Looking at scale

Good questions in mental maths books involve finding out distance in reality using a scale.
e.g. the scale of a map is 1: 1000,what distance in metres is represented on the map by 1mm?

Some more resources to consider

There is another resource (payable, unfortunately) that somebody recommended to me:
Madeline Guyon- (publisher PHI)- Verbal Reasoning. It's another type of vr. I ordered the first book and will let you know my thoughts when it arrives.

By the way: I checked the prices: http://www.elevenplusexams.co.uk/ £8.99 plus p&p which amounts to £12.94
Amazon: £8.56 (at the moment) plus free p&p

Another handy resource

I downloaded another English paper from 11plusswot.co.uk

Your child has 50min. to comlete it. According to my son the test is not very difficult, but .pdf file is impossible to read as it has sample in bold font written all over it.

Hint: Open the file as a .doc and ask your child to read it from the computer- formatting  the text will take ages and is not worth it. Let your child read it from the pc and answer questions. You can print .pdf and what cannot be seen, can be read from .doc
It's a bit of nuisance, but it's anothet free test after all, so it's not worth complaining.

More verbal reasoning

Another verbal reasoning is done, 100% correct. New word: byre = cow-shed Only one more test left from Walsh's book, then back to Susan Daughtrey.

My daughter is doing 8-9 Bond Papers (maths, English, VR). I learnt by my experience not to rely on schools to prepare children for 11 plus. Starting early guarantees success.

Tip: If you have more than one child, don't allow them to fill the test books in pen. Let them use pencils, so answers can be erased and test used by another child.

Alleyn's School in London

A very good test to do, though answers are not supplied.

New words were found by my son-he knew some of them, was unsure of the meaning of others:
totter
sidle
trudge
lurch
stagger
amble
strut
march
recede

This test contains a poem, which presented a good challenge as my child does not like poems. All in all worth doing.

In the afternoon more mental maths (S&S).

11 plus

If you have not downloaded free Chuckra tests yet, do it now. Go to http://www.11plus.co.uk/

Any test you can find, get it and ask your child to do it. He will always fins something new.

Schofield and Sims

If you are serious about maths preparation, I would recommend getting all 6 books from Mental Maths series. The last one is suitable for KS2 and 3, so if your child does the questions from all the books, he will be a bit ahead-nothing wrong with it.

When my son started the books, he was very slow and had to ask many questions. Nowadays (he is on book 5), he is flying through questions and may be unsure of 1-2 out of 36. Mental Maths questions are very good, as they involve thinking and applying basic maths to problem solving. A real "must" for any pupil. At £2.45-£2.95 per book they are a very good value for money.

Practice papers in English

http://www.11plus.co.uk/view-details/practice-papers/english/independent-school-or-common-entrance-sample-papers/alleyn-s-school/alleyn-s-school-11-plus-english-sample-paper.html

Consortium of Selective Schools

If you have not done it so far, visit http://www.csse.org.uk/ and order your sample tests.

Probability

If you child is doing Bond Papers, sooner or later he will come across words such as: likely, unlikely, impossible, which are all connected with probability.

It is very important to understand when the event is impossible (probability equals 0) and when it is certain (probability: 1) as these questions happen to appear on 11 plus exam. Practise with a dice and ask you child questions about probability e.g. is it more likely to throw 6 in one throw or 4?

Chuckra maths

There are free maths tests available on Chuckra website, which I advise your child should do. Frankly speaking, any free tests that you can find are always a bonus, as your child might find an awkward question that he has not seen before. The more he practises the more chance of success.

Mental maths

As far as I can see, children don't practise much mental maths. They may do  a few papers, but they don't practise performing calculations in their heads. On top of this, there is no need for them to do shopping (not saying anything about the danger aspect), so they are generallyt not used to quickly adding/subtracting.

To boost my son's performance, I ask him to add/subtract a string of numbers. I add multiplication and division. I tend to perform this kind of exercise 5-10 minutes per day whenever possible. It helps a great deal.

Some more vocabulary

scanty- barely sufficient
meagre-lean, scanty
interrogate-to ask questions
impede-hinder, retard
sincere-true, honest
frivolous- unworthy of serious attention
insult -oposite word- flatter
serious- opposite word-frivolous
meagre-opposite word-generous
disparage-depreciate, bring discredit on
infatuated-affect (person) with extreme folly, to fall in love deeply
prodigious -marvellous, amazing

Revision, revision

The break is finished, but revision should not finish yet. In the morning I managed to talk my children into doing some work before school: time tables and another verbal reasoning test. There is nothing better than the feeling of an achievement and some good work. No matter how much time is going to be wasted at school, the work was already done. We moved forward another step. Every little step counts.

You do not necesserily need a tutor for your child to pass the 11 plus exam. Even the best tutor won't give your child any more brain he was born with. But even the most clever child needs to practise.

Easy process to learn time tables

Have you been tired of trying to teach your child time tables? Forget oral repetition, try something different:

Write 20 questions on a piece of paper (let's say for 6, 7, 8,9 time tables). Ask your child to solve them in the morning. Do the same in the afternoon.Repeat the process. You should see an improvement within a week. Keep on doing it until your child gets to 12 time tables. Once they are learnt by heart, ask him a question at random.

I had to apply this solution once my daughter announced she would be tested in time tables after the break. It works wonders!

Athey Educational-English Papers

Another English test done and 97% achieved! I can see an improvement.

Some new words that my child learnt, though he was able to figure out the meaning:

• accomplice -associate
• salutation = greeting
• earnest= serious

Today's test was said to be very easy (I didn't tnink I would hear it!)....

By the way, any test that is being done is always timed. Time to complete any test shortens the more your child practises. It is obvious, yet reassuring.

Time tables

My daughter needs to know her time tables after she goes back to school. Her class was doing time tables for quite a while, but when I checked her knowledge, I discovered that she still needed more practice. She is too slow and has to think too much about each answer.

I explained to her, that unfortunately, she has to learn them by heart, whether she likes it or not.

To speed the process, I prepared her 24 questions to be done in the morning. Another sheet will be waiting ready for her in the afternoon. It takes a bit of effort on parent's side, but it won't last long. It is a boring way of learning, but you don't need computers to learn time tables. You just need practice. As soon as your child sees you are strict about his maths, he will learn it. Without time tables your child will not be able to carry on with any maths.

What do you need to succeed?

Over the last few days, my son improved tremendously: for the first time he reached 90% in his English test. What's more he also achieved 99% in Verbal Reasoning and well over 98% in maths. I am not writing to boast about it ( or maybe a bit:-)), but to prove, that practice makes perfect.

Half a year ago, he was moaning that he would not be able to solve the tests. Now, he is flying through them.

The key to success is consistency and practice. Don't be disheartened, if the beginnings are tough for both you and your child. After a few months of work, you will see the results. Good luck with your studies.