would probably have something to say with regard to the job they are doing of raising their child, if that is the kind of attitude he is allowed to take with his friends...

Ha! Yes, indeed. I have pointed that out and the child in question has had quite a lot of "intervention" at school after making lots of his classmates cry. So academically strong, certainly, but socially? Not so much!