Here are a few articles to show how to tackle common problems in English, Maths, French, Verbal and Non-verbal Reasoning and photography.
General
How do I know if my child will get a place?
This is the question I get asked the most as a tutor. And even if parents don’t ask it directly, I know that it’s always lurking in the background somewhere…! more
English
How to Hyphenate Words
Hyphenation is not the most important thing in the world, but there’s a right way and a wrong way to do it. Here are the three rules you need to obey if you want to get it right. more
Pronunciation
English is a funny old language. It’s such a mishmash of imported words and complicated constructions that it was once described as having French vocabulary and German grammar! Unfortunately, that means the spelling and pronunciation of words are often different. Two of the letters that cause problems are c and g. more
Why I hate the Press!
I know why they do it (most of the time), but itโs still incredibly annoying and confusing. Iโm talking about grammatical mistakes in the papers. more
Americanisms
In the words of Winston Churchill (or George Bernard Shaw or James Whistler or Oscar Wilde), Britain and America are โtwo nations divided by a single languageโ. Quite a few of my pupils live outside the United Kingdom and/or go to foreign schools but are applying to English schools at 11+ or 13+ level. One of the problems they face is the use of Americanisms. more
Colons and semicolons
Using colons and semicolons is often an easy way to get a tick in your homework, but it still involves taking a bit of a risk. If you get it right, you get the tick, but if you get it wrong, youโll get a cross. This article will explain how to use both colons and semicolons so that you can be confident of getting far more ticks than crosses! more
Explaining humour
The โWโ words are useful if youโre trying to understand or summarise a story, butย who,ย whom,ย whoโsย andย whose tend to cause problems. Hereโs a quick guide to what they all mean and how they can be used. more
Who or whom, whoโs or whose?
The โWโ words are useful if youโre trying to understand or summarise a story, butย who,ย whom,ย whoโsย andย whose tend to cause problems. Hereโs a quick guide to what they all mean and how they can be used. more
Could or might?
Could and might mean different things, but a lot of people use them both to mean the same thing. Here’s a quick guide to avoid any confusion. more
Homophones
Homophones are words that sound the same even though they’re spelt differently and mean different things. Getting them right can be tricky, but it’s worth it in the end. more
Creating off-the-shelf characters
Common entrance exams have a time limit. If they didn’t, they’d be a lot easier! If you want to save time and improve your story, one thing you can do is to prepare three ‘off-the-shelf’ characters that you can choose from. more
Children’s reading list
I’m often asked by parents what books their children should be reading. Here’s a list of my favourite books when I was a boy. Maybe a few of them might be worth ordering online…! more
Describing feelings
In many 11+ and 13+ exams, you have to talk about feelings. Yes, I know thatโs hard for most boys that age, but I thought it might help if I wrote down a list of adjectives that describe our emotions. Here we goโฆย more
How to write a letter
Writing a letter is not as easy as it might seem โ especially if you have to do it during a Common Entrance exam! In this post, Iโd like to explain the typical format of formal and casual letters and the decisions on wording that youโll have to make…ย more
Descriptive writing
Exams at 11+ and 13+ level always let you tell a story in the writing section, but they sometimes provide a picture and simply ask you to describe it or to โwrite about it in any way you likeโ. Writing a description is obviously different from writing a story, so itโs worthwhile pointing out the differences and the similarities…ย more
What is a full sentence?
Teachers often tell pupils to use a โfull sentenceโ in their answers, but what is a full sentence? more
Itโs all about the apostrophe
The apostrophe is tricky. It means different things at different times. This article is meant to clear up any confusion and help you use apostrophes, which might mean you get straightย As in your exams โ or should that be Aโs?! more
Spelling rules
The problem with the English is that weโve invadedย (and been invaded by) so many countriesย that our language has ended up with a mish-mash of spelling rules…ย more
Parts of speech
English exams often ask questions about the โparts of speechโ. This is just a fancy term for all the different kinds of words, but theyโreย worth knowing just in case. Just watch out for words such as โjumpโ, which can be more than one part of speech! more
Capital!
The three main things to check after writing anything are spelling, punctuation and capital letters, so when do you use capitals? more
Speech marks
Speech marks, inverted commas, quotation marks, quote marks, quotes, 66 and 99 โ doesย any other punctuation mark have so many names or cause so much confusionโฆ?! more
Essay writing
There comes a point in everyoneโs life when you have to undergo the ritual that marks the first, fateful step on the road to becoming an adult. Itโs called โwriting an essayโ…ย more
Commas
If you had the chance to take a contract out on one punctuation mark, most people would probably choose the comma.ย Unfortunately, thatโs not possible, although modern journalists are doing their best to make it into an optional extra…ย more
Poetic devices
Itโs important to be able to recognise and analyse poetic devices when studying literature at any level. Dylan Thomas is my favourite poet, and he uses so many that I decided to take most of my examples from his writings… more
Story mountains
Everyone needs a route map, whether itโs Hillary and Tenzing climbing Mount Everest or an English candidate writing a story. One of the ways of planning a story is to create a story mountain, with each stage of the tale labelled on the diagram… more
Remember the iceberg!
