Plan the year ahead with a little help from KSOL.
KSOL’s team of tutors have highlighted some key points within the year to help you organise the next 6 months of your child’s 11+ preparation.
Set a starting point: Get your child to sit a KSOL mock exam so that you can benchmark progress for the next few months. This will allow you and/or your tutor the chance to plan the year ahead to your child’s individual needs. From here you can look at online tuition courses or centre based tuition to suit your child.
Begin to weigh up the pro’s and con’s: Look into the schools that you are interested in. Visit the school websites and find out when open days/evenings are taking place. Find out how far your child will need to travel each day and find out whether the schools specialise in subjects that your child has an interest in.
Take stock of progress: Evaluate how far your child has come since the first exam. Have they progressed or resolved issues identified at the beginning of the year? What’s the next step? It may be a good idea to enrol your child onto a topic specific KSOL workshop to consolidate any areas of concern.
Send off entrance exam application forms! Applications open from mid-April onwards and most areas have until the end of June to complete these forms. However, as soon as you know where you would like your child to apply, you should get them sent off asap!
Remember to check your local authority website for set closing dates.
Plan your school visits: The majority of Grammar and Independent School Open Days/Evenings take place from now until July. Visit each school website to find out the dates and whether you need to reserve a place. Some schools hold information sessions for parents and guardians too which is a source of invaluable information. If you have missed any Open Events, you can phone the school to request an independent visit.
Consolidation and revision: At this point in the year, the main focus in your child’s preparation should be to consolidate any weak areas and to revise! Short bursts of revision is key as you do not want to overload them so late in the year.
Practice! Again, they will have the knowledge at this point in the year but this needs to be put into practice. Practising under timed conditions is a necessity and sitting mock exams will be of further benefit. For more information on why your child should sit mock exams, click this link.
Plan the big day: By now you should have received all of the necessary details about the event such as the exam venue, registration times and exam duration. You should also keep in mind that there may be hundreds of other students turning up on the day so you may want to plan various locations to park. The key is to remain calm and allow the last few months of preparation to run their course.
Results: Results are usually issued within the first two weeks of October. Whatever the outcome, you need to fill out a Local Authority Preference form and list the schools you wish to apply for; always include more than one school so that you have a back up. The national closing date for Local Authority forms is 31st October.
