Mike Edwards and all other interested parents,
As a parent who had no former experience of VR until tutoring her son for the 11+ entry exams, might I just say that, irrespective of what schools one is applying for and the number of VR question types set by each school/county, no teaching aid on the market surpasses those offered by Susan Daughtrey's range of books and papers. They are simply first class!
My son and I commenced with the Technique and Practice Books 1 to 4 on 29th June this year and, in the space of 4 months, have progressed through these to Further Practice Exercises, Graded Test Papers (Books 1 & 2) and on to the Bright Sparks (loose) examination papers...and therafter to NferNelson's VR papers. In the space of a few short months, he has mastered every question type and is consistently scoring in the 90% range (highest yet 97%) - all inside the alloted time.
I put his success entirely down to Ms Daughtrey's evident expertise, namely: (1) her clear and simple approach to explaining the format of each question type and the corresponding answering techiques; (2) the way she has structured and graduated her books to introduce and progress from the easiest types of questions first; (3) the way she facilitates learning and mental recall through a wide array of practice questions and with repetition in the Graded Papers and (4) the emphasis she places on a child's learning "to time" his responses, so that he/she ultimately grows accustomed to completing the some 100 questions in 50 minutes.
My only regret is that Ms Daughtrey hasn't as yet turned her hand to producing a similar set of excellent books for Non-Verbal Reasoning. We used Bond's book of 45 techniques/exercises for this purpose which sufficed, but was in no way as user-friendly as the former's approach.
My philosophy is that learning is about acquiring and applying knowledge for life NOT just for examinations, so, what matter if Ms Duaghtrey's literature covers (what was the number?) some 35 question types versus the 21 needed for Bucks?! If a child enjoys learning and can acquire the lot in a handful of months (as with my lad) - and, in the process, becomes more dexterous in mind and acquires good examination techique - to me, this can only be good.
Best wishes, Zoe.
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