0:00 Trailer
0:47 Mocks season and why people panic
3:50 Why mocks hit hard (identity vs feedback)
9:13 What mocks actually measure (knowledge, technique, state)
11:36 Revision that works (active recall, sleep, avoid cramming)
16:12 Biggest mark leaks (where marks are lost)
21:21 Build a “mistake map” (the one action to take)
24:44 What parents should do (and what to avoid)
34:41 What students should do next (simple action plan)
39:08 Retakes and why Maths and English matter most
45:01 Outro

Intro

Will starting in year four or year five get my child to a place where they’ll be confident in their knowledge? It’s a complex question and there’s loads of facets to it. But it’s actually surprisingly simple too. I think it it has to depend on your child.

We’ve got to be very careful to to make sure that year four is a foundation thing. Year five sharpen your knowledge in comparison to jumping in halfway through year five and having six months of like panic panic panic burn out.

It’s it’s so often more of a mental journey. It’s not just what the child learns. It’s what they believe about themselves. Like if you’re able to get your child to believe, all right, I can maybe have a go. Like that’s really the battle won.

The Education Lounge podcast.

When should you start 11 Plus prep (and our background)

So, one of the most common questions that I get from parents is, is this the right time to start the 11 plus? Are we starting too early? We’re starting too late. That kind of thing.

Yeah. Have we left it too long?

So, I thought this podcast we could address that in basically extreme detail.

Yeah. in a long form sort of way.

Um, it’s a complex question and there’s loads of facets to it, but it’s actually surprisingly simple, too. The fine Yeah, I think there are nuances, but yeah. Yeah,

I think it it has to depend on your child. It’s always that’s the nuance. Yeah, basically it is it is a nuance, but we’ll we’ll say what things to look for,

but in in general, you do need to play it by by ear essentially. Think about your own personal circumstances in that situation. And I guess so, but I think there is um there is like a general there’s a general rule that I would use.

What’s your general? Well,

Why families are starting earlier in 2026

I feel like before we get into that, I want to we want to talk about why families are starting earlier than before. Now, you had some thoughts on this and it basically leads into this the into my point of when they should start as a general rule, but why is it

why do you think that families are starting earlier? Because in my in my view,

I don’t really see that. So what have where have you found that from? Well, I think it’s a developing trend.

So I think there was a peak period in 11 plus preparation where everyone starting really really early because they knew the high of the competition and then it sort of eased off a bit.

But with this private school stuff and VAT,

I think you’re going to see a more pronounced shift. Cuz if you think about like the average, a lot of 11 plus parents, quite a few of them are, you’d say middle class, but not particularly not at the very top of in terms of wealth, but they’re quite aspirational. Yeah,

there’s and I’d say I’d put us our parents and that sort of background too initially when they were, you know, sending us to school and we were 10 years old, 9 years old. Um, they’re middle earners, but they they might want their child to attend a better school. And it could be they’re sort of between a private school and a grammar school a lot of the time. Okay.

And I think because of that VAT rise as we’re seeing about a 10% shift uh so 10% of parents are are deciding no okay we’re not sending our children because of the VA price.

I think that you impacting the grammar school stuff. Yeah.

And these aren’t these aren’t like like obviously there are some children who aren’t strong enough to get in with that within that group.

But but then the competition’s got more because of the V thing. Yeah. Right. I I do think it’s a developing trend, but now it’s it’s going to start ramping out. Yeah.

Yeah. Okay. developing cuz I’ve I’ve seen I’ve still you you said you’ve got people starting earlier but I’ve still seen the the people that are like well it’s like four weeks until the exam. Oh yeah. No, they always exist. They always exist, don’t they?

Like I they’ve existed as long as we’ve done this. like the people who are to the exam and like oh I need loads of tuition and they try and classes and then like um

GL in 2026 and what’s changing

I’m I think it’s going to increase and it’s starting to I like I think we’ve noticed within our own program there’s more people getting into it earlier like year fours and years that I think that’s true at the prep school level as well. So people are so the seven seven plus yeah

where where people are like oh no I don’t think I’ll actually go cuz they’ve got the 20% back rise and they’re considering oh do we really want to spend that and then they’re thinking more longer term like what’s the argument for sending your child in at 7 plus it’s because it’s easier easier to get in than 11. Yeah. Yeah, in some in most cases.

Yeah.

But I think that argument sort of falls down now should the rise.

And also like we were discussing just before we hit record the uh feeder schools being bought up. Yeah.

In in our local area anyway.

