Jane Slinn, the founder and director of Independent Thinkers, gives us tips to help our children prepare for their 11+ & 13+ exams.
Read, read, read
- Encourage your child to read for at least 30 minutes each day. Reading builds children’s vocabulary and comprehension skills: children who excel in 11+/ 13+ English and verbal reasoning exams are keen readers with a wide vocabulary.
- Intersperse your child’s favourite books with some classic texts. Start with classic children’s books in Years 3 and 4 e.g. Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland; J. M. Barrie’s Peter Pan; Anna Sewell’s Black Beauty. In Year 5, start reading some classic adult fiction together e.g. Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol.
- Talk to your child about what he or she has been reading over a family meal, in the car and/ or while travelling to/ from a holiday destination. Ask your child to tell you how the narrator shapes the story; how characters are developed; how suspense and tension are managed in the text; and how the author’s language engages readers and helps them to imagine vividly the world of the novel. These are the questions that will get your child thinking carefully about books in ways which are assessed in 11+/ 13+ entrance exams.
Build vocabulary
- Many parents and children find it helpful to keep a log book of unfamiliar vocabulary encountered while reading. Give your child ownership over this log book and encourage him or her to note down new words on a regular basis. There is some evidence that writing out words helps us to remember them, so though you can use a computer or tablet for recording vocabulary, using a physical note book is highly effective.
What about tutoring?
- Do not rush to find a tutor when your child is in Years 1-3. We do not do any tutoring before Year 3 and, for Year 3, we offer English group sessions only, in which the focus is on reading and discussing prose and poetry, without mentioning exam preparation!
- The most useful year to use a tutor is Year 5. Avoid intensive tutoring – allow your child to develop his or her skills gradually over the academic year. We rarely work with a child more than once a week, though we do provide extra sessions over holidays and in the lead up to school entrance exams.
Get expert advice
- Be wary of what secondary school websites say about their 11+/ 13+ assessments. Many schools, including the most selective London day schools, say that their entrance exams test Year 5 work. However, the pattern we are seeing is that the most selective independent schools in particular – St Paul’s Girls’ School, City of London Girls’ School, St Paul’s and Westminster – are expecting children who sit their second-round exams to have mastered aspects of algebra, for example, which are usually covered in Key Stage 3 (Years 7-9).
- Do look carefully at sample papers on school websites, when these are available, and get expert advice on the types of assessments which your target school sets. Schools revise their assessments from year to year – make sure you have the most up-to-date information.
Exam skills
- Do not worry if your child struggles with timing in exams. Work on getting the key skills in place first; then work on timing. With dedicated practice, your child will be able to speed up. The second half of Year 5 is when you should focus on practice papers and timing.
- If your child tends to rush in exams, encourage him or her to slow down. Some able children have a tendency to try and complete their work as quickly as possible! To do well in 11+/ 13+ assessments, a child must use the time available. Any spare time left over having completed an exam should be used for checking and rechecking work: when you work at speed, it is very easy for avoidable errors to creep in.
Jane Slinn is the founder and director of Independent Thinkers.
Jane holds a first-class degree in English from King’s College, Cambridge, where she also studied for her MPhil (distinction) and Ph.D. She is a former barrister and Lord Denning, Lord Haldane and Hardwicke scholar of Lincoln’s Inn.
Jane has been successfully preparing children for independent school entrance at 11+, 13+ and 16+ for over twenty years.
In the last admissions round, 100% of children who participated in Independent Thinkers’ Zoom courses and worked with our tutors received an offer from at least one top 20 independent school, ranked according to GCSE and A-level/ IB results.
The most popular destinations for our students were Westminster, St Paul’s, SPGS, NLCS, Godolphin and Latymer, King’s College, Wimbledon and the City schools.
Over the Easter break, we are offering 11+/ 13+ Maths masterclasses. Information, including on booking the sessions, is available here.
Jane offers a free initial consultation for families embarking on the 11+/ 13+ process. To book a consultation, please email jane.slinn@independent-thinkers.co.uk.
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