Winchester College - May 2015 Entrance Exam - preparation tips

My son is attending a prep school in winchester and has a place subject him passing the Apil/May exams 2021.
I know the school is preparing him for the exams and im vary of overcoachingas he is a boarder and logistically its hard. He did well last year but was wondering how many children get this far and not make it through? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

@Xpatmama88 Thanks so much for your sharing . I didn't know the HM did the selection of the boys for the guaranteed offer , because at this stage , I was advised that the assignment regarding which house to go would be finalized till the completion of the entrance examination 2021. Very happy to know how much the dons in wincoll inspired your DS. The quality of dons and their passion in teaching really make a difference in the boys. I heard many good reports on the school in fulfilling the inquisitive minds and intellectual curiosity of many DSs. Once again , thank you very much for your sharing

Was at a party over the weekend and got chatting to the HM of a very well known prep school, and he said that Win was definitely not as popular with uk parents as it was in the past and that each year the % of non brit entrants was going up..is that right?

lowto, congratulations. I think the housemaster obviously like your DS to make him an offer. He should be fine with the entrance exam, they will know that he is capable to pass, or else they will not make the offer.
And being in int’l school bring something different than UK prep school. In general, the students are more aware and accept of cultural differences. Academically, most follow the IB, so have a broader knowledge spectrum, ( not necessarily the depth of the subject).
When my DS took the Wincoll exam then, he was waitlisted subject to the exam, whereas he also had an offer from Westminster through Common Entrance and he took both exams, he found common entrance easier, and Wincoll papers involved more thinking, and he liked that extra challenge.
Being in Int’l sch, he had advantage on MFL, his German and French were good. We have to use these languages in our daily life, and I think that helps. His strength are in Maths, sciences, and music, so we encouraged him to read more, doing a lots of Maths and practice his music. My DS told me his Geography Don had actually praised him because of what he answered in his geography entrance exam, very different insight than other boys. And I think Wincoll like individual thinker.
My DS had left Wincoll 3 years ago and did extremely well, and many thanks to his Housemaster, especially to his Maths, Science and Musics dons that had inspired him.

@Xpatmama88, viewing your response, knowing that your DS was from intl school prior to studying in Wincoll. Recently, my DS received a offer to 2021 entry, subject to the satisfactory result of entrance exam. Could you please kindly give some advice on how to prepare if my DS is from non-UK school?

Hi,
I hope someone is watching this thread.
DS has been placed on Reserve list for Win coll (2017) , we are moving to Switzerland and DS would go to IB school. Please let me know all books / CDs and other materials that you've used for exam.
I will speak to Registrar soon, so hopefully will get many answers. I just wanted to ask you all good and experienced MNs about your preparation.
Thanks and hoping someone will read this !!!

Winchester will provide past papers to a school if they request them.

Beammeup I am sure that some prep schools are more assiduous in the preparation than others but I would have thought that Winchester teachers know this. It would n't surprise me that they might change paper formats so as to better test core skills rather than memory. Even if your DS does n't get the grades he would like from the papers he has just sat, the exam is only a stepping stone and all part of the learning process.

www.freebookez.com/lookup.php?q=winchester+college+entrance+election+past+papers

Not to hijack the thread but does anyone know whether a prep school would be expected to have WinColl past papers for practice? DS's doesn't seem to have many past papers, just a few old ones including one from 1997! I would have expected him to have been given recent ones to practice with but maybe Winchester doesn't give them out? I'm quite worried as DS says he did badly on one paper as the format/contents were very different to the papers he had been given by school to practice on.

It all depends on which instrument your DS is playing if it is a wind instrument like my eldest DS, it will be less competitive than a string instrument. My second DS was a choir boy, so he was able to manage his music practice (including his cello) and academic commitments. The master of music is very helpful and will only take boys who are in his opinion able to juggle all aspects of WinColl. Good Luck to your DS and I hope the pre-audition goes well.

My 2 children were at WinColl a couple of years ago, one held a Music Award and the other was a Double Scholar Music/Academic. WinColl doesn't like boys who are too over coached. They like natural curiosity, independent learners etc. If your son's prep school is not familiar about sending boys to WinColl then your son should attempt the Election so he would increase his chances of getting accepted at WinColl even though you are not thinking of scholarship. In the recent years, I have noticed the current Masters of College already make up his mind who he wants to elect as a scholar in the College house even before the Election. If your son is elected to stay at the Scholars' House (College House) during the Election - you have 99.9% chance to get into the Scholars' House. Ironically, some of the scholars have a very poor written (grammar)/spoken English and some are in second set but they have the false sense of pride - wearing the robe...........The current Master in College is a real savvy businessman, he is different from his predecessor who likes the balance in the Scholars' House. Nearly all who are elected in his recent roll comes from the movers and shakers background in this world! Gone are the days where the scholars in WinColl stay true to the school ethos - to educate the 70 scholars based on their own true potential regardless their background.

