A Parenting & kids forum. ParentingBanter.com

If this is your first visit, be sure to check out the FAQ by clicking the link above. You may have to register before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

Go Back   Home » ParentingBanter.com forum » misc.kids » General (moderated)
Site Map Home Authors List Search Today's Posts Mark Forums Read Web Partners

Exam prep disaster



 
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
  #1  
Old October 13th 04, 02:51 AM
Penny Gaines
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default Exam prep disaster

R, the 10yo, will be sitting his 11+ tomorrow. UK readers will know
that is the exam that decides which school he goes to next year. Will
it be the fast-paced academic school - known as a grammer school - or the
school for the less academically able.

The exam tests "verbal reasoning", or how well you can do certain kinds
of word puzzles. R's strengths lie in his maths ability, although he
has good results in past verbal reasoning tests. He's been working really
hard for the last couple of weeks: he is certainly capable of doing well
at the grammer, but some of the kids will have been practising for months.
You can even get books for 7yos, "working towards the 11+".

We had a calm evening: he practised a few more techniques. He couldn't go
outside because it was raining, but he did get his favourite supper, and
a dessert he likes. He was in bed at a reasonable time, and everything was
going fine.

Until a few minutes ago. One of his baby teeth has come out. An hour after
bedtime. On the night he really needs to get a decent night's sleep.

Oh well, the other school gets good results too.

--
Penny Gaines
UK mum to three

  #2  
Old October 14th 04, 06:17 AM
just me
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

Penny Gaines mentioned in passing :

Oh well, the other school gets good results too.



oh dear. maybe that was the bad thing on rehearsal that makes the show
flawless. How did things go? When do you all hear the results? I'm
thinking of you!

-Aula

--
Politics is supposed to be the second oldest profession. I have come to
realize that it bears a very close resemblance to the first. - Ronald
Reagan


---
Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free.
Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).
Version: 6.0.775 / Virus Database: 522 - Release Date: 10/8/04


  #3  
Old October 14th 04, 08:11 PM
Marijke
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

I truly don't understand why this is a disaster? Most kids I know don't
have a terribly good night's sleep prior to a very important exam.

My children have written equally important exams at the same age and we
didn't put in half what you did. The evening before was treated like any
other evening.

Marijke
in Montreal


"Penny Gaines" wrote in message
...

Until a few minutes ago. One of his baby teeth has come out. An hour

after
bedtime. On the night he really needs to get a decent night's sleep.

Oh well, the other school gets good results too.

--
Penny Gaines
UK mum to three




  #4  
Old October 15th 04, 02:56 AM
Penny Gaines
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

Marijke wrote in :

I truly don't understand why this is a disaster? Most kids I know don't
have a terribly good night's sleep prior to a very important exam.

My children have written equally important exams at the same age and we
didn't put in half what you did. The evening before was treated like any
other evening.

[snip]

I suppose it is mainly because it the first exam any of my children have
had to do. It is also the only one you can't retake: either he ends up at
the academic school (known over here as grammer schools), or he goes to the
non-academic school. Unfortunately, although he is a bright kid and has
really good maths skills, but the exam measures his verbal skills. He is
reading well above his age, but a lot of the questions are based around
spelling and combining letters to make words.

Actually the bigger factor, which we weren't really aware of until a couple
of weeks ago, was that the majority of parents who get their kids to grammer
schools have made sure their kids have had extra coaching. We knew that
some would have done, but it seems that we underestimated the amount other
people do. Our feeling was that it would be a mistake for R to do a lot
of extra coaching, because it would put too much pressure on him.

Anyway, I wasn't overly surprised he was awake an hour after bedtime.
I just wasn't expecting him to get up, need a bit of TLC and a glass of
water, and then have to start going to sleep again.

--
Penny Gaines
UK mum to three

  #5  
Old October 15th 04, 02:57 AM
Penny Gaines
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

just me wrote in :

Penny Gaines mentioned in passing :

Oh well, the other school gets good results too.



oh dear. maybe that was the bad thing on rehearsal that makes the show
flawless. How did things go? When do you all hear the results? I'm
thinking of you!


He didn't say much about what he'd done: in fact all he said was he thought
he'd done "quite well" and only guessed a few. His friend (who is not that
academic) said he'd worked out half of them and guessed the rest. I haven't
really wanted to ask the other parents what their kids thought of it.
Mainly because the parents I know well aren't expecting them to go to the
grammer school, and the ones whose kids might do well tend to be a bit
competative.

We find out what his score was on 29th November, but don't find out
what school he goes to until March. It is less of a wait then it
seems, because we are only putting down the two local schools on the form,
so he is guarenteed to go to one of them. Once we know his score, we
will know whether he has a place at the grammer school or not. If we were
putting down a school that was further away, he might not get in.

