Managing Eleven Plus Time

You may sometimes need to admonish, or even remind, your child to watch the time. You will, naturally, have provided a watch with a large minute hand. You will have done a variety of eleven plus exercises where timing was an important element. What you may not understand is why your child, sometimes, does not seem to understand the words: “Time flies!”

Look at the minute hand of the `Eleven Plus’ watch from ten centimetres away. Now look at the minute hand from two metres away. Yes, you are right, the minute hand does seem to go faster if it is further away. Experiment with your child so that when he or she sits down to take the examination, and places the `Eleven Plus’ watch on the table, you know the watch will be in the right position.

You are on the M road. A car comes up behind you travelling very fast. (This could feel like sixty miles an hour faster than you are driving.) The offending car will seem to be travelling very fast as it goes past you – but less quickly when it is far away.

A ship on the horizon seems to be stationary – but place yourself in the rowing boat in the path of the self same ship – and it is likely that your heart will beat a little faster.

Approach a large roundabout in Paris. The one at the Champs Elysees springs to mind. As you drive through this in the rush hour you may be aware of the movement of the cars before you are actually able to focus on a particular car.

You simply want your eleven plus child to receive a physiological charge when time seems to be slipping away in the examination. You want the already charged eleven plus brain to feel stimulated and excited. You want your child to manage time. Can someone in the family please give a special Eleven Plus watch for Christmas?