It’s about this time of the year that parents start looking for time management tips for eleven-plus success.

This is because, if your little ‘un is anything like the vast majority of children, they’re probably not prone to having ‘perfect’ time management skills.

Don’t blame them, however, because good planning needs to come from you, their parents (or from their tutor instead!)

They’ll learn from your example, so you need to set them up with some time management tips that work on autopilot.

This is why many parents either delay starting their child’s eleven-plus preparation or find that despite their best intentions, their son or daughter isn’t progressing as well as they’d hoped for.

Note that this isn’t a discussion on time management IN the actual exam, nor final exam preparation in the last few weeks before the actual exams, both of which I’ll be covering in another post.

What I’m discussing here are the various ways you can help your child with the way they handle time during the run-up to their actual 11+ tests, whether that’s in years 3, 4 or 5.

So here is a selection of 23 different time management tips thoughts, suggestions and observations that you can draw from and use to help your child do better in their entrance test preparation

1 Pace yourself

Good eleven-plus preparation takes time. Rushed, last-minute work never ends up stored in your child’s grey matter, so it’s important they regularly do some work. Even fifteen minutes per day, every day, is better than nothing for six days with a two- or three-hour stint on the seventh.

They’ll find regular sessions help by providing spaces in time to consolidate new information.

This leads to better recall when your child’s knowledge is re-tested a few weeks later.

That improved remembing sticks around longer, too – so they’ll gain more marks in their tests.

2 No more multi-tasking

Whatever you or your child might believe, multi-tasking doesn’t work and so make sure they have uninterrupted time to do their eleven-plus work. Some music in the background is good, but trying to watch television, YouTube, or respond to friends on a social app isn’t.

It’s also going to help if you can ensure others in the house don’t distract them during their study time – good 11+ preparation involves all of the family, not just the one taking the test.

3 Have a schedule

Nobody said preparing for the eleven-plus is easy. Your child might have to study across five areas so it’s important their schedule lets them do this a regular basis.

Rather like herding cats, take your eye off one of those key component areas and the rest will disappear pretty sharpish, too.

That’s why it’s important to put together a schedule which you and your child can follow so they cover whatever’s required every week.

A schedule such as this will need to accommodate all parts of their syllabus, so perhaps you’ll need to design one with an A-B split so work rotates on a fortnightly basis.

4 Practise times tables

Your child needs very fast and accurate recall of their times tables. Just like how a good student of music practises their scales regularly, every aspiring 11+ candidate must work on their times tables too.

Good time management includes simply writing them out and chanting them so as to bed them down into your child’s memory. The best students don’t stop at 12×12, however, for speed in the tests it’s important to learn the other key multiplications, too, as well as how to split up multiplication questions for faster reasoning.

Easy to do, easy not to do, too.

If you’d like a free randomised times tables chart click here and we can send one directly to your email box.

5 The Pomodoro 20 min technique

The Pomodoro technique is a clever way of helping your child to stay with their studies, in 25-minute chunks. Named after the Italian word for tomato, it works by having your child use a timer (eg a kitchen food timer) set for a 25-minute period and then taking a five-minute break thereafter.

The original technique has six steps:

• Pick the next task.
• Set the Pomodoro timer (typically for 25 minutes)
• Work on the task.
• End work when the timer rings and take a short break (typically 5–10 minutes).

If you have finished fewer than three pomodoros, go back to Step 2 and repeat until you go through all three Pomodoros.

Stop and take a longer break after a maximum of four Pomodoros – otherwise you’ll lose the benefits of the focused attention this method provides.

Once the long break’s over (eg 20-30 mins), get back on with the studying.

Many students, of all ages, measure their studies in ‘Pomodoros’ and gamifying studying this way can make it more fun, too.

6 Regular reading sessions

Your child needs to cover a lot of ground to succeed in their eleven-plus preparation, and the two key elements which underpin 11+ success are – powerful times tables skills and strong reading skills.

Allocating time to read, good, age-specific literature is necessary for many eleven plus candidates.

For late starters aiming for certain schools it’s possible to ‘miss this out’ so please get in touch if you’ve left your prepration until year 5 and we can discuss this with you.

For all other candidates your child needs to be reading regularly, and looking up all of those ‘new words’ they’re prone to ignoring.

This is because, if those words have come up when reading once, there’s a chance they might appear in their actual question paper. Early preparation reduces the chances of lost marks.

7 Have everything to hand before starting

Research has shown that most people lose hours of productive time every week looking for things they’ve misplaced or ‘know’ they’ve left, ‘somewhere.’

Children do this too, and they’ve got even less incentive to be organised, since most see the eleven-plus ‘stuff’ as extra work parents make them do, so it’s essential that parents help by making sure they’ve got all their papers to hand.

Keeping everything organised, which includes, pens, pencils, A4 pads and post-it pads etc, will translate into less lost time and a more productive study session.

If you’ve got the space, picking a specific location to be ‘their eleven-plus space’ and make it a rule that all 11+ work is worked on, and kept there helps, too.

