This article was published in mid June, which leaves around 3 months till the real 11 plus exam.
Unfortunately, this is not the time to sit back and relax if you are a parent of a Year 5 child. Just as the racehorse speeds up when it sees the finish line, pupils hoping to get into a grammar school in Bexley, Kent, Medway, Bromley (or any other area) should also do the same.
Below are some concrete, actionable suggestions of what parents and 11 plus pupils could do.
- Create an 11 Plus Study Timetable for the Summer Holidays
Ideally, your child would already be following a study timetable. However, with three months remaining, there is still plenty of time to introduce one if your child is not already using a study timetable. We have many ready-to-use templates you can download from the downloads page (they are all free).
We covered the benefits of using a study timetable in a previous article. At the very competitive grammar schools, such as Newstead Wood and St Olave’s, the fine margins may make all the difference.
- Why 11 Plus Mock Exams Are Essential Before September
Most parents and students are probably very familiar with mock exams. By mock exams, we are not talking about the 10 minute tests in Bond books (which can sometimes be harmful). Rather, we are talking about children being in a formal setting, with other children, answering multiple choice questions under timed exam conditions.
Children attending an 11 plus tuition centre in Bexley, Kent, Bromley or other areas with grammar schools are probably very familiar with multiple choice exams. However, parents who are self-tutoring may have overlooked this aspect.
If your child doesn’t have enough mock exam practice under their belt, I would strongly suggest you book your child to sit mock exams before the real exam. There are specialist mock exam companies who hire space in grammar schools, such as Townley Grammar School, and carry out mock exams there. There are several reputable providers running mock examinations throughout South East London and Kent. The most important factor is ensuring your child experiences realistic exam conditions before September.
If you would like to discuss mock exams, please feel free to get in touch with us. We also offer mock exams at our centre. Our mock exams are designed to imitate the real exam (paper and pencil, multiple choice testing). All our mocks come with a complimentary mock exam analysis, which shows areas of weakness. Parents can book mock exams with us by clicking here.
- How to Identify and Fix 11+ Knowledge Gaps
One of the benefits of sitting regular mock exams is that it reveals gaps in your child’s knowledge. This is a good thing. As there are still 3 or so months left till the exam, there is still enough time to remedy this.
After your child has completed a mock exam, go over the mock to see where marks were lost. Make a list of all the topics your child got wrong. Make your list specific. For example, instead of writing ‘maths’, you should note the specific topic, such as ‘adding fractions’ or ‘converting top heavy fractions into mixed number fractions’. Next, your child has to go through each sub-topic until they do not get any questions wrong.
Your child should be focusing on areas of weakness until that particular area is no longer weak. Focusing means learning the content and answering questions on it and getting full marks.
- How to Prioritise Different 11 Plus Exams
As the countdown begins and we near the real 11 plus exam, parents may feel more pressure. This is normal and every parent feels this. We went through this as well; our daughter sat and passed the Bexley, Kent and Medway exam. Our son, meanwhile, sat and passed the Bexley, Kent and St Olave’s exam. You will feel the pressure, but is there anything you can do about it? Actually, yes there is.
All 11 plus grammar school exams are not the same. You may want to (or have to) prioritise certain exams over others. Of course, if you do find you have enough time to give every 11 plus exam an equal amount of time, then that’s fantastic. But many parents will find there’s so much to still cover…and there isn’t enough time.
Determine which grammar schools are your priority and this will help you plan how much time to spend on the different subjects.
Newstead Wood 11 Plus: Focus on Verbal and Non-Verbal Reasoning
The Newstead Wood School selection test assesses Verbal Reasoning and Non-Verbal Reasoning only.
Clearly, if Newstead Wood is your top priority, then you need to make sure your child is very strong in VR and NVR. If this is the case, you may wish to allocate more studying time to VR and NVR.
Bexley Grammar School, Beth’s Grammar School, Chislehurst & Sidcup Grammar School and Townley Grammar School
For entry into these schools, pupils must pass the Bexley 11 plus selection test, which consists of English, Maths, VR and NVR, so it’s harder to be strategic with time.
However, the Quest Assessments familiarisation material contains many poetry questions, which the GL exams generally avoids. So, if your child is at a good level on all the subjects, it might be an idea to do some extra work on poetry.
St Olave’s 11+: Should You Prepare for Stage 2 Creative Writing?
St Olave’s will assess English, Maths, VR and NVR. However, there is one additional test (stage 2), which will require creative writing. This is an invite-only exam, which means your child must have passed stage 1 to move onto stage 2. We would suggest you do not begin preparing for the creative writing test until your child has passed stage 1.
If your child fails stage 1 but has been preparing for the creative writing stage, you may wish you had invested your time into non-creative writing subjects. A minority of pupils that sit the test pass it; it is notoriously difficult to pass.
Dartford Grammar School, Dartford Grammar School for Boys, Wilmington Grammar School for Boys/ Girls, other Kent grammar schools
There are 32 grammar schools in Kent. The families that we serve mostly target the grammar schools mentioned in the above subheading.
The Kent 11+ test assesses English, Maths, VR and NVR. There is also a creative writing section at the end of the English paper. However, we would advise pupils not to prepare for the creative writing section; this is used as a tie-breaker and will not matter if the main English, Maths, VR and NVR sections are not passed in the first place.
- Quest Assessments Familiarisation Materials: What Parents Need to Know
GL resources are commonplace and many parents will already have them. Quest Assessments, however, are a new exam provider to Bexley. So, if your child is not familiar with Quest Assessments, you may wish to invest in some materials (these will be published by Atom Learning).
As a general rule, we are seeing that although the assessment tests up to Year 5 knowledge, the way the questions are phrased seems to require more steps to reach the answer.
- How to Revise Effectively for the 11+ During the Summer
Unfortunately, learning isn’t enough – pupils have to retain the learning, which itself requires effort. Hermann Ebbinghaus, a psychologist, explained how over time memories and knowledge fades away and that active revision is required to retain that knowledge (shown diagrammatically below).
The strongest students do year-round revision, less strong students do revision at certain stages, and the weakest students do not do any meaningful revision.
With around 3 months left, it is not too late to start revision. Using a revision timetable might be a good idea here. More effort should be put into topics that the student finds difficult. For example, if a pupil consistently struggles with percentages, algebra or certain verbal reasoning question types, those topics should appear repeatedly in the revision timetable until accuracy improves.
Final Thoughts
Whether your child is attending 11 Plus tuition in Bexley, Kent, Bromley or elsewhere, the key to passing is to know where your child’s weaknesses lie and remedy it.
We (myself and my wife) have gone through two cycles of the 11 plus with our children, and it will be a while until we go through the next cycle. But if I had to go through it now, these are the actions I would prioritise:
- Mock exams (makes pupils familiar with exams + reveals gaps)
- Gap analysis & and remedial studying (helps pupils pick up more marks)
- Timetable use (builds in consistency, which always wins over trying to be strategic)
- Revision (prevents loss of knowledge)
- Familiarisation materials (the difference between one paper to another will not be meaningfully different, but you have nothing to lose by looking into this)
- Strategic use of time (only helpful to a very small group of parents and pupils).
We hope the advice above is helpful to you. Please feel free to check out the free downloads page.
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