How to Take the Pressure Off Your Child For the 11+ Exam

If you have trying to get your child into a grammar school this term, you will have to put them through the 11+ exams. This can feel very stressful for them, and can put a lot of pressure on them to succeed. In order to help your child feel confident and self-assured, you will need to help alleviate some of this pressure from them. Going into the exam hall full of tension and expectation is unlikely to make their exams feel like a breeze.

Short practice sessions

One easy way to boost their knowledge and keep the pressure to a minimum is to undertake short practice sessions. When it comes down to it, children are children, and their evenings and weekends should involve as much activity and leisure as possible. Keeping practice sessions short and productive will help prepare them, but without tiring them out – or crucially, eating away at their social life. You can break your maths, literacy and verbal reasoning exams across separate days, to help create organisation. For example, you would spend one hour practicing mathematics, one hour reading and understanding a text and then just one hour practicing verbal reasoning questions.

Professional tuition

Professional tutors are often far more qualified to take the pressure off children by helping them feel prepared and at ease about the 11+. Enrolling them into short 11 plus courses during the term-time will give them some much-needed extended learning. Experienced tutors are also far more qualified to prepare them for tricky questions and worst-case scenarios, which will help lift some worries about particularly tricky questions.

Get out and about

If you think your child might be particularly stressed about their 11+ exams, getting out and about is one of the best things you can do. Children shouldn’t be stuck inside studying for longer than thy have to be, and exercise is just one way to get them out of the house.
Whether you encourage them to go out and play with neighbourhood friends, take up a new sport or go on a bike ride as a family – activity can help reduce stress.

Be calm and reassuring

While you may be anxious to see your child do well in the 11+ exams, it’s actually quite important to not carry this over to them. As you approach the day itself, it’s important to be reassuring and frequently give them praise for how hard they have worked. As well as keeping them calm in the weeks and days towards the exam, it will also do wonders for their confidence. If they don’t pass, knowing that they have a loving and supporting family will help them bounce back and look towards the future – not what they could have done better.
While we may consider stress to be a relatively adult emotion, it’s important to remember that children are susceptible to it too. It can be incredibly hard for a young child to cope with the expectation of success if it is put upon them. Instead, you should help prepare and support them, and reassure them at every stage of the journey.