An Eleven Plus Teraflop

“How quickly does my child need to work through an eleven plus paper in the actual examination?

This is a really interesting question because it brings so many different elements of examination technique into play. Should you advise your child to pace himself or herself?

What happens if you have a child who finishes well? Do you still advise your child to maintain the need to work at a measured pace?

What do you do about your child if he or she persists in slowing down on the interesting and hard questions? “But Mum. I know how to do it. I am nearly there. Please don’t rush me. I can do it!”

It is possible that on some questions your child will be working at the speed of a teraflop. This is one thousand billion calculations per second. (This is about the speed of a child saying yes to a visit to the cinema.) On other questions the speed may appear to slow down to a crawl. (Have you fallen asleep, dear?)

In October of this year the first England football match was streamed over the internet. This demonstrated the ability of the internet to be able to cope with multiple downloads – and lots of data.

Would it not make for a greener eleven plus examination if the children were able to sit in front of a computer and have their work marked and analysed on line? The computer could monitor a child on the test – and suggest when too much time had been spent on one question. A computer could give immediate results to a battery of eleven plus tests – and cut out all the waiting.

Think:

No cars driving to the examinations.
No paper.
Less anxiety for parents and children.
Quicker results.
More help, when needed, within the examination.

It looks as if a teraflop will solve a whole lot of problems.