The creative writing component of the 11+ Common Entrance Exam involves writing an original story or completing a prose exercise to test children’s ability to write in a structured manner. Many children find the idea of writing a creative story incredibly daunting but with time ticking and pressure mounting, our three P’s are your child’s key to success.
1. PREPARE
Examiners look out for the extent of your vocabulary, correct grammar and punctuation as well as creativity. Early preparation is, therefore, very important. One great way to prepare is to read books to stimulate the mind. Have your child pay special attention to the way the author breaks down their ideas on each page. Then have them bounce ideas off you to brainstorm for their own story. Additionally, thinking of different ways to describe the story’s action and events will help your child expand their vocabulary. This way they’ll have plenty of words to describe their plot and characters when it’s time to write their story.
2. PRACTICE
Practice makes perfect. Your child can now develop the ideas you spoke about into several full-fledged stories or short essays that you can adapt for the tasks set in your exam. Let them start by outlining the characters, their actions and moral of the story before they put it all together. Having these stories at the tips of their fingers before the 11+ Common Entrance Exam can help relieve pre-exam anxieties as they can draw on them in the actual exam.
Topic ideas to practice with include city life and countryside, travel, adventure or feeling lost or alone. Test these out with different characters and settings, and let your child’s imagination drive the story as they put pen to paper. Encourage them to keep at it even if the first few practices are not coming together perfectly. They’ll get there in the end!
3. PLAN
This is important for when your child sits inside the exam room. Developing and nurturing the ability to write a well-developed plan is something that will help them throughout their time in education where they will most certainly encounter many more high-pressure exam situations.
By nurturing the habit of taking the first 5-10 minutes in the exam to outline the setting, characters and basic storyline will save your child stress as they go along. Since they’ll have practiced loads before, this won’t be difficult and they’ll be able to keep a clear head in the exam.
Finally, remind them to save a few minutes at the end to check their work and make sure all sentences read out clearly, no words are missing and their spelling is on point. This will help them identify silly mistakes and other small errors to make their writing the best it can be.
How we can help
At Über Tutors, we have helped hundreds of children excel in their Common Entrance Exams and are London’s leading team of 7+, 11+, and 13+ tutors and mentors. To find out how we can support your child’s Common Entrance Exam preparation, contact us at 02030867311 or info@ubertutors.co.uk to let us help your child shine in their 11+.