I think we’ll talk about that in another episode. But well, I feel like we can maybe mention it.

CSSE Essex papers and feeder school pressure

We can maybe do it next maybe next episode in full. Yeah, we’ll see. But um yeah, we we’ve recently found out that Forest School is buying Yeah. Snares. Yeah.

And Bankraftoft are looking to buy St. Orbins. Yeah. So I I think that will happen.

Well, we we’ll discuss their sort of but but it it does mean that there’ll be more pressure on the seven plus stuff because if they’re taking most of their candidates from their own their own schools that they’ve purchased or whatever then

which will make the 11 plus even more more competition. Yeah. For candidates.

Um so that’s that’s the general feeling feeling. Yeah. So, in terms of my thoughts on when Yeah. on when they should start,

The general rule: Year 4 foundations, Year 5 sharpening

I’ve always thought year four because we tend to do the foundational knowledge.

Yeah.

Basics in year four and then build on top of that for the first half of year five and then second half of year five introduce papers and it’s a slow burner.

My it’s a slow burner in comparison to jumping in halfway through year five and having six months of like panic panic panic burnout.

Yeah, I think six months is is pretty pretty but the two years Yeah, it is. But the the two years of year four and year five shouldn’t be like a a fastpaced Yeah. crazy pressure.

Yeah. Because what happens, we’ve seen this where what happens is people or candidates burn out just before they need to ramp up. Yeah.

So, it’s less about 11 plus pressure in year four. We tell this to parents all the time. It’s more about getting the foundation strong.

Mhm. And then building on top of that.

The foundations that matter most by Year 6

I think one thing that makes me more convinced that year 4 was the right time

Yeah. is since they brought in the I mean I say new curriculum but it’s since 2015 odd like when they brought in their new primary curriculum

what you I’ve got to say like the sort of concepts that children had to learn earlier you know were like things like fractions and stuff like that earlier on I think now at year four you need to develop a very strong understanding of those especially math concepts. Um I’d say in terms of the English when I was young I was I loved English like I I was really into it. I I liked reading and that sort of stuff.

I was the opposite. Um, so at the for for me like verbal reasoning was not a problem like the comprehension not really a problem but although the skills probably working on the skills is is useful. Complete opposite for me. Yeah.

I think the the the skills and the logic side of verbal I found that easy non-verbal found that easy. math sound that easy. English.

Yeah.

Was I think the logic comprehension is what I struggled was fine with it was but it was like having the vocabulary having like vocab is a big thing and this is why you

Vocabulary, reading, and why children struggle with context

need a couple of years to build up your database of language and you know yeah and and children just don’t read as much. I think that makes me I mean I I was never a big reader at the time and tend to use the uh I used the still going now the first aid in English book which we’ve got somewhere we can link it in the description but that book was from when I was doing 11 plus we were using that and it’s still Yeah.

Yeah. Sometimes it’s funny even amongst adults like the things that they don’t know like words and you’ll use words and they don’t know what you’re saying that’s happened quite a few times but even with I’d say our relative like we got well educated shooters well yeah and then sometimes I’m like they don’t know what that word means like not necessarily an English shooter but like um you know say more just a more complex piece of vocabulary like think of anything of it lexicon or I don’t know something like that right okay I can’t I can’t think off the top of my head but I think there was a few or encapsulate those sorts of words not we expecting the 9-year-old to know this but I’m just saying that I don’t where they do they do show up though these types of words

yeah with within the con well there’s a lot of contextual Yeah. Yeah. You figure it out from the rest of the sentence passage or whatever. Yeah.

But I think a lot of children because they’re not even used to reading the act of reading and decoding and establishing what does that mean like from the context. I remember doing that as a child. Like I I remember going, “Oh, I look before and after and yeah, all of that.”

Because they if they’re not very practiced in that in the first place, then like they’ll just look at that word and they’ll panic and they’ll be like, “Oh, no. I don’t know what it means.” They won’t even think, “Oh, it could be a B, C, or D.”

It’s not even that. They’ll they’ll look at just the word and try and see what it sounds like. So, if you had, what did you say? Encapsulate.

Encapsulate. They they might think it’s some sort of like capsule. Yeah. For example.

Yeah. They’ll they’ll think, “Oh, what does it sound like?” But not really regard the context or break down the word, root words, prefix, suffix, all that stuff.

Do you know what the most apparent Do you know what the most complex word in the English language is? By complex, one individual word.

Yeah. By complex, I don’t mean I’d say the word complex.