It’s amazing how often students can ‘lose’ papers they’ve prepared for a session and tracking them down can easily use up a significant proportion of a tutoring session. Don’t let your child be like that and help them to get the most from all of their 11+ study time.

8 Seek out marginal gains

Nobody ever opens a book, starts on page one and works through to the last page in one sitting. That’s not how studying works.

The best way to approach their 11+ prep is for your child to expect to get stuck, be confused, or sometimes hopelessly lost in a question.

That’s normal, and to be expected.

All we require, however, is that they move forward a little, just enough to be able to say, “I know more than when I started today’s study.”

Then, when they carry out the next day’s study they will be ready to move on further.

Just a one per cent increase in knowledge compounds and compounds until their subject knowledge on those topics will be significantly greater than the other children taking the test.

9 Get your timing right

Many families find having a wallchart or planner helps to select and protect times for their child to do their eleven-plus work.

Knowing when this should be happening helps all of the family work around these important periods and ensures your child receives support from everyone around them and also allows for breaks and rest periods to be planned for, too.

Rather like any visual target or scoreboard, seeing their consistent work being recorded can act as a motivation to keep on keeping on and focused on the prize at the end of the journey.

10 Know your enemy

All grammar schools and independent schools are oversubscribed. Some, however, are so extremely oversubscribed that have to hold a two-round entrance procedure to filter candidates. If you’re aiming for one of those schools your child will need to score high enough in round one to progress to the ‘final’ round and see if they can beat the rest of their competition.

For some of these schools those families who are successful start their child’s preparation with a ‘light-touch’ approach from year 3, or even, in some instances, year 2.

Whilst most schools don’t publish a ‘pass mark,’ if you’re focusing on a grammar school place your should aim for scores over 85% across all papers.

Independent schools each set their own pass marks and these can range from 70% all the way into the nineties if families are hoping for a scholarship place.

A good time management tip is, therefore, that you research all of the schools you’re considering for your child so you can schedule a programme of preparation which reflects the level of competition they’ll be up against.

11 Understand the question format

The eleven-plus currently comes in three main ‘flavours,’ paper-based multiple-choice, paper-based open answer and online.

Each requires different, specialised preparation techniques and, speaking from experience both as parents and tutors, each has its own troublespots and tripwires for unwary students (and parents!)

The best way to help your child avoid these difficulties is to ensure they spend time preparing using formats similar to their actual exam papers.

If the schools you’re targeting require your child to take tests in a range of formats it’s important they apportion time to prepare across all of those formats.

Once again, an early start on their preparation (eg in years 3 or 4) will pay dividends when their papers are marked in those pesky year 6 tests.

P.S. If you’re looking for real-time support for your child’s online test practice, we work with students to tutor them using a variety of software. Some of the most well known providers are CGP Books, Atom Learning, Bond and if you’d like to discuss which might be most appropriate for your child’s journey, our contact details are at the bottom of this article.

12 Take a break

The old adage, ‘All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy,’ still holds true today, so make sure your child gets some R&R time otherwise they’ll burn out long before the actual tests.

I fundamentally believe that any child, given sufficient time and support, will achieve a great 11+ score, but they’ve got to have some ‘wiggle room’ built into their study timetable.

Perhaps for your child that means including some time to watch a favourite programme, or attending a club, for example. Just make sure you’ve got some space for them to do something that’s not directly related to their eleven-plus.

13 Know what’s on the question papers

Inextricably linked to ‘Know your enemy’ there’s also the fact that not all schools set the same amount of papers.

One child aiming for one particular school might be tested on only two papers, and another child might need to sit six or seven components, in two rounds – such are the variations across the 11+ horizon.

There could be up to five elements, maths, VR, NVR, English and creative writing, so research what your preferred schools usually set and align your child’s studies alongside this.

Be careful, however, of not leaving things to the last minute and assuming that “it’ll be the same as last year,” because there have been instances of schools moving their goalposts at the last minute and causing extra stress to candidates.

14 Think positive

In sporting events, the best results are achieved by the teams and competitors who ‘play to win’ rather than ‘play not to lose.’

Translating this into eleven-plus preparation, this time management tip means when working with your child, help them to see how they can break down any ‘impossible’ questions so they can begin to work out how to arrive at an answer.

Whether it’s an open-answer multi-mark question, or an A-E multiple-choice question, focusing upon a positive outcome, will, funnily enough, often help them to discover the required solution.

However much preparation they do before the actual test there’s a strong possibility that in the ‘real’ paper they’ll be presented with some questions in a format they’ve never seen before.

This is because those who design the questions aim to make them ‘untutorable’ and are always trying to think up ways to force students to ‘think on their feet.’

Those children who are confident they can handle whatever they’re presented with, are best placed to score highest in the actual tests.

15 Pick your battles

However well you and your child map out and plan their preparation programme there will be some parts of the eleven-plus syllabus that they don’t ‘get’ as well as other elements.

