Top Tips For 11 Plus Success.
Written by Adam, a senior school leader and fully qualified teacher for over 20 years.
The 11+ exams can be highly stressful for children and parents. As parents, we naturally want the best for our children and this can make the whole process of ‘pass or fail’ seem quite daunting!
Here are five fantastic TOP TIPS to help ensure 11 Plus success.
-
Start preparation early
Parents often ask us when they should start to prepare more intensively for the 11 Plus. Our advice is always to start early- in Year 4 is ideal. As the adage goes: ‘slow and steady wins the race!’.
It is so important that the tutor is able to ensure lessons are pitches at the child’s current level and that, step-by-step, the student is able to work towards mastery of all areas of mathematics and English that are required to thrive in the 11 Plus.
-
Focus all energies on the gaps in your child’s learning
If your child repeatedly scores almost top marks in tests, it means that most of this practice has little or no use: nothing is being learnt! Likewise, if your child is completing exercises that are a constant struggle and is obtaining very low marks, this can crush confidence and will actually have the opposite effect to the desired academic improvements.
It is crucial that the work given to the child hits what we at Be My Tutor call ‘the sweet spot’. By this we mean that the maths or English exercises constantly stretch the child and encourage the child to take risks and aim high, whiles also ensuring that knowledge and understanding is constantly consolidated and solidified so it is not quickly forgotten.
Most importantly, we will identify the weaker areas, and focus on improving those. It could be that your child lacks confidence with fractions and so is unable to make the leap to decimals and percentages; it could be that there is a simple missing step in written calculations. In English, perhaps your child needs to focus on inferential questions that require a deeper analysis of the text, or it could be that the child lacks a solid technique with which to approach questions. Whatever the gap in knowledge and understanding, our 11 Plus tutors will soon find it and will act swiftly to provide clarity and enlightened understanding!
-
Get your child invested in the 11 Plus process-the child has to ‘buy into it’ and be up for the challenge
Parents will always want the very best for their children. Yes we must resist the urge to spoon-feed them. When all is said and done, it is the child who will sit the exams independently. As such, what we must aim for it to nurture the child towards becoming an independent learner.
If a child is not invested in the process, if the child does not want to learn and has not had an inner desire to achieve ignited, then all our efforts could be fruitless. This is why our 11 Plus tutors focus just as much on coaching the child and encouraging independent learning, as they do on ensuring that academic expectations are kept high. Our teachers get to know how each child learns best. Are they kinaesthetic, auditory or visual learners (or- like most of us- a mix of the three)?
Keep talking to your child about the process. Let them know that this is an exciting challenge and that this is their chance to shine. Reframing the exam process as a fun and new challenge has incredible results.
-
It is NOT about ‘pass’ or ‘fail’
It is so important that you praise the effort and not the results from the very first day you embark on the 11 Plus journey with your child.
For most children, this will be the first time they have ever been ‘judges’ by an external examiner in any meaningful way. It is absolutely crucial that it is made clear from the onset that the only thing that counts is for your child to give one hundred percent to this challenge. Keep reminding them that, in life, if we meet challenges head-on, if we give our all to every endeavour, then great things can and will happen.
At all costs, avoid setting the exams up as a ‘pass’ or ‘fail’. Doing so creates unnecessary pressure on the child and we all know that the human brain functions poorly when placed under too much stress. If the child feels upbeat, energised and at ease with the process, the child will thrive!
-
Make sure your child has a mixed academic diet
There are thousands of incredible interactive resources on the market to help keep learning enthralling and challenging. Fun websites like Quizlet or Mathletics and board games like Bananagrams can also be useful, and are easily adaptable for revision purposes. Visual aids like flashcards and mind-maps can be useful , and lots of fun can be had in coming up with mnemonics too – and that’s without mentioning the endless 11+ revision apps.
Adam Haffner has been a teacher for many years. He is the Director of the Be My Tutor team.
