Preparing your child for the 7 Plus: top tips for time management
October 29th, 2019Last updated: May 20th, 2022
Hannah shares her top tips on how to prepare students for the competitive 7+ exams. This blog focuses on how young students can best be taught to manage their time well.
I think most of us have experienced the sinking feeling of running out of time in an exam! Therefore, in the weeks and months ahead of the 7+ assessment, getting children used to the timings of the day is key. Specific information regarding the assessment morning or day will usually be sent to parents who have registered in the weeks running up to the exam. While the exact nature of the 7+ exam varies from school to school, in general, there will be an English, maths and reasoning paper. Each one of these papers will be sat under timed conditions.
The best way to learn time management skills is to complete practice papers in timed conditions. Allowing children to have access to both a digital and an analogue clock while they are working is helpful to enable them to be fully prepared and to manage the time they have available.
This is how I would suggest administering a timed practice paper:
Before the clock starts
Before the child begins a practice timed paper, I will first ensure the child has read the time allowed on the front of the paper and calculated the time the paper will finish. Most English papers are divided between comprehension and composition, with a similar amount of marks available for both parts. When about to start one of these papers with a student, I will ask them to make sure they split their time equally between the two parts of the paper (whether they have finished the first part or not). Working out the time on the clock when they need to move on to the next part of the paper before they begin helps them to pace themselves more efficiently during the paper. I will also encourage all students to allow time at the end to check through a paper for completing missed questions or re-reading/recalculating to check for avoidable errors, for which they will lose marks. I will ask them to factor this is to their timings at the start, aiming to leave 5-10 minutes at the end to check.During the exam
While the student is completing the paper, I will be making notes of their pace through the paper and at key points (e.g. halfway, 5 minutes left), I will remind them of how much time has passed. This, I find, enables the child to get a clearer sense of how long a paper lasts and helps them to adjust their pace if necessary. As the student becomes used to doing papers, I will give less information about timings during the paper, allowing them to grow their own independence and teaching them to manage their own time. I increasingly aim to replicate the exam conditions for them as much as possible as the exam approaches.After the clock stops
After the time has finished, I will ask the student to reflect on how well they think they used their time, asking questions like:- Did you complete the paper?
- Did you have enough time to go back and answer any questions you missed the first time?
- Did you have a chance to check through each one of your questions?
- Did you feel rushed?
Hello
I am interested in 7+plus formal tuition for my child but not sure when to start. Generally at what age/stage would you recommend in order to prepare adequately...
Thanks
Regards
Sara
Dear Sara
Thanks for the comment.
Its a difficult question to answer as every child is different. We have had students who have had only a couple of sessions who went on to pass, but usually parents ask for between six months and a year of tuition at Seven Plus - so sometime in Year 1.
In our opinion, the best course of action is for you to arrange an initial assessment of your child, which would give you a good handle on where they are and how much (if any) tuition they might require to have a good chance of passing an exam.
If you would like us to arrange this for you, please feel free to call us directly on 020 3457 8474, or to submit an enquiry here:
https://owltutors.co.uk/contact-us/
Best wishes
Owl Tutors