Hi there,
My son is now in Year 5. We are preparing for him to write the exams for Essex schools. Do any of you have a guide plan for the English and Maths preparations? Any one has Maths syllabus guide to go thro? We are currently trying to take a bite here and there. I find that the effect is not something we can be proud of.

He has started reading books on the reading list. We've started maintaining a list of words book. But will this pace do? I sometimes get very nervous about it all.

Looking forward to help and guidance from parents already a few steps ahead.

Maths

Make sure he knows his number bonds very well and is not counting on his fingers when asked to add or subtract. When asked what is 15 - 8, he must come back immediatly with the answer. If counting on fingers, he may struggle on the VR paper as well. ONce he knows his number bonds, you can move on to column addition and subtraction.

Times tables 1 to 12 - must be drilled daily on this. He must know this backwards, forwards, sideways. This helps with division. You also need the speed in these 4 operations to be able to score on Verbal Reasoning. Move on to 13, then 15 and then 20 and 25 if you do not wish to learn all of the times tables from 2 to 25. I make my children learn them all. But if you have no time, just stick with those advised here. Division - make sure he knows how to handle zero (for example, 723 divided by 7...the zero in the middle gives alot of children problems - a very simple habit to correct but children must be shown) and dividing numbers in the thousands against single divisors. Where double digit divisors arise, they usually go up to the 12 only. He must not leave the answer with remainders but change the remainders to decimals. You must also teach long multiplication and division.

Once basic skills are honed, move on to decimals (at which point you can move back to division to show the complete picture of division), negative numbers, measurements (includes time - this will help VR as well), fractions, percentages, decimals and ratio. You can introduce problem solving at this stage. Be very disciplined about asking him to make a plan of what he would do to solve the problem sum. He must show you the steps in neat order before giving the answer. No need to write words in the plan. Just the sum or sums (if it is a multi-step problem) he would formulate to get to the answer. This is something I am very strict about. No proper plan, the answer is wrong...even if he got it correct.

After this, teach Geometry rules, area and perimeter, data handling and then move on to simple algebra (finding the value of x).

English

If he is not good in English, you must make sure he practices vocabulary. A good way of doing this is to give him a list of words and ask him to find the equivalent in a text passage. He must also know punctuation very well, especially those involving speech marks. The punctuation alone in the Essex test will net him at least 8 marks (it used to be 12 marks).

Vocabulary alone will give him another 12 marks if he scores it in full. To build comprehension skills, make him read a passage from any book out loud. Then ask him questions like how do you feel about....what do you think of this particular person in the story? Why do you think so? Ask him to support his answers using evidence from the text. Teach him the skill and discipline of highlighting that part of the text which contains the answer before jumping the gun and answering.

An important feature of the Essex exams is the True False Questions. The child needs to understand the nuances of the English language. For example, "might be" is very different to "will be".

Verbal Reasoning

Make him understand technique - he must learn how to use the answer sheet. The answer sheet will help him save time. Sometimes, he need not work out the entire code. The answer sheet is a very rich source of clues and will help save time and speed him up tremendously. He must learn how to use the answer sheet to help him.

For Type 21 questions, he must learn the discipline of writing down and making a rough plan of the clues he is given (this is when all your discipline regarding showing your working really pays off because it will now be the first thing that he will do).

Also, he must learn the mirrors of alphabets. I get my children to do this by making them write their own. For example, AZ is Amazing Zoo. There is a downloadable study aid from this website. Go to the downloads and search for it. It looks extremely simple but is VERY useful.

Lastly, make sure he practices daily, everything he does is TIMED - buy a stopwatch and start timing him. You must also mark the homework. It always amazes me that parents get the child to do the work, and then it is left unmarked. Marking the homework tells you where his weaknesses are, he can also correct his mistakes and learn from them.

Books to buy are IPS, Susan Daughtrey (Bright Sparks Range only) PHI and Walsh. I would also do these books in this order. Walsh are the hardest whilst IPS is a good introduction. This site has a fantastic set of downloadable papers. Use it.

Hello
Thanks a lot for the advice. It is very comprehensive and planned.

Yes, I also agree that tables are very imp. My son is now thorough with 2-15. I have to get him to work on the rest.

We'll put your advice into practise and report how it goes.

Viji