English will be examined in almost every 11 plus exam across the country. We have seen over the years that those pupils who do well in English tend to do well across the board, so it’s really important to prioritise the English section of the 11 plus exam. Children attending an 11 plus tuition centre will probably be well drilled in sitting mock exams, and that’s a good position to be in.
The English 11 plus exam involves
i) Reading a text
ii) Answering multiple choice questions based on the text
iii) Answering questions based on spellings (SPaG)
iv) Answering questions based on punctuation rules (SPaG)
This article discusses different approaches pupils could use and may be particularly useful to parents who are self-tutoring their child. Unfortunately, it is not possible to single out one method as the best method. The reality is that one pupil may do well with one technique, but not another.
Technique #1:
Most pupils take a linear approach, that is, they first read the whole text, and then they answer the questions.
This approach works well for pupils who cannot handle doing more than one thing at a time. It keeps things simple and as long as the reading speed isn’t too slow, it’s an approach that works for many pupils.
This is method has stood the test of time well and is a fine approach to use.
Technique #2:
Some pupils prefer to tackle one question at a time.
For this technique, a pupil will look at question 1, then look at the text (perhaps for the first time) and seek out the information within the text to answer the question.
This method is very time efficient as all the reading is focused on answering the question. The problem with this approach, though, is that it doesn’t give the reader an overall idea of what is happening in the text. Oftentimes, there are questions that ask pupils about the overall sentiment or view of something, and this approach does not lend itself to answering those types of questions.
Pupils who opt for this approach will gain the benefit of having more time in the SpaG section of the exam. Whilst the SpaG section is not difficult, it is very easy to miss a full stop mark (or similar) and therefore lose a mark. Spending longer on this section almost guarantees doing well in this section.
Technique #3:
Technique number three is a hybrid between techniques two and three.
Instead of reading one question and then trying to answer that particular question or reading the whole text and then looking at the questions, this approach involves scanning (a quick read, in other words) all of the questions first and then reading the text and then answering the questions.
This approach might seem longer at first, but it saves pupils time in the long-run. When pupils start reading the text, they are doing so blindly. That is, they don’t know what they should be paying attention to, what they can ignore. Some pupils may even start annotating things, which may not be needed at all.
Scanning the questions first lets the pupil know what they will be tested on. Using this knowledge, the pupil can then read selectively and focus on only those sections that are truly needed.
For example, if the questions do not focus on the characters, the pupil can ignore details about the characters and therefore not load their short term memories with information that will not be needed to answer the questions. After all, pupils will not be quizzed on every aspect of the text.
Most exams will have two texts to read through and answer questions on, so knowing what to spend focused-time on in the exam could work well.
Final thoughts
I wish it was as easy as saying technique x is better than technique y, but the reality is that certain strategies work well for some, but not for others. My advice would be to try out the different strategies in a low-stakes environment (mock exams, in other words) and measure the results against each other. If these experiments yield a clear winner, then that is a perfect scenario. If after experimenting you are still none the wiser, then I would suggest going with the technique your child feels most comfortable with.
It may be that you have to do the experiment a few times with several different papers to try to work out if a particular method is better suited to your child.
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