To pass Common Entrance, you have to be a scuba diver. Only a small part of any iceberg is visible above the waves, and only a small part of any answer to a question is visible in the text. To discover the rest, you have to โdive inโ deeper and deeperโฆ more
Maths
Number triangles are a useful way of working out how to rearrange a multiplication or division sum. This is important if you have to โfill in the gapsโ, for example. more
Problem Questions
โProblem questionsโ are often the most difficult in 11+ and 13+ Maths papers.
There are several different kinds, but they all have one thing in common: they all โhideโ the sums that you have to do.
That means the first thing you have to do is work out the actual calculations youโre being asked for. more
Rounding
Rounding is just a convenient way of keeping numbers simple. Nobody wants to have to remember all the decimals in ๐
(which is 3.1415926535897932384…), so people usually round it to 3.14 (or 22/7).
There are three ways of rounding numbers:
- using a power of 10
- using decimal places
- using significant figures. more
Working out values from a pie chart
This is a typical question from a Dulwich College 11+ Maths paper that asks you to work out various quantities from a pie chart. To answer questions like this, you have to be comfortable working with fractions and know that there are 360 degrees in a circle. more
Reflecting shapes in a mirror line
This is a typical question from a Dulwich College 11+ Maths paper, and it asks you to draw a reflection of the triangle in the mirror line shown on the chart. more
SOHCAHTOA
SOHCAHTOA (pronounced โsoccer-toe-uhโ) is a useful โmnemonicโ to remember the definitions of sines, cosines and tangents. Amazingly, I was never taught this at school, so I just had to look up all the funny numbers in a big book of tables without understanding what they meant! more
Long multiplication
You can use short multiplication if youโre multiplying one number by another thatโs in your times tables (up to 12). However, if you want to multiply by a higher number, you need to use long multiplication. more
How to add, subtract, multiply and divide
The most important things you need to do in Maths are to add, subtract, divide and multiply. If you’re doing an entrance exam, and there’s more than one mark for a question, it generally means that you have to show your working. more
Long division
Long division is on the syllabus for both 11+ and 13+ exams, so itโs important to know when and how to do it… more
Maths trick
Hereโs a Maths trick a friend of mine saw on QI. Who knows? It might make addition and subtraction just a little bit more fun! more
Simultaneous equations
Why do we have simultaneous equations? Well, there are two ways of looking at it… more
Prime factors
Prime factors have nothing to do with Optimus Prime โ sadly โ but they often crop up in Maths tests and can be used to find the Lowest Common Multiple or Highest Common Factor of two numbers… more
Negative numbers
Working with negative numbers can be confusing, but a few simple rules can help you add, subtract, multiply and divide successfully… more
Useful terms in Maths
Maths is complicated, but a good first step on the road to understanding it is to get to know the most useful terms. There are lists in the front of the Bond books, but hereโs my own contribution. I hope it helps! more
Algebra
Algebra is supposed to make life easier. By learning a formula or an equation, you can solve any similar type of problem whatever the numbers involved. However, an awful lot of students find it difficult, because letters just donโt seem to โmeanโ as much as numbers. Here, weโll try to make life a bit easierโฆ more
Divisibility rules OK!
