Preparing for 11 plus Exams for a Selective School in the United Kingdom can be a demanding task for both the primary school child and Parents or Carers involved.
I see it as a long journey that can be part of a child's life and journey through primary
school.
My son has been through this journey and is happy to share his experience with anyone interested.
PAPA'S DAIRY ON HIS 11+ EXAMS JOURNEY
2011 - 2014 Key Stage 1 ( 4 to 6 years old)
Being the youngest in my class, it was as if I was delayed in speech, but really, I was very quiet and shy. My teachers perceived that I was not contributing much in class and I was behind in ability. They advised that I should be in an EYSE group where I could get a one on one attention during lessons. Anyone could have been discouraged from that, but my Mum did not give up. She knew that I was capable of making it to the top. We were already doing extra studies at home all the time.
2014 - 2015 Year 3 ( 7 years old )
By this time I had changed schools. In Year 2 I was already following a study chart my big Sister used and I could know my study time table off by heart after a couple of weeks.
This is how my study time chart looked like.
I was introduced to dictionary work, where I had to find words I didnât know, find their meanings and use the words to form sentences. This was also when I was being introduced to Maths and English concepts, that was higher than my year group, as I was grasping each topic appropriately. I was studying 15 min before school and 1 hour after school. Below is an excerpt on my lesson on story planning.
2015-2016 Year 4 (8 years old)
Mental Arithmetic 1 to 6 were the first maths tests I started studying at home. Books 1 and 2 were so easy for me that I was completing 2-3 tests in the 15 minutes before school in the morning. I did 2 of the tests when it was not a pleasant morning for me. In English, I started looking into books called Secrets of Writing and How To Do 11+ Comprehension. Also, I started upgrading from writing the meanings of the words to finding their synonyms and antonyms. School holidays, half terms and weekends were very propitious times for my mum and I to study more. Here is a video of me being introduced into algebra.
2016-2017 Year 5 (9 years)
During the early parts of Year 5, I was so deeply rooted in 11+ Exam Preparation that there was not a single day without me doing any studies. This desirous feeling of achieving some progress in my learning every day made me to say to my mummy on the eve of Christmas, âMummy, can I do my work for Christmas day today so that I wonât need to do the work while we are celebrating?â This is the year when I started practising exam papers, most frequently. I had the opportunity to get a taste of the 11 + exam cuisine.
It seemed like my learning curve followed the one shown above. I started to become less devoted to work given me. I didnât know what was happening, but I was sometimes hesitating in doing my work. This was upsetting for my mum, because it was less than 6 months until the exam time. I think I had reached my peak, so gradually I was falling in my learning. However, as usual, my Mum would not give up
2017-2018 Year 6 (10 years old)
The exam season was here at last! The first exam seemed very hard because we had to do 32 questions in 9 mins 30 secs but I knew that was how an exam would have to be like that . The second exam was the one I thought I was going to have a 'brain cramp' because it was a higher school than the first one, but it was okay. It must have been because I was used to it or because of the game of hangman they played to calm us down and to stretch our brains a bit. For the last exam, I felt the same as the second exam. The only difference was, it was a standardised test. After this one, IT WAS ALL OVER, THANK GOD!
Exam Results
We got the results! I passed all of them and I was so spoilt for choice because I had qualified for all the three schools. Below is a copy of my CSSE (Consortium of Selective Schools in Essex) exams results.
I'm happy to show a few of the websites that were a great deal of help to me.