No. No. Not not the most. So, not the most. Um, so just to clarify, not the most difficult to spell, difficult to say or anything like that. Um, or even the most difficult concept, but it can be used in so many ways.

Um, so a word that can be put into several different um, me think. It’s going to annoy me when you say it.

It’s like a short word.

I know. It’s going to annoy me when you say it.

Begins with an S. I don’t know. No, it’s three threeletter word. A threeletter word. It’s not the, is it?

No, no, no, no. Cuz that’s that’s that’s used in a very definitive way. Yeah. Um, as a definite article,

three words. Just how how many ways you can use it?

It could be anything. Gone. Just uh run. I can see that. Okay.

Yeah. Yeah. I think I can’t remember how many uses those how many uses of run there are. Yeah.

Reasoning types and why transfer skills are slipping

It’s like that sort of stuff that if it’s just you can all of all of the definitions of run would be to would be what?

To let something go. To let something do its thing.

Yes. But I guess like it’s just the number of contexts that you can use it. If you if you’re running, you’re going.

If you run a script, that’s running.

If you run a film, that’s that goes a bath.

Run a bath. It’s it’s it’s um to make something go go. Yeah. Essentially. Yeah. But yeah, it’s it’s those sorts of things that, you know, ch children, I think, struggle with these days because people don’t use words in very sophisticated ways.

Yeah. This is a point though, isn’t it?

They don’t. But the exam still does m um there’s like this this tendency to do do you know like I I say this about teaching as well. So in the classroom now what I imagine is teachers trying to make it as easy as possible to understand a concept which surely like in many cases would you’d think all right that will improve standards generally but if you give too much then there’s and there’s less left to interpretation then paradoxically spoon feeding potentially.

Yeah. I mean I mean I’m not saying that teachers are necessarily trying to doing that, but they’re everyone’s trying to make accessible materials, right?

Everything’s more accessible. And that that’s fair. Like as a society, we’re we’re creating resources. We’re creating materials that are easy to access and are easy to understand. But and it seems like a good thing but it can be well you’re cuz I see this with um people if you give them if you give them everything they will only follow that script.

Yeah.

There’s no logical thinking. There’s no sound reasoning. It’s just basically like programming a a robot. You do this, then you do this, then you do this. Yeah.

And when there’s something that could be applied elsewhere. So, one of the one of the biggest signs of intelligence is being able to take that take a concept and apply it somewhere else. Yeah. That’s not that’s that’s not happening.

M if you give them something that has the same kind of steps in a different situation, being able to transfer that over and use that knowledge over here is a sign of intelligence and it’s a sign of something is is something that’s happening less and less because people have to be told exactly do.

Yeah. And it could be to do with fear of failure, could be to do with fear of like being reprimanded. I I think it’s actually because our lives are actually ruled by computers and algorithms.

Yeah. And it’s like you do one little thing wrong and the thing doesn’t work and and that’s drifted in every into every area of society and you know obviously like it you you want to help people understand stuff but it’s like you you end up diluting complexity and when you dilute complexity too much you take away people’s ability to interpret and infer and build their own conclusions and understandings. I remember like even in maths I was talking about I was talking to some students like we’ve got this YouTube channel we watch this and we look at and I was like we don’t have any of that we we we literally just had the answer and like look at the answer and just go what how do they get and then you have to like reverse engineer it and go all right like I’ve got to try loads yeah critical thinking is disappearing I think the humans are becoming more like AI and AI are trying to become more like humans and at some point everyone’s just going to be the same. Yeah.

Anyway, we somehow brought AI into this bound to happen.

But but I think it’s a important point with 11 plus a lot of the time they are trying to look for those critical skills and sometimes to develop those skills you you need you you need the base base knowledge is

Year 4 should be calm, foundation-based (avoid burnout)

important. Most people just infer loads of mass facts from the top of the head, but not unless they’ve been exposed to different different things. The year four uh argument was basically is year four too early. It’s not too early if preparation is calm and foundation based and it’s like a slow burn. Mhm.

And you don’t peak and burn out just before the point where you need to be at the peak. Um definitely too too early for exam drilling. We see this quite a lot. We see people why they’re not doing papers. Why they’re not doing papers?

Because they don’t know fractions yet and they can’t do any of the paper without knowing multiplication, fractions, all the foundation stuff.

We’ve got to be very careful to to make sure that year four is a foundation thing and not Yeah. a exam heavy cuz all that’s going to do is like you give them an exam, they’re going to get like 5% or whatever it is.

