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Getting ready for the entrance test at home

Qoyis worked through practice papers on the bed before his madrasah entrance test. Around them, much of the getting ready at home was hands-on.

In 2020 Qoyis sat a madrasah entrance test. We got him ready at home.

Some of it looked like this: a practice paper on the bed, a red pencil, and Qoyis lying on his tummy. The practice set covered Arabic, maths, Malay and English. A note stuck on the cover wished him well for his test that Saturday, reminded him to make du'a, and promised that we would be making du'a for him too.

Qoyis lying on a bed working through a practice paper, with the practice-paper booklet and a note in front
Qoyis lying on a bed working through a practice paper, with the practice-paper booklet and a note in front

Hands first

Most of the getting ready did not look like a test paper at all. At home our children use manipulatives, play dough and plasticine, and do household jobs such as ironing and preparing food, much as they would in a Montessori setting. We see these as part of getting ready too. They ask for careful hands and attention.

The pictures below are from our home over the following years.

Number words on pegs, from one to ten, can be read, sorted and put in order.

A child kneeling on the floor beside yellow pegs printed with the number words one to ten
A child kneeling on the floor beside yellow pegs printed with the number words one to ten

Arabic is one of the four subjects on the practice set, and letters can be learned with the hands as well as the eyes. Plasticine can be rolled into long snakes and bent into the shape of a letter. A dot of plasticine finishes it off.

Green plasticine rolled and shaped into a letter on a wooden table
Green plasticine rolled and shaped into a letter on a wooden table
A boy shaping orange plasticine into a letter, with tubs of plasticine beside him
A boy shaping orange plasticine into a letter, with tubs of plasticine beside him

A clipboard and a pencil go outdoors, and a child sketches what is in front of them.

A child sketching a scene in pencil on a clipboard outdoors
A child sketching a scene in pencil on a clipboard outdoors

On another outing the drawing is of a stall, with a watercolour palette open beside it for colouring in afterwards.

A pencil drawing of a stall on a clipboard, next to an open watercolour palette
A pencil drawing of a stall on a clipboard, next to an open watercolour palette

Toy soldiers and animals get lined up and sorted on a mat. Older children help with the ironing. A toy stethoscope turns the living room into a clinic, with one child as the patient and two as doctors.

Children's hands lining up small green toy soldiers on a mat
Children's hands lining up small green toy soldiers on a mat

Preparing food counts too. Cleaning blue swimmer crabs at the sink takes careful fingers, and it is a chance to look at how the claws are made, edges and all.

A child's hands holding up the claws of blue swimmer crabs over the kitchen sink
A child's hands holding up the claws of blue swimmer crabs over the kitchen sink

For parents

If your child is preparing for a madrasah entrance test, practice papers have their place. Give the hands time as well. Rolling plasticine, sorting number pegs, drawing outdoors and helping in the kitchen ask for the same careful hands and patience that writing needs.

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