I've found a site with a lot more information about the 11+ test:
http://www.nfer.ac.uk/aboutus/amd7.asp

The bit that really interests us is the table that shows the verbal
reasoning scores by age:
http://www.nfer.ac.uk/aboutus/amd766.asp

The mark he needs is about 122 (it varies from year to year), so given
that there were 80 questions on the paper, he needs to get about 62 right.

Actually, there were two papers, and they take the best mark. But the
other one was last week, and we had done only a small amount of coaching
then - because the information we got said that the kids shouldn't need any
extra preparation work - and he had quite a bit more practise between the
first and the second test.

I know this all makes us sound quite pushy. The thing is we *know* from
verbal/non-verbal reasoning scores in the past, that he is well above
average (not genius, but in the top 10%), so he would do well at the
academic school. Its just that in the past he wasn't being compared to
people with masses of coaching.

Luckily for us, the alternative school gets very good results too. For
those that know what it means, 75% of their students get at least
5 A* - C GCSEs when they are 16yos. I'm too tired to explain what that
means now (it is 11.30pm here), but it makes it a good school. For other
non-academic schools in our area, no more then 40% of pupils get that
sort of level of achievement. (Of course at the grammer school, it is
about 100% of students.)

--
Penny Gaines
UK mum to three

  #6  
Old October 15th 04, 10:02 AM
Marijke
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

sorry if a double post appears. My mailer is acting weird and told me that
the first one wasn't going out.


"Marijke" wrote in message
...
I truly don't understand why this is a disaster? Most kids I know don't
have a terribly good night's sleep prior to a very important exam.




  #7  
Old October 15th 04, 10:46 AM
Marijke
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

sorry if a double post appears. My mailer is acting weird and told me that
the first one wasn't going out.


"Marijke" wrote in message
...
I truly don't understand why this is a disaster? Most kids I know don't
have a terribly good night's sleep prior to a very important exam.



  #8  
Old October 15th 04, 10:56 AM
Marijke
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

sorry if a double post appears. My mailer is acting weird and told me that
the first one wasn't going out.


"Marijke" wrote in message
...
I truly don't understand why this is a disaster? Most kids I know don't
have a terribly good night's sleep prior to a very important exam.




  #9  
Old October 15th 04, 12:43 PM
Claire Petersky
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

"beeswing" wrote in message
...

The night before that particular test, she had trouble sleeping and
went to the test tired and uncooperative. I'll never know how she might

have
performed on a more typical day, and I found it very frustrating.


Over in the bicycling newsgroup, there's been a discussion about how many of
us get a bad night's sleep before a big cycling event. You know you're going
to ride a 100, 200, or 300 kms starting in the morning, and it's going to be
a big strain on your body no matter how much you've trained. And yet, there
it is, 2:00 AM, you can't seem to get back to sleep, and you know you have
to up by 4:00 AM to make it to the start line.

If we complain about it as adults, and it's only some dumb bicycle event,
not A TEST THAT WILL DETERMINE THE REST OF YOUR LIFE, it's natural that kids
would suffer from the same symptoms.


--
Warm Regards,

Claire Petersky
please substitute yahoo for mousepotato to reply
Home of the meditative cyclist:
http://home.earthlink.net/~cpetersky/Welcome.htm
Personal page: http://www.geocities.com/cpetersky/
See the books I've set free at: http://bookcrossing.com/referral/Cpetersky

  #10  
Old October 16th 04, 02:52 PM
Marijke
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default


"Claire Petersky" wrote in message
ink.net...
"beeswing" wrote in message
...


If we complain about it as adults, and it's only some dumb bicycle event,
not A TEST THAT WILL DETERMINE THE REST OF YOUR LIFE, it's natural that

kids
would suffer from the same symptoms.




Of course there will be sleeplessness for most people/children before
writing an exam of such enormity, but it's up to us parents to try to put it
in perspective. When my oldest slept terribly before his such exam at that
same age, we just said, "well, do the best you can and if you don't get in
to that school, we'll look at our options." And, that happened. He didn't
get in to the school he wanted and we did look at our options.

However, by saying exam prep disaster because a baby tooth came out and then
perhaps the child didn't sleep as well as one would have hoped - to me
you're telling the kid "OMG!! You didn't sleep well!! You'll do terribly. Oh
well, the other school isn't *that* bad." That's not the message I want to
send to my kids.

Marijke

 




Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

vB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Forum Jump

Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
36 Wk Exam (and OUCH, strep test!) Jill Pregnancy 14 December 26th 04 08:48 AM
Video childbirth prep courses? Donna Metler Pregnancy 12 September 14th 04 07:50 PM
Internal exam and bright red bleeding? Jill Pregnancy 1 May 8th 04 05:32 AM
2nd OB Exam ~ A waste of time?? Sophie Pregnancy 10 September 17th 03 05:10 PM
Recommended Questions to Ask at First OB Exam Carol Ann Pregnancy 2 August 13th 03 03:06 AM


All times are GMT +1. The time now is 08:40 AM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.6.4
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Copyright ©2004-2024 ParentingBanter.com.
The comments are property of their posters.