Realize or or feel like they don’t know how to do it. Knock the confidence. You want to build the confidence up in year four. not not give them a full

It’s still good to obviously give them give them papers but not but not at that level not at the final level. No way. Nowhere near.

Um it’s ideal for skill development and exposure which is what we said.

And yeah starting in year four reduces pressure later on you don’t have to redo it.

So what actually happens if you wait till year five?

It really does depend on the child’s if sometimes if if a child goes to a prep school then they’ll have a usually a f because it’s prep school I mean the word includes in the name a lot of them will have built a relatively good foundational knowledge of say maths and English sometimes the reasoning although I think they’re little a little bit weaker with that well it’s not a it’s not taught yeah subject is not necessary core component of a lot of No, but I do I do think the the skills the critical thing critical skills thing we were talking about

The biggest gaps we see in Year 5 starters

leaps in logic and that sort of thing um learn within verbal non-verbal reasoning are very useful to be applied to things like comprehension and multi-step math questions and just general life

no that’s true some children do come to plus with a good base.

But I’d say the majority lack I’d say core skills in fractions, decimals, percentages, um even 2×2 multiplication. This is in year five.

So, so yeah, as they enter year five, uh as division. Yeah.

Okay. Cuz it’s not just when they enter year five. There are a lot of people that come to us. Like I said, we’ve had people come to us two weeks before they Oh, yeah. No, but but I mean, I get that with 14y olds or 13 year olds. They they don’t necessarily have the foundation. So, it’s it’s just very dependent on the context from which the child or the student comes from. um if they’re yeah if they’re at prep school they usually do have have fairly good foundations which is another argument for actually getting them in at 7 plus but if you get the chance to prepare a child throughout year four you can generally especially from the start of year four you can get them to a place where they have pretty good foundations across the math and English uh core comprehension skills they understand how to do it They understand how to infer. They understand techniques that the writer might be using. They have better sort of decoding skills and with I think because of that ramp up as as well as I was saying how the curriculum it’s actually quite dense at primary school level the number of things that they need to know.

Yeah.

Really? Um well even more so with this.

Yeah. they they’ll gain. And the good thing is is like if they develop this great base at year four, they take that into year five and then they can do more application and you can do things like more multi-step problems that use these skills and a variety of skills. And that’s really where you start to be able to answer these more difficult 11 plus questions where you’ve got like two three steps in there or four steps even.

Yeah. So that’s really and then at the sort of far end of year five I wouldn’t touch this really that much before you have things like algebra.

Um, so you start getting the it it’s it’s actually you could touch on it in verbal reasoning as well cuz there’s some algebraic concepts in there. Uh, a little bit. Yeah. Overly basic.

There’s some nice like puzzles that you can do as well with your child with uh where they’ve got like these symbols are like numbers and you got to work out what the numbers are according to what the total is. Like those sorts of exercises.

Yeah. Well, we can leave a I think we’ve got some of them in our vocab book, do we? There’s not the Well, we’ve got we’ve got I mean, it’s a great book, but I wrote it.

Just cuz you wrote because you wrote that one.

No, I mean, yeah, I I’m I’m fairly proud of that, but it is good. We’ll leave a link to the books in the description.

Yeah. Um yeah it will really really challenge but yeah just anything puzzle based where there’s some level of decoding cuz I think at that level then you start touching very skimming the idea and the concept of the abstract and I think that’s really where say the the strongest candidates in 11 plus have a edge is their ability to reason abstractly.

Yeah. Which is why if you’re not naturally one of those candidates already, then starting in year four, building up those foundations Yeah. into year five to be able to tackle something like that is is where that that idea comes in.

Obviously, it’s less time to fix gaps properly. Now, again, it will depend on your child. if they’re, you know, if they’re ahead in school, there might be less gaps to fix. Um, fewer fewer Yeah, exactly.

Al also I think when people come into the process you you came from a obviously you went to forest and you were preparing for Latimeras and also the scholarship paper that they used to have at forest. They they used to basically be a scholarship um that they they were quite generous.

They had a separate paper for the scholarships.

Yeah, I remember attempting one in years. I think I’ve told this story in the podcast somewhere before, but yeah, I had a look at it. It was like I remember attempting it in year six and just I could the math was like I have no idea, but the No, it was the English for me. Yeah, you’re getting the cover. I just couldn’t do it. Didn’t understand it.

