Does anyone have any experience of 7+ assessment?

[MummyLala6]

My daughter will soon be sitting the 7+ assessment in Jan 2017 to see if she can get into year 3 in September at Surbiton High Girls Prep. Does anyone know how difficult the assessment is? They don't give out past papers so I have no real idea of what they will ask of my DD. We have been looking at ExamPapersPlus English and maths papers. Some of those papers are very tricky. We are spurring her on and seeing improvement but are wondering if the assessment will be that hard. Any advice or experience of SH is highly welcomed. Thanks.

[homebythesea]

Many moons ago- do check that your current school has covered relevant topics before the test date. This is what did for my DS back in the day!

[MummyLala6]

Thanks for your note, all help I can get is brilliant and encouraging. We have a tutor to help us cover typical topics but can you be more specific in your guidance from your experience? Is it a similar level of difficulty to the ExamPapersPlus content? The stuff in there can be quite tricky. Also, do you have any idea of what they will be assessing eg a specific story, questions around comprehension, re-write your own story based on the text? And for maths, how difficult? Are they expected to be well above their current expected level for their age? I am asking as I have read things about SH accepting a variety of abilities not just the uber clever, which I hope is true. I know they focus a lot on sports, becoming a more rounded individual, music etc. Which is what Im looking for and DD will respond to best.

[homebythesea]

I wasn't talking specifically about SH I'm afraid, and it was many years ago, and DS is a boy! However it is a common tale that unless you are careful (and it sounds like you are waaaaay more well informed than I was at a similar stage) the child may not have covered the necessary material esp maths (just because schools go in different order / pace) and so fail the tests. This is what happened to us at 7+ and it seemed very unfair at the time.