A focused twelve-week programme can take a child from baseline to test-ready, provided the time is well spent. Here is a week-by-week plan.
Weeks 1–2: Baseline and diagnostic
Sit one full paper in each subject under realistic conditions, on different days. Mark them together a day later, sorting missed questions into the four-column system. The output of this fortnight is a ranked list of weak topics, not a score.
Resist the urge to coach or pre-teach during baseline. The whole point is to see where your child stands without intervention.
Weeks 3–6: Targeted topic work
Pick the three weakest topics from the diagnostic and drill them in fifteen-to-twenty-minute sessions, four times per week. Use topic-specific workbook sections rather than full papers in this phase.
At the end of week six, sit a partial paper covering only the topics you have drilled. The goal is visible improvement — if there is none, the topic work has been too shallow and needs to be redone with more rigour.
Weeks 7–9: Full timed papers
Reintroduce full papers at fortnightly cadence under exam conditions. The off-week is for review and any necessary topic top-up, not for additional papers.
Track scores in a simple chart — three or four data points across this phase will show whether the trajectory is upward, plateaued or downward. A plateau is normal; a downward trajectory needs investigation.
Weeks 10–11: Format-specific dress rehearsal
Sit one paper per week in conditions as close to the live test as possible — same time of morning, same location, same brand of pencil. The goal is to remove every novelty from the live test day.
Discuss the test-day routine in detail. What if you don't know an answer (skip, mark, return). What if you finish early (re-check the answer transfer first). What if you panic (one slow breath, then move on).
Week 12: The wind-down
Almost no practice this week. One light revision of standard question types early in the week, then nothing. A walk on the morning of the test if it is warm enough. A normal breakfast. Early to bed the night before.
Counter-intuitively, practice in the final week tends to dent confidence more than build it. Trust the work that has been done and let the child rest.
After the test
Whatever happened, do not debrief on the way home. Children's recollections of "how it went" in the first hour are wildly unreliable in both directions, and the conversation almost always makes things worse. Treat the day as a normal day from the moment they walk out of the test hall until results.
Plan something specific for the test day afternoon — a film, a meal out, a long walk. Mark the moment as complete, then let the test be over until the official result arrives.