But it’s kind of a a lot of so many parents actually get this is how they come into the learn plus process. Basically, a a teacher at a school that they’re attending. So, primary school, I’m talking about the state sector. So, the prep sector I’m going to leave to the side, the teacher will go, “Oh, do you know like she’s doing really well or he’s doing really well in school like really really well. He’s at the top of this thing. He’s doing really really well in that.” And they might even mention it like have you considered like the 11 plus cuz I think that’s what happened to me. um like was doing well, showed some potential.

Is 11 Plus prep valuable even without a place

needing math and English and then and then and then we’re like actually we’re good enough to try. Yeah,

there’s some, you know, then they might not be thinking because I I suppose you wouldn’t if unless you were really forward thinking, you might not be thinking, oh, what school will they attend in year seven when your child’s in year three or four? But if you’ve got that attitude of we can improve a little bit here and improve a little bit there and yeah, it’s a mind it’s a mindset thing, isn’t it? And then their child grows in confidence. I like I said, I I had one quite recently. I had a child who she couldn’t so she was year four. She was year four, but she couldn’t she didn’t know time tables like uh she couldn’t add like she didn’t know basic arithmetic.

All right. And I was just like we we did not go into it as 11 plus. We were going into it just she needs help.

She doesn’t get this. And she she built those skills.

And then I sort of real well her her mom and I sort of slowly came to the realization she’s actually really good.

Um she’s not been taught it before. Brad like she’d she learned the entire 11 plus curriculum in those two years but she started from a base of not and this was one to one but I didn’t have her for that long like as in an an hour a week or two hours two hours a week um and she had to she came from a very low dose I would never have dreamed that she would take the exam

She did not pass, but she was pretty close.

She was a few marks away. And that that that even just that alone. Yeah.

The boost you’re going to get when you go into secondary school from there.

Yeah. Yeah. I told her I’m immensely proud of the fact that you got so close and where you came from and you just like worked really hard.

Um, so do you think there’s not really a specific thing that tells you like, okay, my child is now ready to begin?

No, it’s it’s like a it’s it’s so often more of a mental journey. Yeah.

It’s not just what the child learns, it’s what they believe about themselves.

And they need to like if you’re able to get your child to believe, all right, I can maybe have a go. Like that’s really the battle one.

And it could take longer to do that.

Like I’d to improve this student’s confidence took a long time because it was really short. Mhm.

Um she didn’t have much confidence. So it took and that was the most rewarding thing.

But it was the the 11 plus was just a byproduct. I I was like I didn’t I didn’t treat it with maybe as much focus as I I I could have for instance ramped up a lot more and a lot earlier but I did not want to put that from where she came from and her confidence levels. I didn’t want it to be dashed so readily. So I was very very selective of what I did with her and how much focus I put on a score and that sort of thing. I was just like, “Okay, we need to improve this like decimal thing here and these like ratio things and oh no, non-verbal.” And I and to be honest, I I did touch reasoning too late because she didn’t have the foundations.

Like if I were like if I had a bit more time with her, then I would have maybe gone through the non-verbal a lot more and the verbal. But I didn’t think it was as important as given that confidence in math and English. So really if you’re able to get you’ve got to decide we’ll starting in year four or year five get my child to a place where they’ll be confident in their knowledge and fairly secure with the knowledge and also confident in themselves and want to take the exam have a sort of desire to do it cuz I think you can take a really smart child but it’s really hard pushing them up the the hill if they’re not willing. So, and that can be a confidence thing, too. So, the fact they’re not willing can be a fear of failure. I I think that was definitely like a thing for me. So, one of the most helpful thing was my mom did was say, “It doesn’t matter what happens.”

That took the pressure off. We won’t mind if we just want you to do your best. That’s like the best thing to hear because I was like at at that point I was just like I just feel like going in and failing like I don’t you know not not trying at all and that was so it was the mental thing that was more I think this is a bit a big thing I think whether it’s said like that or whether nothing said the child can pick up on the parents stress the parents Mhm. feelings about the situation, the panic. Yeah.

They they absorb all of that whether you know it or not, whether you’ve said it or not, they they they they know subconsciously, even subconsciously, they they they know. So, it’s not all it’s it’s a lot of it is to do with the parents, the attitude, the what they say, the the whether the panic is real or not.

I think that’s Mhm. That’s quite a big quite a big thing we should probably mention actually. Yeah.

Yeah. Well, yeah. So, I’d say as long as you’re you’re bearing your I I think you can start almost any point apart from I would not start them just before the exam or like I I

No, at that point just go in and take it. Yeah.

