Hi Oldskool,

My son will be taking two grammer school exams (Ilford County and essex consortium) and two commom entrance exams. Well, he started a tution a year ago, had a mock test few weeks ago in which he scored 58/85. He will be taking a course during Easter.

I need help with planning, timetable for maths, english, VR and NVR. I don't want to just give him past papers, i will like him to understandit before he gets tested.

I will like to know what VR question types children are tested on in Essex and Redbridge.

Where do I start from really. He is very keen.


Thank you

Have just got Chuckra's cards will give them a go and let you know how we get on.

Hi all, a new registration for the thread.

We're in the Thurrock LA, hoping to get no.1 son into Westcliff so I believe he will be doing 3 papers, Maths (25%), English(25%) and VR multiple choice (50%). We started formal tutoring with Kip McGrath in September which has been going very well. He does an hour and 20mins a week plus homework which normally takes him about 1 1/2 hours. At the moment he's doing no more than this as this seems like more than enough on top of homework and other commitments.

He's doing fine with Maths and VR and the tutors are very pleased with him. However, although he does ok, he isn't keen on comprehension and goes at it with such a negative attitude he gives up before he's even tried. Consequently I dread it when it's set for homework as it normally means hours of huffing and puffing, it's worse than pulling teeth . It's so frustrating when you know they're capable. I think a bit of bribery is going to be required.

Are the comprehension papers too hard. I like children to begin with accessible papers and move on to the horrid Essex-style papers later on. At this stage of the year my texts are easily read and the questions are much more obvious as success keeps motivation high. Perhaps you should talk to KM and explain your son's lack of motivation and ask for some more accessible papers.

Edit:
Sorry Phil, not trying to hijack your thread, it does worry me when children struggle with the comprehension, I think people often start at the hard end rather than build up.

Thanks for your reply Louise. Since writing have spoken with the tutor at Kip. The comprehension papers in question are different to those set by Essex. She showed me his first attepmt at an actual Essex paper for which he got 42/50 and, my DS informs me, he much prefered because it was 'easier'. The papers he's not so fond of seem to be harder (I would struggle - but English has never been my strong point!) and truth beknown I was beginning to worry that if this is what is expected he wouldn't be upto the task and shouldn't be going to GS at all! He (and I) are much happier about it now, knowing he's not expected to 'get it' all the time. I think part of the trouble is when they're so used to finding everything easy, they don't know how to cope when they find they've got to work alot harder!

I take your point about the motivation and will have another word with the tutor about knocking it back a bit for the time being. I've told DS to do the (comprehension)homework as best he can and not to worry to much about what he doesn't understand. Overall he seems to be doing so well and he's only 9 1/2! (shame they don't standardise score in relation to age!).

lstaples wrote:
Edit:
Sorry Phil, not trying to hijack your thread, it does worry me when children struggle with the comprehension, I think people often start at the hard end rather than build up.


No worries Louise - this is not really my thread. It is supposed to be for anyone taking the 11+ this year - and it is vital that experienced people like you add your contributions.

Comprehension can be very dull. I hate being forced to read something as I automatically put up some ridiculous barrier of - "I don't even want to read this boring stuff".

I do the same with films and TV Programmes that get recommended to me. What a strange person I am.

I'm certainly no expert on answering English questions so please feel free to shoot me down in flames......because what you are about to read may shock you.

The standard approach is to simply read the passage carefully and then they read the questions. What happens next is that the students then have to re-read it all again as they search for the answers. How many times do they read that passage? More than once for sure.

My lot are encouraged to 'cheat'. This may be dangerous so I'm not saying this applies to everyone but I tell them to not even bother reading it the first time just go straight to the questions.

Then start searching the passage for the hidden answers.

I reckon it saves a fair chunk of time (for able students) and they all love it when they think they are tricking the evil examiner.

I ask them to do the same with the Type 21 questions.

What do you think?



My caveat to this and any of my 'cheats' is that I always make a point of making sure they understand and can complete questions in the long, boring way first of all.