The Trinity-Whitgift-South London school 10+/11+ thread of 2014

[Ladymuck]

A few days early I know, but most of the entrance exams will be out of the way in a fortnight or so, and I'm sure there are a number of us who are in need of or or as we watch our (still very little) boys forget everything that they may have learned over the last couple of years. And there are many veterans of the process who will hopefully be around to reassure us that we will all come through this unscathed.

Interview from W, just had a phone call. And yes we have applied for a scholarship.

Good luck all, hope they don't keep anyone hanging too long!

Teddington What I don't understand is why don't they just phone everyone yah or nay instead of leaving people hanging ?

This puzzles me too. I can see no logic in it. It just seems cruel. It can't be for W to check out who they consider the best first and then work down the list, since it seems that scholarships are offered to those not invited for interview until much later.

But then what/why do they do it like this? They must know it annoys the hell out of people. They clearly don't care about that (on the basis that once they have the boys they want those families would have forgiven them). Very cynical that attitude.

and we haven't applied for a scholarship (but got the call today).

Just a guess: Maybe W is marking the papers and calling for interviews in alphabetical order? If this is the case, it would be helpful if the parents of the lucky boys could kindly indicate the first letters of their surnames :-)

To not out myself too much our surname is between P and T...

I have just had a call for W interview. Surname begins with L and are going for a sports scholarship. Not sure if that makes a difference.

Maybe W is marking the papers and calling for interviews in alphabetical order?

I don't think so. DS1 got an immediate call for interview, his brother had to wait for a letter. Same surname (and DS2 did better than DS1 I think).

Was assured in no particular order by admissions as we are A !! but surely they could go down the list and say yes or no or heaven forbid email !!! they know who they aren't going to call back at this stage think of the postage costs.
Aw well am going out have stalked the phone this morning am guessing they'll be stopping soon anyway fingers crossed for next week .... Congrats to everyone whose had the call already. question are they actually booking in dates and time or just letting you know you passed.

W & T will be booking dates for interview. They need to get the ball rolling in order to fit them all in.

date booked. Surname is P to T. Not alphabetical.

Yes, W date booked. Phone call was short and to the point!

Dulwich was a letter and quite detailed about interview process.

Date and time booked.

Hi there, new to this thread. Just wanted to ask those who have heard from W today about interviews- is this 10 or 11+? My son took the 10+ but am yet to hear and am concerned now!

Hi woodcote75 we are 11+ at W. My friend last year sat 10+ and they heard about interview via letter the following week and he ended up with a very nice scholarship!

We are also 11+

We're back from today's exam which has been the hardest so far: 80 VR in 20 mins plus 40 numerical reasoning in 20 minutes. Hard maths, straightforward English. Feeling rather deflated as this is the first exam Ds has sat where time was such an issue (our preferred school of course). My head tells me it was the same for everyone...

If it is any consolation dd found it the tougher of the 2 she sat, although the reasoning sounds longer than she recalls. Fingers crossed for you.

Thanks LIZS. Frustrated as we'd concentrated on ds's English as it is his weaker area. Having done the grammars and Trinity really wasn't expecting such time pressure (ds1 of course couldn't remember anything about his papers even immediately after he'd say them). Also Ds clearly mucked up a couple of the maths questions (and apparently there were only 9 to start with!).

I suspect part of the issue is this is the school that a lot of his (terrifyingly bright) classmates are sitting, so it feels as if it is a different competition (well, there were girls to start with!)

Ok, so onto Alleyns. Anyone have any idea as to what we should be looking for in English here. Is the sample paper still representative?!

Gosh Ladymuck, that is a lot of VR in very little time! Sounds impossible . Maybe it just felt like 20 mins? Which school is that?

Same question here - does anyone have insight into difficulty level of Alleyn's exam? I am not sure I want to give DD the sample English paper as I think it is quite tricky. Don't want to demoralize her just before the exam. I think one of the posters here said the writing task was to write a beginning of the story (this was for two last years) and one of teachers said that they will try to avoid a self-contained story writing task as they were getting too many pre-packaged essays.

Does anyone know what the maths is like? Would Dulwich papers be good practice material?

That was me! DS sat the Alleyn's exam last year and was offered a place. After the exam I remember him saying it was pretty straight-forward and not as time pressured as DC. The reasoning was bog-standard GL (but with time-bound NVR sections which you can't go back to after that section has finished). He definitely thought it was easier than Latymer (which he found the hardest of the 4 exams he sat). He really enjoyed the interview at Alleyn's too (again, much more of a chat vs Latymer which was obviously designed to test how the DC think).

If it's any help, he was offered scholarships at Trinity and DC, non-scholarship places at Alleyn's and Latymer, and a selective place at Graveney.

Any further questions, ask away. Good luck with it all; I know how stressful the whole process is.

Hi guys. Back again this year, 2014, with Ds just sat the exams on Thurs and Friday. How's everyone?

Had phone call and interview booked this afternoon from W. Surname starts with "O". Anyone got a call from T?

DS enjoyed his day at Trinity. He said everyone was calm and kind, and he had fun doing his chosen activity (science) before lunch during which they made marshmallow and spaghetti towers and watched explosions and flames. He was allowed to write in pencil even for the English paper during which they helpfully told them when 30mins was up so they might go onto the creative writing. Lots of senior teachers welcoming the boys, inc Mr B and Mr M, putting them at ease. Great, now if the phone would ring very soon that would be perfect