Sorry. Um, there might be a few things I can like cram in and learn, but I don’t think it’s very instructive and it doesn’t it doesn’t teach your child how you should really approach things. No.

Like, think about it this way. Would you want your child doing GCSEs with 3 months preparation or four months preparation?

Like knowing how much there is to learn?

Like I think you’d want to communicate as best that you can that you know we need to start early and be prepared. Being prepared leave don’t leave things to chance.

Um yeah. So I think it’s more about that. That’s the other thing is like ultimately a parent starting too late.

It could be because they didn’t know which I I will concede. That’s kind of what happened to me. But yeah, but if you’re watching some something like this, you know about it.

Yeah,

but you know, it’s it’s different if you knew that whole time and you were just leaving it later. And that’s not I don’t think that’s necessarily very responsible.

I asked I asked John the question, what should he four focus on first? And he ran away. I did.

He ran away and he’s come back with few books. A few books. So I’ll ask you again.

What Year 4 should focus on first (books and resources)

Don’t run away. what what should year four focus on first?

So year four, you’re obviously building foundations in your math and English. I think that you’ll have great luck with so first aid in mathematics, first aid in English.

I’ve never used the math one. The like the English one I mentioned earlier I used when I was doing it but and this book god it’s dry but it’s very good. Um,

I mean for3 pounds it’s it’s pretty incredible.

I do. Well, you I’d get the answer book for the45. However much it costs.

4.95. Yeah. Well, the answer book is for all five books and that will last you until GCSE really.

Um, yeah, there’s some topics in there that are quite advanced. So, that that’s uh yeah, a staple.

So, so this is that’s our last one. We’ve sold out of all of them. That’s our literally our last Yeah. uh center copy really.

Some of our GCSE students obviously did 11 plus and they still talk about this book. Yeah.

They still talk about it. They’re like that red book. Um but it is very good and it gives you

I mean these are key topics. Like they probably can’t see that. What does it say?

Decimals, fractions, and percentages book one. Like if you had to get any book on those topics, this one. This is it. Yeah.

Well, it goes all the way from place value like I did from the beginning of Yeah.

Do you know our non-verbal book is loosely designed around this book

starting with what is a shape all the way to Yeah.

Yeah. It’s design and the all the important questions in life. Yeah. What is a shape?

This is really good as well with uh so the chauffeur and sim series. Yeah. Mental rift.

Have you got one there? I did not take that but I just remembered it. Um,

yeah, that is really good for mixed practice and also each section is subdivided into different topics. It’s very gradiated. Remember I was talking about that girl who didn’t know. Yeah.

But uh yeah, we went through mental arithmetic like every week because it was just really good practice for that. Yeah, it was quite So that’s useful for you for year four up to GCSE reading that book.

Um yeah, as in I’ve worked with some foundation students who didn’t who struggled with, you know, basic skills.

Yeah. And that’s very good.

Um this I I’ve not really looked at this, but the the English one is the English one is Yeah, it’s incredible. Again, we’ve sold out that one, too.

I just wanted something with first a might be around. I’m not going to run off. I think I know where it is, but I’m not gonna

Yeah, that that um the English one is pretty good. This one people might not know as well. What’s that on? Uh Hayden Richards.

Um Oh, yeah.

But Junior English revised. I think this is is that like a vocab like it’s not easy.

What What’s in it? I’m not really English like I’d say every so if you look at the different things it’s

so you got capital letters collective nouns you know something that a lot of children struggle with uh adjectives

completing sentences compound words that sort of stuff so it’s kind of like a mixture of what we’ve got in our verbal book and the first day in English book really

yeah but I think it’s like a really good overview but it’s quite it’s expensive but It’s packed full of value about all the hat.

How much is that?

I think this is probably quite I mean it says 12 something. I don’t believe it.

If you were tried to look for this online, I think it would be a lot more expensive than 12 55. I think it’s okay. Probably a lot more.

Um,

leave these with me. I will I will find the links.

I’ll find the links and put them in the description. Um, so they they’ve got these simpler series and they’re really good if your child’s younger and struggling with a lot of the basic skills. They’re they’re they’re so good.

You know, the little thin ones, thin books and same writer. They’re very good.

Are they the ones that have like the like a white cover with like red or blue? Yeah. Yeah. I remember this. Yeah.

And Yeah. I used that with a few like when we were starting out and we didn’t have like we did have our own.

Yeah.

