Perse Upper English Papers?

[gizmo]

Hello all! I wondered if there was anyone out there who might have a copy of previous English papers from the Perse year 7 entrance?

DS2 is facing the test in a couple of weeks; while we have done the two papers available on the site, it would really help his confidence to do one more paper if I could find it.

I'd be incredibly grateful for any steer really since we are having a bit of a crisis of confidence here .

[Allthebestnamesareused]

Please don't worry too much. When my son took his entrance exam a couple of years back he only had access to one paper online which he did. There is generally a piece of creative writing with a choice of titles and a comprehension piece which is similar to what they would have already done in school.

We did have a look online for other schools papers eg. Oundle, Kimbolton etc to see what type of creative writing titles might come up and they are all pretty similar questions.

The main thing is not to panic. Good luck with the exam.

[mastertomsmum]

Try not to worry too much. My son did Perse Upper and Stephen Perse.

He found the Upper easier as it was a more conventional test that could be revised for by doing verbal and non verbal reasoning workbooks as well as past tests. The Upper tests are slightly better suited to those coming in from state schools than the Stephen Perse tests.

The scary bit at the Upper is the sheer numbers coming to be tested. It was only at the end of the day we realised there were a whole set of kids in an earlier arrival group in addition to the dozens we’d seen arriving at the same time as us and the dozens arriving as we left after drop off.

At Stephen Perse the critical reasoning, creative writing and the interview type sections gave the children more time to reveal who they were. My son felt this had gone against him when the opposite had happened.

Be aware class sizes are creeping up at the Upper.

[Carmel206]

For the Stephen Perse exam, can you share anything further on the format - the information is sketchy to say the least? What is critical reasoning? Is that VR/NVR?
Also for the Perse Upper - does the child need to have a novel prepared for their interview this year ? I know they used to but it wasn't mentioned in the entrance exam letter?

[Allthebestnamesareused]

No the interview at The Perse Upper is very general. A couple of years back they asked candidates to bring something with them to talk about but it was usually only used as a prompt. D'S took his history project if which he was very proud. Interviewer said is history your favourite subject - DS replied no Maths. Interviewer was a maths teacher, somehow it came out DS had just taught himself to a rubics cube and teacher gave him one and asked him to explain how to do it. It was all very relaxed. Others brought in their musical instruments or sports equipment to talk about.

[gizmo]

Ahhh, I ghosted...how rude of me.

Follow up: K had his tests today and I think probably did as well as can be expected. Many thanks for all the words of reassurance and advice.

For anyone doing similar next year I think the interviews have changed since my DS1 did them 4 years ago (when they wanted to know about accomplishments and interests). They seem a little more general, with very open ended questions like: 'how would your friends describe you?' 'If you had £100, how would you spend it?'.

The verbal reasoning (on computer) seems to have become a bit more intense - 85 questions in an hour! But the English and Maths papers are following the format online.

[Allthebestnamesareused]

How did K do?