Everything Exams

In the increasingly competitive scramble for places at the UK’s top independent schools, one of the most difficult parts of the admissions process to navigate is preparing for the creative writing element of any exam. What are the examiners looking for? How well is my child performing currently? What areas of their writing do they need to improve and how can they do this effectively?

It is certainly true that there are some students who have extraordinary creative writing skills by the time they take the 11 plus. They have natural creative writing ability and can use correct spelling with higher level vocabulary, use advanced punctuation appropriately, have inventive descriptive skills to construct imaginative literary devices of their own in order to craft coherent, considered, creative stories. This is pretty daunting, but the good news is that these skills can also be learnt – with the right input.

The first thing a student needs is a solid foundation – they need to be able to use basic punctuation correctly, have a wide range of higher level vocabulary under their belt and be able to create a piece of writing which makes sense and flows smoothly from beginning to end. A student can learn these with the help and experienced teacher, English tutor and indeed, with parental guidance.  

With exam preparation at 11 plus specifically though, there are some things that a specialist private tutor can offer which could significantly improve a student’s grade from struggling  to outstanding. 

For example, I had a student who came to me for help with entrance exams to a top private school. They had basic writing skills. When given a creative writing task, they produced a simple piece of writing, using one paragraph, with a few interesting words and, on the whole, correct spelling and punctuation. At the start of online tutoring sessions, their  stories were sometimes a little over complicated for the time available to them in an exam; the stories didn’t always make complete sense and this student sometimes struggled to think of things to write about. Over a period of 10 months, we worked together to help them see how to produce original stories which were clearly structured; they learnt how to easily add descriptive writing using original, literary devices – to gain extra marks – and they learnt how to use higher level vocabulary and advanced punctuation to wow their prospective schools. This particular individual was offered a full scholarship.

Creative writing lessons certainly paid off for this student; without them, they may well have lost out in the face of such competitive exams and the school too would have missed out on a very talented addition to their community – they were exceptionally gifted in maths.

When contemplating how to help your child improve their creative writing, it’s a good idea to look for an experienced tutor who has helped other candidates before. Creative writing tasks vary between schools, so it’s also a good idea to ask a prospective tutor whether they have experience of the form of writing being tested by your target school. An experienced tutor will not necessarily need to have experience of your exact school, but with the form of writing being tested – for example, continuing the story, descriptive piece, story based on a title etc..

There are other options for creative writing preparation, especially if one-to-one tutoring doesn’t suit your child’s learning style. I am aware of several online courses and in-person creative writing courses available. On Amazon, you can find a good selection of text books which can lead you through the process as well. I myself am an experienced teacher who has been preparing students for these exams for over a decade and I’ve written several blog posts which can give you pointers on what is expected in the exam process and also gathered my own notes together into a workbook which can be found here. Always look for course providers and authors who are qualified teachers with direct experience of the requirements of 11 plus independent school exams as it’s important to help your child reach a suitable level for the school they are aiming for, something an experienced tutor would be able to guide you on.

If the idea of a weekly session for a period of months wouldn’t really fit in with your busy schedule, another approach might be to seek out an experienced tutor to look over your child’s current position and provide pointers so that your child has something to work on as an independent learner. There are plenty of exam papers and sample papers online which your child could use for practice. Nearer to the exam process itself, you could arrange a few sesssions with the experienced tutor to double check their progress and fine tune their responses.

In answer to the rhetorical question in the title of this post – yes, the right kind of tutoring can make a massive difference to your child’s chances of success at 11 plus. If you would like any advice and guidance on the process then please do reach out and I’d be happy to help.