Metal Rocks Education Advisors, Ltd.

How do I motivate myself?

TikTok · the1%journal 139 likes, 2 comments. “Get back to that mindset.”

Keeping a Journal

My 4 children kept a journal for as long as I can remember. They would take it along with them in backbacks or handheld for when inspirations would strike while on the bus and tube or in the car. It was initially meant to encourage them to write more but it became more than that—a depository of not only their thoughts and observations but also their creativity and imagination. Pages and pages filled with drawings of paper-based, Minecraft-like video games; new rocket and aeroplane designs; caricatures and comic strips; and architectural feats. I’m tickled to remember now there was once a signed contract between 2 brothers where one agreed to be the other’s slave for a period of time!

To this day at the age of 21, my daughter still keeps a daily journal and I have the other 20+ journals she wrote stored at home.

Read more: https://metalrockseducation.co.uk/keeping-a-journal-self-motivation/?doing_wp_cron=1706911171.0139999389648437500000

https://onepercentgrowth.shop/

1% Better Every Day Journal One Percent Growth

By the way, to keep your child motivated and eyes fixed on the “Prize” throughout the exam process, we’d recommend keeping a journal such as this one: “1% Better Every Day”.

It really helps our students to stay on track of their studies by making their own daily and weekly goals. By focusing on daily tasks, the exam process doesn’t seem as overwhelming. It’s a Win-Win as they’ll feel good about self-attainment and you don’t have to do as much pushing!

1% Better Every Day Journal One Percent Growth

February 24, 2017

Dear Parents,

Metal Rocks Education Advisors had spectacular 2017 January Exam results across the board at 7+, 8+, 11+ and 13+ entries (full results updated in spring/summer 2017) both at competitive London day schools and elite boarding schools. These results are all the more impressive given that we don’t pre-select students based on ability.

We are seeing increasing competition at all entry levels, especially at the 7+ entry point. This year saw more than 300+ boys each sitting 7+ exams at Westminster Under and St. Paul’s Junior when typical numbers in past years were around 200 boys. Parents are increasingly taking the long view that getting in early into the top schools is the better, and less stressful, strategy.

More interestingly, there were more foreign tongues heard in the corridors of these schools during exam days and at 2nd round interviews than in years past. It was a veritable UN Convention meeting at some schools! This increasingly foreign applicant pool was another contributor to number of candidates up this year.
Metal Rocks’ 7+ and 8+ students dominated the competitive exam landscape this January 2017. One notable highlight is all 4 students taking the boys’ 7+ and 8+ exams received offers either from Westminster Under or St. Paul’s Boys Junior or both! One 7+ boy and one 8+ boy received 12 offers combined from all the top schools applied, including Westminster Under, St. Paul’s Junior, King’s College Wimbledon and Sussex House.

On the 11+ girls front, we had one girl receiving offers from all 6 schools applied, including the prestigious St. Paul’s Girls’ School and Henrietta Barnett, an academic grammar school where over 2,600 applicants sat for 90 places. Another 11+ girl interested in boarding received offers from all 4 boarding schools, including the prestigious St. Mary’s Ascot.

Our 13+ boys are still undergoing 2nd round interviews and exams at Westminster, St. Paul’s Boys’, Eton and Harrow and these final results won’t be fully known until summer 2017. However, one boy already received a 13+ offer from City of London School for Boys and an 11+ offer from Latymer Upper.

Our students worked incredibly hard to achieve spectacular, consistent results (please see table below). More importantly, their parents played a critical role in supporting them at home with the guidance, support and structure provided by Metal Rocks. This was key.

What we are most proud of, however, is the lasting confidence and skills acquired by these young people throughout the preparation process: they have emerged mentally with more grit; intellectually more curious; emotionally more resilient; and physically with more stamina to handle a heavier workload than ever before.
In effect, they have gained more than entry to the top schools in the country.

MaiHanh DeLorenzo
Founder
Metal Rocks Education Advisors

Dear Friends,

As a follow-on to my recent email about ‘Winners: Made or Born”, this article in the The Atlantic Magazine (May 2016) talks about the importance of grit to career and academic successes. In particular, it discusses the argument in Angela Duckworth’s new book, “Grit”, that “grit can be developed and is at least as important as IQ in predicting educational success.”

In one study, she found that the only reliable determinant of whether the newly arrived US military cadets at West Point would survive the gruesome first seven weeks of life there was--not SAT scores, ACT scores, high school rank, physical fitness, “leadership potential” or any other measures of aptitude—how they performed on her “Grit Scale”.

I think the ramifications in this study as it relates to education is that we should attempt to develop grit in our children, of how to "persevere just a little longer in tackling problems that exceeded their current skill set.” This, combined with deliberate practise, will serve our children well in everything they do.

I see it over and over again among my students whenever I give them a difficult task to do, which inevitably is everything because I always teach beyond their year “level". Their first reaction is always to resist me with incessant whining until I show them that it’s not as difficult as they think. It is magical when they realise that what they had just done is 3 to 4 years beyond their year level.

There are some interesting words of wisdom in the article for adults as well in regards to how grit translates into the workplace through perception and subsequent behaviours: bosses may want you to work hard, but do it in private because the “naturals” are more valued than the “strivers”. Basically, make it look easy regardless of what you do behind the scene.

Happy Reading!

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2016/05/is-grit-overrated/476397/

Is Grit Overrated? The downsides of dogged, single-minded persistence

Insights into the 11+ Exam...

http://www.metalrockseducation.co.uk/11--exams.html

When I first thought of writing about the 11+ exam, my first inclination was that it was like trying to write another Churchill biography, that is: What new is there left to say? But then, realising that new Churchill biographies come out every year, I decided that giving my perspective on the exam and the process would hopefully provide some anxious parents and students with a few meaningful insights, despite the hundreds of websites and thousands of pages already out there on the topic.

And so, first let me say that my experience is in the top 15-20 selective schools in London and its environs, and I will write to an audience I believe doesn’t need basic answers to the question of “What is the 11+?” as only savvy parents will be reading this piece.

I will answer what I perceive to be the important questions a parent should be asking about the 11+ exam and the admission process.

11+ Exams Prepping for the 11+ Exams

Demystifying the 7+ & 8+ entrance exams in UK

http://www.metalrockseducation.co.uk/7--and-8-.html

7+ and 8+ exams What you can expect in a 7+ and 8+ entrance exams to British independent schools. The curtain has been lifted...

Why Tough Teachers Get Good Results Joanne Lipman writes that today's educators are too soft. It is time to go back to the discipline of the past.