Can someone explain ISEB to me?

Ah go it, thanks 😊
I agree, it'll be lovely to have the exams done pre-Christmas!

The latest date to sit the exam for your DC is the earliest closing date of the schools your DC is applying to.
As far as we are concerned, we are beyond thrilled about being done with most of the exams by late November/early December and the prospect of enjoying a proper Christmas break without the stress of the 11+ preparation DD will still have to sit the consortium exam early Jan but there won't be much incremental prep beyond what we will have done for the ISEB.

@Stircrazyschoolmum I wonder if she did a computerised CAT test at school and it was similar? As they are reasoning tests, they might be somewhat similar.

Atom Learning is good for practice and has an online ISEB course and reasoning practice. Pre-test plus also has ISEB mock tests. So any state applicant should easily be able to spend a few months preparing for these online.

I actually think given the format, it should be easier for state applicants to prepare for this than in normal times when children sit a variety of exams with very different formats. These standardised reasoning tests don't require years of preparation, you just need a good amount of familiarisation and practice which can be done within a few months, assuming they have covered the curriculum and are doing well at school otherwise.

Just heard DS2 will be sitting this, so signing in for insight!

This is also my understanding. However happy to be corrected.

One ISEB exam covers all the schools your applying to, that adopt the ISEB. The time constraint to take the ISEB, is the latest date you need to take the exam for any of your preferred schools would be 25 November is the example below.

For example:
Ist pref School A closing date, 7 January
2nd pref B closing date 15 December
3rd pref C, 25 November.

Can I just confirm that each child will be sitting it only once, and all schools applied to will have access to the same results ? thanks

Utility I can't think of any other way for the schools to carry out the assessments while keeping everyone safe.

The ISEB is imo a really good solution because it can't be prepared for, unlike a lot of the written papers where those that can afford tutors have an unfair advantage. It will also take a lot of pressure off the 10/11 year olds who otherwise would have to sit separate exams at each school.

In my experience, the senior schools already consider state school and prep school applicants differently as they increasingly want to have a better balance of the year coming from state schools, so I wouldn't worry about prep school entrants having more experience with computerised tests.

Only the Maths is actually properly adaptive. Pencil/paper can be used for the tests where working out is needed.
You can’t go back and change answers though once submitted.

BOFA do decent practice tests you can buy to do online.

Is this really a fair solution?
State primary entrants have not had to prepare for computer based tests.
Many prep school entrants have been undertaking computer ISEB practice daily for up to a year...
The timing strikes me as being potentially tricky.

There will be no opportunity for creative writing in the ISEB test as it is multiple choice, but perhaps the individual schools will ask for a short creative writing exercise at interview.

I think it is a good solution - the alternative of traveling around several schools to sit an exam along with 800+ other people in early January was worrying.

Completely agree. My daughter is really strong at English but 25 minutes is really short and I guess this won’t include any creative writing if it’s all multiple choice. Do this mean English is deprioritised over maths and VR/non VR? It’s quite worrying

On the ISEB website it is stated “ The use of pen/pencil and paper is not permitted in the non-verbal reasoning or English tests. However, candidates should have access to pen/pencil and paper for their rough work during the verbal reasoning and mathematics tests. It is the responsibility of the invigilation centre to provide pen/pencil and paper.”

Adaptive means the questions get tougher/easier depending on whether previous answers are right/wrong.

Yes it is very intuitive, DC usually have to click on the right answer. In any case at the start of the test they are given some familiarisations questions do that they know what to do.
“ No special preparation is required for the Common Pre-Tests, which are designed to identify potential as well as attainment. Practice tests are not available. Examples and practice questions, where relevant, are provided during the tests so that candidates understand what they have to do. Each question is answered by choosing an answer from a selection shown on the screen. Each question must be answered and candidates cannot go back to previous questions. While taking the tests, candidates are able to track their progress within the test (number of questions answered in relation to overall number of questions).”