Maybe it’s a specific NVR question format, or something in their maths syllabus or possibly a VR question type, no child scores equally across all papers.

Whilst I don’t advocate ignoring key areas, it’s important that they look to accrue as many marks as possible across a paper, which might, sometimes mean you might need to let them spend less time revising some of those less well-liked areas.

16 Mix it up a bit

Most children have a preferred subject and if left to their own devices will focus on just this one area. The problem with this is, most eleven-plus exams test multiple areas and so it’s important you help them to cover all the bases.

The best way to do this is to structure their studies to include small blocks of each subject, eg 20 mins maths, followed by 20 mins English – with parents being responsible for ensuring their child covers all of the necessary areas.

17 Learn from your mistakes

Eleven plus preparation requires children to take on a lot of information in short order. Whether they start early in year 3 or their parents defer commencement until late in year 5 they’re going to make mistakes and be confused over some of, or many of the areas they will have to study.

That’s perfectly ok and to be expected.

What is important is that they REVIEW their errors and RE-WORK any questions so they benefit from their new learnings, otherwise there’s a good chance those errors will be repeated in later papers.

Rather like painting or varnishing a surface, more thin coats (or times spent preparing) with gaps between them, will always work out better than a rushed ‘blob’ of studies all in one big chunk.

18 Time management tip – expect the unexpected

This is where I might lose a few readers.

Parents who home-prepare their children by simply working through textbooks may not have the skills to put their child ‘on the spot’ with more awkward questions or question permutations, but that’s exactly what they’ll be up against in their actual tests.

It’s important, therefore, that you build into their schedule sufficient time for them to work through as many questions as possible including, around the end of their year 5, actual exam papers.

19 Sit in on some of their sessions

Preparing for the eleven-plus can feel a bit of a thankless task at times. That’s why it’s good if parents can sit in every so often so that their child feels like they’re not doing this totally alone.

Some children are more willing and able to take ownership of their own 11+ preparation than others and this changes as they mature.

This may therefore mean you’ll require more, or less, involvement in supporting their preparation as time progresses.

Perhaps this could take the form of some quick-fire maths tables questions or spelling tests with them – there are many ways you can show your involvement and thus reinforce the importance of what they’re doing.

20 Study the subjects, don’t just ‘do’ exam papers

Strong subject knowledge will mean your child will find handling any questions they’re presented with to be ‘just a piece of cake.’

Great eleven-plus scores are built from understanding the syllabus and how to work through the various ways that the syllabus is presented to students. This is achieved by working through multiple examples, along with relevant notes.

Don’t be like many parents who start their children off on ‘doing exam papers’ before they’ve covered all of the syllabi, since that’s going to lead to upset when, quite understandably, they’ll have to leave many questions unanswered.

There’s a time and a place for exam papers – leave them until later in their preparation – and build in time in the first few years for deeper learning of the actual subjects.

21 Take breaks

Your child isn’t going to be as productive at the start of a long study session as they were at the start, so why not break that time up into chunks? Consider, perhaps, using the Pomodoro technique (as mentioned previously), or some other way to split their study over the day so they don’t lose impetus.

Maybe they have a friend who’s preparing for the eleven-plus – could they put in some preparation together and maybe even swap approaches for a day, so they can test how someone else’s methods work?

Who knows, maybe they’ll find a new way to ace that question that’s been challenging them.

22 This is a journey, not a destination

Don’t lose sight of the fact that, however important your child’s next school is to you (and us or their tutors) it’s simply the next step on their educational journey.

Whilst we’re totally committed to our student’s test success, we recognise that, on the day, there might simply be other students who have prepared just that little bit better and thus score half a mark or so higher.

This could mean that you too, despite preparing your child to their level best, discover that they do not receive an offer at that ‘one and only’ destination school.

If that happens, assess where they’ve scored well and where they may have slipped back and let that guide you as to the best next steps for them.

Maybe you could also speak to their tutor or an educational consultant if you require a second opinion as to what schools might be best for them, in light of their actual results – sometimes the best opportunites aren’t advertised.

23 Cultivate a winner’s mindset

Every year hundreds of year 6 children take, and pass, their eleven-plus tests.

As long as your child puts in the time and is focused on their preparation, they have every chance of being one of the successful ones and securing a place at their target school.

Help your child to catch themselves doing something right in their preparation – it’s good to let them know they’re doing well, rather than keep on complaining they’re not doing enough.

Top time management tips & techniques

So there you have it, a 23 top time management tips and techniques that will help your child ace their eleven-plus exams.

I’ve one more time management technique that I’ve left until last, and that’s – arrange for an eleven-plus tutor help to direct your child’s study, so they’re fully prepared for their year 6 entrance tests.

Whether you’re considering group or one-to-one tutoring, a tutor is best placed to construct a programme for your child that accounts for their present skill levels and the target levels required to pass your desired school’s entrance tests.

If you’d like to speak to us about possible tutoring arrangements, or anything else eleven-plus related, here’s a link to our contact form.

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