KEY DETAILS
Course length: 120 minutes (including a 5-minute break).
Exam style: suitable for all 11+ exam styles which use multiple choice comprehension questions. (ISEB Common Pre-Test, GL Assessment, CEM, Kent Test, Sutton SET, Tiffin stage 1 and Future Stories).
Date: Saturday 31st August 2024.
Time: 10:30am-12:30pm
Spaces: 12.
Appropriate for: students entering year 6 who are taking the 11+ this year.
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SESSION DATE
Saturday 31st August 2024, 10:30am-12:30pm.
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TUTOR
This course will be delivered by The Exam Coach’s team of tutors. All of our tutors have:
Passed competitive exams such as the 11 Plus.
Attended a Russell Group University within the last 5-10 years.
Received two weeks of training to deliver expertly within our online workshop format.
Taught our 11 Plus exam preparation curriculum on a regular basis within the last two years.
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SESSION OUTLINE
If your child is preparing for 11+ grammar or independent school entrance, there will always be a comprehension section as part of the English exam. During a comprehension exercise, students are required to read through a passage of text (fiction, poetry or non-fiction) and answer different types of questions about the text. These questions test a student's understanding of the text, as well as the role of specific phrases and words within it. Questions cover skills such as:
1. Recall
2. Inference and deduction
3. Understanding meaning
4. Language techniques and imagery
5. Types of words or phrases
In this crash course, we will recap the key comprehension exam techniques and thought processes our students have used successfully in the past. Students will then practise these skills on exam paper texts (including fiction, non-fiction or poetry).
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KEY COMPREHENSION SKILLS COVERED
1) Fast and accurate reading. Students will learn how to read through a large, unseen text extract quickly and accurately. We will teach them speed-reading and note-taking techniques that will save them time and improve their accuracy when answering questions.
2) Minimising mistakes. Students will be taught how to read questions carefully and spot what examiners might do to trip them up! We will also show students how to be methodical by using a process of elimination to arrive at the correct answer every time.
3) Vocabulary expansion. As part of this course, we will focus on expanding your child’s vocabulary. We will work through some complex synonyms and antonyms for more high level vocabulary words within each exam text we study. This will help student’s answer vocabulary-related questions as well as their overall understanding.
4) Inference. Inference is the skill of knowing or working out what an author means, even if it is not directly said in the text. We will teach students to become detectives, searching their comprehension texts for answers that make sense based on the given information.
5) Application of skills to real 11 Plus exam questions. Students will be tested on multiple types of comprehension texts and questions. We will show them the important exam techniques we recommended — for example, in what order and how to complete the paper most efficiently. We will then explain important academic concepts they need to know about. Then, we’ll test them regularly to ensure this essential knowledge is retained.
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COURSE RESOURCES
All resources will be sent out before the start of the session. These can either be printed or viewed digitally. For this crash course, your child will receive:
A worksheet to complete in the workshop.
A comprehension extract.
Class notes to help consolidate learning and give students an opportunity to recap some of what was covered in the workshop.
A mock exam paper as a homework task.
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HOMEWORK AND MARKING
A 30-minute mock-exam comprehension task is set for all students as homework. They can complete this task after the workshop has finished, and it should then be sent to us via email (teamkeen@theexamcoach.tv). Each piece of homework will then be individually marked and reviewed by the tutor (usually within 2 working days). For each submission, you will receive:
An annotated copy of the homework, marking correct and incorrect answers.
A 5-minute-long voice note from our tuition team to your child, celebrating good answers, correcting any mistakes and highlighting areas for improvement. Importantly, our tutors will show your child the process required to arrive at correct answers, as opposed to simply telling them what the correct answer is.
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HOW TO JOIN
After purchase, you will be automatically invited to the crash course one week before it starts (or as soon as possible if the workshop starts in less than one week). Confirmation emails, invitations and resources will be delivered to the email address you provide at the checkout.
If you have any questions, please contact us via WhatsApp on +44 7547 645100, you can also send a message here.