Then you have this book which I mentioned and I wrote this one

um and it’s got word searches. It’s so it’s basically teaching vocab. kind of show how to

it’s teaching vocabulary but in a very it’s more engaging than that’s not really that that dry of a book.

Yeah. And it’s got test sets.

Our resources and how to build skills step by step

That’s kind of what you were talking about earlier, wasn’t it? With the like you said about the shapes and the No, not exactly.

Finding that was more maths related, but you got anagrams. Yeah. That so quite quite challenging. Quite challenging.

That’s good for year four. be more year five. I’d say more year five. Yeah.

Um then then the ones that I wrote.

Yeah. You can see uh prejudice non-verbal books and they’re really good because I actually love section A. I think it’s very good. It’s got all the because I think one thing is when you communicate with your students, you need

a shared language and the first section a gives you

like fills and dash dash fills and yeah horizontal lines and closed shapes, open shapes.

So they get the idea of of the things of the language of non-verbal. And I think that’s like I find that when I used to teach Yeah.

It was well when I used to teach it I say well what’s happened from this shape to this shape from shape sh and they they go well that’s gone over there and been precise. Yeah. What’s gone over where? Yeah,

the small circle’s gone from west to east or left to right like the language needs to be and then this sort of stuff like the overlapping show up to the

so like if you got an arrow um so this is the sort of stuff like we do in year four because it sets those foundations and then obviously we’ve got there is a book too that goes we obviously have question types like that but you got analogies at different levels. Well, there’s also on this channel like Yeah. 30, 40, 50 videos. Yeah.

That talk through the explanation of each of the question types that gives you practice questions on screen. Gives you free downloads for you can do uh 20 questions on each Yeah.

question type for free as a PDF. They’re all if you go to the channel, there’s a what’s it called? Um playlist.

Yeah. for verbal, non-verbal. Um, yes, that’s all there.

Um, then 3D and spatial, we do this more in year five.

This took me got what three or four months to write, put together and that sort of stuff. Um,

yeah, and you might have heard of nets and plan views. I think this is very difficult there. Well, this was a big CM thing and they’re now reintroducing it slowly back into Oh, yeah. Net nets as well. Um, so yeah,

like you You might encounter this in school. I think I did once.

There was this uh not really more in school. It was it was introduced for the CM curriculum back in like 2016 or whatever. No, but as in nets are well known. Yeah,

but remember this in these these types of questions, they’re now being moved over because CM got um well GL took over from CM a couple years ago with the yeah with the sort of widespread 11 plus and and then but but now that now the the new GL curriculum does include although some of these things as well.

I I think there’ll be a bit of a shift soon because you’ll have you know the computer assessments and that sort of thing. Yeah, I think more borrowers will start to shift to that and you’ll see some providers, but I think again stuff down on paper is really important. It’s like kind of critical and then this is our verbal book too,

but it goes with verbal book one. So, you learn the strategies in verbal book one and then this they more of a practice book kids would take. So the the book one is basically similar to non-verbal book one where it’s got the full explanations and all that sort of stuff. Yeah.

Along with early year four practice book two is the more developed year five practice.

But then you can see like there’s a clear development. So between year four and year five you’re learning those foundational skills and then in year five you start to master them at a higher level. and also you know uh in greater volume.

Yeah. Well, we were saying what year four should focus on first. I guess we’ve covered what year four should focus on and what year five should focus on. The only thing I would add to that is when we get to this sort of time of year, mock exams. It’s March when we’re recording this.

Um to start introducing papers and things like that, which is when we start our uh mock exams. Yeah. Like you said, mock exams and courses.

Yeah.

Which is not just for our internal students. is available for everyone. Another link. Yeah.

Um, okay. Just to round off, well, we were going to speak about how much practice is enough for year four, but I think we’ve kind of covered that. Um, I

How much practice is enough in Year 4

can give you just some quick quick bits to cover off what we’ve not spoken about. Short consistent weekly sessions, whether you’re doing that at home, with a tutor, um, with us, with uh, parents, whatever.

Focus on accuracy before speed. What you don’t want to do is become really good at doing papers in terms of speed and getting all of it wrong. So, it’s better to get your accuracy and your knowledge sorted first and then bring down that speed with practice. Yeah, I’d say so.

Make sure you stop before frustration builds up. No. Yeah.

In year four, especially, you don’t want to be burned out and like hate the process when you’ve still got another year and a half to go.

Mhm. And this all these things put together should help confidence uh increase steadily over time.

Mhm.