Times tables can be tricky, and thereโs no substitute for learning them by heart. However, the divisibility rules can at least tell you whether an answer is definitely wrong. Iโm a great believer in โsanity checkingโ your work. Just ask yourself, โIs this crazy?โ If it is, youโll have to do the question again! more
Tips for the QTS numeracy test
The QTS numeracy and literacy tests are not very popular, but trainee teachers still have to pass them before they can start teaching in the state sector, so I thought Iโd try and help out. There is always more than one way of doing a Maths question, but I hope Iโll demonstrate a few useful short cuts and describe when and how they should be used… more
Ratios
Hundreds of years ago, it was traditional to put dragons on maps inย places that were unknown, dangerous or poorly mapped. Ratios are one of those placesโฆ more
Working with fractions
People donโt like fractions. I donโt know why. Theyโre difficult to begin with, I know, but a few simple rules will help you add, subtract, multiply and divide… more
Number sequences
Number sequences appear in Nature all over the place, from sunflowers to conch shells. They can also crop up either in Maths or Verbal Reasoning, and both are essential parts of 11+ and other school examinations… more
Fractions, decimals and percentages
Pizzas are very useful, mathematically speaking. However much we hate fractions, we all know what half a pizza looks like, and thatโs the point. Numbers donโt have any intrinsic meaning, and we canโt picture them unless they relate to something in the real world, so pizzas are just a useful way of illustrating fractions, decimals and percentages… more
Useful formulas
What is a problem? A problem = a fact + a judgment. That is a simple formula that tells us something about the way the world works. Maths is full of formulas, and that can intimidate some people if they donโt understand them or canโt remember the right one to use… more
Short cuts
There is always more than one way of solving a Maths problem. That can be confusing, but it can also be an opportunity โ ifย onlyย you can find the right trade-off between speed and accuracy… more
French
French regular verbs โ present subjunctive tense
The subjunctive in French is generally used in the present tense after expressions such as ‘il faut que’ and certain verbs that also take the word ‘que’ after them. These are generally the ones that express feelings or doubts (eg craindre, vouloir), especially when two parts of a sentence have different subjects, eg ‘I want her to be happy’ becomes ‘Je veux qu’elle soit contente’. Verbs ending in -er or -re have one set of endings, butย -ir verbs have another… more
Preceding Direct Objects in French
Forming the perfect (or pluperfect) tense in French is sometimes made harder than necessaryย by whatโs called a Preceding Direct Object (or PDO). The object of a sentence is whatever โsuffers the action of the verbโ,ย eg the nail in โhe hitย the nailย on the headโ…ย more
French regular verbs โ conditional tense
The conditional tenseย in French is used to show that someone โwould doโ or โwould be doingโ something. All verbs end in -er, -re or -ir, andย theย endings are differentย (as shown here in red)… more
French regular verbs โ future tense
There is only one future tense in French, and itโs used to show that someone โwill doโ or โwill be doingโ something. Verbs end in -er, -re or -ir, butย theย endings are the same… more
French regular verbs โ past tense
Here are theย basic forms of French regular verbs in the pastย tense, which include the perfect (or passรฉ composรฉ), pluperfect, imperfect and past historic (or passรฉ simple). All verbs end in -er, -re or -ir, and there are different endings for each that are shown here in red… more
Common French verbs โ present tense
Language changes over time because people are lazy. Theyโd rather say something thatโs easy than something thatโs correct. That means the most common words change the most, and the verbs become โirregularโ. In French, the tenย most common verbsย are โรชtreโ, โavoirโ, โpouvoirโ, โfaireโ, โmettreโ, โdireโ, โdevoirโ, โprendreโ, โdonnerโ and โallerโ, and theyโre all irregular apart from โdonnerโ… more
French regular verbs โ present tense
Nobody likes French verbs โ not even the French! โ but I thought Iโd start by listing the most basic forms of the regular verbs in the present tense. All French verbs end in -er, -re or -ir, and there are different endings for each that are shown here in red… more
Learning the right words
One of the frustrations about learning French is that youโre not given the words you really need to know. I studied French up to A-level, but I was sometimes at a complete loss when I went out with my French girlfriend and a few of her friends in Lyon. I was feeling suitably smug about following the whole conversation in Frenchโฆuntil everyone started talking about chestnuts! more
Non-verbal Reasoning
Non-verbal Reasoning
Non-verbal reasoning tests are commonly found in Common Entrance exams at 11+ and 13+ level, and they’re designed to test pupils’ logical reasoning skills using series of shapes or patterns. It’s been said that they were intended to be ‘tutor-proof’, but, of course, every kind of test can be made easier through proper preparation and coaching. more
Photography
African field guide
Find an alphabetical list of the most common animals seen on safari in Africa, including mammals, reptiles and birds. more
Basics of photography
Learn all about the basic aspects of photography, including types of camera, types of lenses, the Exposure Triangle (shutter speed, aperture and ISO), focus and other settings. more
Game drives
Read all about the best gear, equipment to take with you on safari, learn the rules of composition and find out the best workflow for editing your wildlife images. more
How to stand out from the herd
Read this quick guide to improve your wildlife shots by setting up something a little bit different, from slow pans to sunny silhouettes. more
Introduction to Lightroom
Learn how to import, edit and organise your images in Lightroom, including the main features available in the Library and Develop modules and a summary of keyboard shortcuts. more
Making money from photography
Find out how to start making money from your photography with this quick and easy guide to entering competitions, putting on exhibitions, selling through stock (and microstock) agencies and more. more
Rules of composition
Find out the rules of composition to help you get the most out of your photography, including the Rule of Thirds, framing, point of view, symmetry and a whole lot more. more
Safari pub quiz
Challenge your friends and family on their wildlife knowledge with this fun quiz. more
Wildlife photography
Learn how to take great wildlife shots by preparing properly, taking the right equipment and getting to know the rules of composition. more
Verbal Reasoning
Verbal Reasoning
Verbal Reasoning (VR) tests were invented to test pupils’ logic and language skills – although they do sometimes includes questions about numbers. In order to do well in a VR test, the most important thing is to be systematic, to have a plan for what to do if the question is hard. Here is a guide to the different kinds of problems and the best ways to approach them. more