In short, if you want to get to the House of your choice, do the Election but don't hope too much for a promotion to the Scholars' House unless your son comes from the prep school which is familiar of the process and your family is liked by the Master of College.

Winchester may not be unique in this but it does seem to allow boys to be 'cool' but also not to have to camouflage and even be able positively thrive by developing any 'quirky' aspects of their personality (which makes them a three dimensional person). I think in certain types of public and prep schools boys would see certain aspects of their character as weaknesses and therefore focus on things they like that more fit the mould. Winchester has boys who are very streetwise and cool but also love poetry or Shakespeare and share that with their friends. Obviously there are also boys who are not 'cool' but their interests are again able to be shared and appreciated by the other boys. BTW music award holders do not have any onerous duties apart for the choir for those who are very good singers.

Happy gardening - I am currently a prep school Latin teacher and also taught up to A level for three years, and I would say that the second section is approaching GCSE level. It's syntactically complicated, sure, but in terms of the actual grammar required, there's nothing that isn't on the level 3 syllabus.

My DS has been described as "eccentric" and "intellectual" by teachers since starting at his boarding prep in yr 2 and why Win Coll was recommended within weeks of him starting. The school traditionally fed into Eton in those days.
Frankly I've always thought he's the most normal one of the lots of us but then we're all really eccentric so in comparison he looks more normal.
My DS (like me) doesn't give two hoots what people think of him, he's also a born non conformist /rule breaker, every rule he doesn't like has to be kicked back against (it does get tiring in the end but he hasn't learnt this yet) and like me doesn't/can't/won't walk in step with others. He is also like me not a team player (although unlike me he's not yet learned that there are times when you have to pretend to be one). Finally like me he's out spoken and not afraid to speak his mind, some would call it tactless, hopefully he doesn't put his foot in it as often as I do. The nice thing is that the school hasn't tried to make him fit the box, we felt other schools might and I know he would be unhappy if he felt he was expected to do this.
But there are many different personalities at a Win Coll many Ive met seem pretty normal, and conventional with nice normal conventional parents. Most of the boys I've come into contact with are not just polite but really good fun, they're often unsurprisingly very quick witted and articulate and can be sharp with their words, definitely not tolerating fools or arrogance in others. On the other hand they themselves tend to be rather self effacing and I think have a slight unworldliness about at them at times which I quite like and that I don't see in other schools.
Others of course may disagree.

We showed past Win Coll Latin exam papers (not election) to a friend who tutors Latin with great success at all levels from CE level 3 to those doing Greats at Oxbridge although it does have to be said that he's tutoring with the sim of his pupils getting top marks. We had also kindly been given by a Win Coll an analysis of what they were looking for and their marking. He was adament the last section could be found on an AS paper and he was surprised at how hard the marking was. He assured me that it was nothing like level 3 CE. DS2's prep had a long and successful teaching level 3 CE Latin but were doing a pretty lousy job getting him ready for the exam.
My DS found IGCSE Latin, the unseen part, very easy as it was "very similar" to the work he did for the entrance exam, and we were told again by this friend that IGCSE Latin is AS level standard in places certainly the current set text would not be found on a GCSE paper. Again to be successful and achieve 95% + apparently like the entrance exam you can't "wing" it.

almapudden, yes there are others doing level 3 at CE and boys doing scholarships for Eton, Sevenoaks and Tonbridge so the school has been good in giving extra lessons and work to them as a group in most subjects but it is great to receive any advice you have and I shall set about finding a tutor for some top up work.

Abear - definitely worth tutoring if your prep doesn't prepare for Winchester entrance. Do many boys sit level 3 at CE? If so, then you might be okay with a bit of top-up tuition, but if most boys sit levels 1 and 2, then your son will definitely need some significant support.

DS went from Int'l Sch to Win coll, I had to help him prepare for the entrance exam. We got an exemption for Latin because Int'l Sch did not teach that subject, but he had to choose another subjects for the exam instead. He still needed to learn Latin himself, so we did some online course through Cambridge Latin.
He did well in his entrance exams, and was placed in top set in maths, science, and MFL, with many scholars and exhibtioners in his set. It is fast pace learning. His top set maths already covered most of the Pre U syllabus. He is only taking his IGCSE in May.