Um that’s what I would say about how much is enough for year four. Just don’t burn out in year four. And also the role you you can you know like we we play games in class and that sort of thing that encourage a bit of critical thought but also divide up the time and make it a bit more fun and engaging. I think that’s that’s the key thing. You need to enjoy them. Yeah.

Cuz when I know I know when I did 11 plus it was it was not like that. The driest thing it was just I hated it. I hated it.

Well, the thing is is that with me, I enjoyed But you’re a special case. I did.

I’m talking about when we did it compared to to now compared to what we do in our lessons. Like our lessons have been designed to be engaging.

To be engaging like the metal puzzle things, critical thinking like Rubik’s, cubes, Wordles, word searches, number bingo. Yeah.

Uh hangman. All of these vocab and mathematical and critical thinking building exercises are built in. Yeah.

To the beginning and the end and the break in the middle.

And and the children I said GS the kids doing GCSE now who did the 11 plus before they six years ago they still talk about it.

They they talk about uh you know that 24 game. Yeah.

24 number game and that sort of thing and they remember doing it here and having having a fun time really. 24 number game. Just say very quickly because they don’t they might not know what it is. 24 number game is where you pick four single-digit numbers. You have to use all four numbers and you’re going to get to 24 using addition, subtraction, multiplication. Mhm. And or division. And then whoever gets there first wins. Yeah. Yeah. Sorry.

Yeah. Do you want do we can do one now? Yeah. Uh three.

I don’t have a me three. 3, five, seven, 9.

Five, seven, nine. It’s been a long time since I’ve done this. You’re not going to be able to do it.

I’ve done it already. Uh 9 takeway 3 is six.

Oh, no. 24, not 12. It’s been a really long time since I learned this. Um it’s I’ve not taught taught the class for such a Oh, I know. Um 75 is two.

That’s what I was.

And then 9 plus 9 plus three and then times times two. Man, I’m I’m I’m out of practice. Usually it’ be like 4 seconds. They be like, “Yeah, I got it.” Yeah.

Literally 4 seconds. Like this. Um I’m going to have to I’m going to have to practice that again.

Yeah. So um maybe we should just cut that out. Should we cut that out?

Final rule of thumb and avoiding burnout

That was embarrassing. Okay. Um let’s finish with the general rule. I mean, we’ve covered it,

but if you’ve got this far in the in the episode and you’re at the end, then the general rule is to year four, build foundations, year five, sharpen your knowledge,

increase your knowledge, like do do the more complicated things that you can’t really tackle in year four. Things like algebra and complex ratios and, you know, uh, pi and then more practice as you Yeah. As you’re developing the final skills of you know the algebra with a high higher level year six sometimes even year seven or eight level topic you’re also sharpening your timing and bringing down the time it takes you to do questions and papers. Yeah.

So yeah four into year five. Year five we start to do papers around this sort of time. So March uh and then you prioritize your consistency over intensity because intensity will create burnout.

Yeah. So gradual ramp up towards the exam. Don’t burn out and crash out before.

A lot of people a lot of people do burn out over summer or just before and they crash out like 3 months before the exam.

Yeah.

So or they lose that or they go away for two weeks or three weeks on holiday.

Yeah. There’s forget everything. Momentum I think is extremely important.

Yeah. I I think in any exam well in anything in life momentum is well I can tell exactly who’s going to have a hard time in GCSEs by what they’re doing that Easter.

I can I can tell so much like during that time I’ve got students and they’re like struggling during that Easter point and they haven’t been working.

It’s hard for them to pull it out. And it’s very much the same thing with 11 plus.

You need to keep going at that critical time.

Wrap up

So hopefully you found that useful if you’re preparing for the 11 plus. We have left a lot of links in the description below that includes the verbal reasoning playlist that we mentioned earlier. You know the free downloads and the explanations of all the topics the non-verbal playlist copies or links to the books that we’ve got the verbal the non-verbal Peter Robson the first aid. I’ll try and make it as organized as possible so it’s not overwhelming for you.

Um, if you have any questions on the 11 plus preparation post pro process or any of the uh what curriculum or resources that we’ve mentioned, you can leave a comment down below. And if you’ve made it this far in the video and you’re watching us on YouTube, don’t forget to give us a like and a subscribe. Um, leave any comments down in the description below. If you are listening or now watching us on Spotify or Apple, you can give us a follow and maybe a rating. And we will see here next month where we would probably be talking about the um feeder schools and how they’re buying up uh the private schools are buying up the feeder schools.

Um that should be the topic for next month hopefully. We’ll see you there.