When is the best time to begin supporting your child for the AQE and GL Assessment Transfer Tests?
When should my child start preparing for the Transfer Test? The answer really depends on your child’s individual needs. If you feel your child is a happy, confident learner and their P5 report card does not flag up any difficulties then you may just want to wait until they have settled into P6. Many parents choose to start seeking the help of a tutor after Christmas in the P6 year. Some decide that the summer of the P5 year or the start of P6 is more appropriate. If your child has gaps in their learning then really the answer is, the sooner the better!
Learning Time
This is crucial as there are many new concepts which need to be introduced. Your child needs time to digest these and fully understand them without any stress.
English Skills
English skills need to be assessed and bad habits with punctuation and spelling need to be worked on. Understanding of figures of speech such as nouns, verbs, adverbs and adjectives needs to be thorough. Your child must be confident skimming and scanning questions and texts.
Problem Solving
Problem solving methods need to be worked on in maths. These are the key to success for the Transfer Test. A solid foundation in times tables, decimals, fractions and percentages is required. Your child needs a good grasp of measure, shape and number Key Stage 2 curriculum.
A year to prepare for the Transfer Test allows time to build in revision of concepts as well as the opportunity to be introduced to past paper questions. This helps build confidence by building on success and learning from mistakes.
The aim is to maintain a steady pace of progress which peaks as the first test approaches around the first week of November in the test year.
At On Target Tuition we have a lot of experience guiding children and supporting parents successfully through this process. Our Centre Director, Martin has recently gone through the experience with his own daughter and knows the stresses and strains felt by parents and children going through the process.We begin with a free assessment from which we can pinpoint areas of weakness and tailor a programme of study designed to help them achieve their own personal targets as they move towards the test. The lessons are 80 minutes long, which allows us to work on both English and Maths as well as past papers. Our tuition involves extensive past paper practice in both the AQE and GL Assessment papers, which is vital to improve exam technique.
When should my child start preparing for the Transfer Test? For more information or advice please call us at our Lisburn centre on 9267 5071. Visit our website for more information on our award winning Transfer Test Tuition.
For a little extra help preparing your child for the types of questions they might come up against in the AQE and GL, we have published revision resources to help.
The Road to the Transfer Test – designed to help parents and teachers introduce children to the types of questions that come up in the Transfer Test. This resource can be used from the end of Primary 5 through to the first half of Primary 6. For more details visit the On Target Resources website.
AQE and GL Practice Papers and Revision Books – comprehensive revision and practice papers designed to replicate the real tests and cover the Transfer Test curriculum in full. For more details please click here.