Entrance exams - a but confused

[BillyCorkhill]

Just want to start off by saying I'm not being pushy or deluded or bitter - perfectly happy with schools DC has a chance of getting in. I'm just confused.

We're not in a grammar/11+ area. The "best" schools are a super selective, and two faith schools with a small allocation via exam. The nearby comps are good and wouldn't have a problem with DC going to any of them, but to maximise choice, DC did the entrance exam for all three schools.

We have two of the three results now. We know the third one won't be good as DC says it was a complete mess. This is going to sound awful, but I'm shocked at how low DC has been ranked - they give you the number your child came out of all the children who sat. I didn't actually think DC would come in the top 25 which guarantees places at the faith schools, but I thought it might have been top 50, or top 100 at a push. But DC was nowhere near this. 200+ out of 350 for one and 120 out of 400 for the other. I genuinely don't think I'm deluded. DC is very bright, top of the class in a school with really good academic performance, very quick with maths, great at English. teachers were delighted DC was doing the exam for the super selective as they thought it'd be a really good fit. DC had tuition from around May, 1hr per week with some homework. The tutor was highly recommended and I don't think she was lying to me when she said DC was doing really well on the sample papers - as well as anyone she'd seen who'd gained places at these schools. So why has DC come so low down?

Is it down to exam technique? But the tutor didn't flag this. Is there a disproportionate amount of very bright children who sit these kinds of exams in non-grammar areas? I'm just a little bemused that there could be so many children who performed better considering DC is at one of the top ranked primaries in the city and is top of the class there. Or just as simple as three(!) off days?

I know how bad that all sounds, like I'm not proud of DC. I really am - just putting the effort in and doing the exams is something to be proud of. I'm just a bit as if it's a problem with technique (all of the exams were different formats) is this likely to pose problems going forwards?

I haven't actually told DC where they were ranked but will say "not in top 25".

I think an 11+ exam isn't the best indicator of who are the brightest children. An exam only tests performance on a given day and all sorts of factors can affect performance.
My DS sat a selective exam and passed but not with the results that his usual performance would suggest. School had expected that he would pass by a long way and although he did pass it wasn't by the margin that they expected.
I, on the other hand, had expected that DS might not pass at all due to nerves, panic and having had no tutoring or exam technique coaching.

Maybe the three exams were too much, especially if you have given dc the impression that you think the comps are good.
At least you know if you don't get a place at the ss or the faith schools that you have good schools to attend.
I would consider yourself very lucky because for so many people they don't have a chance of a good school, irrespective of tutoring or passing exams.
Do you know which school your dc will go to yet?

Thanks for responses.

Yes morethan we are spoiled for choice really, but I think that a due to not being in a grammar area so there's not that defined split. The two comps are in walking distance (opposite directions) and there were other comps further away that we could've looked at but decided it'd just blur the issue. The super selective and faith schools are better on paper but the comps are by no means bad. We can put three choices down so I think we might take a punt on one of the faith schools and hope it's not a particularly devout year so we might stand a chance and then we just need to choose the order of the two comps.

I do wonder if my attempts to put DC at ease have worked a bit too well - you might have a point there!

Same here Billy. My ds has results from one and did OK but not particularly well (certainly not well enough). The second he took will be far lower, we're guessing, as he had a bit of a meltdown on the day.

He's apparently the top of the class in his fairly average state primary. His tutor recommended we did these exams for the superselectives, though I'd always assumed they'd be a long shot. My conclusions:

1. The competition is tough. The 1000-2000 kids that did the exams for these super selective schools aren't in the usual range of a thousand kids. It's very much skewed to the higher attainers. You woudn't put your child in for the exams if you weren't a relatively pushy parent whose child was near the top of the class.

1. Other people did loads more preparation than us. I thought we'd done a lot by making him do about half an hour a day in the summer holidays. Others did two or three hours a day or more. There are people that do five formal mocks at those eleven plus centres, creative writing workshops etc etc. We made the 'mistake' of never getting him to do a timed paper and never totting up what he got in any individual paper as we didn't want to discourage him.

1. He has no experience of exams. He makes lots of careless errors in his homework but there are no consequences to this. A lot of the kids who do the exams in our area come from preps where they have more of an exam culture.

These sounds like excuses and maybe they are. Perhaps we're deluding ourselves, but I can only go on what his teachers at school have told us. What irritates and worries me is that we're perhaps now viewing him, subconsciously, as 'less bright'. And even worse that he might be too.

Billy

I don't think you can put the dc at too much ease and even if you did, far better than some pushy parents who make their dc life hell.
Hope you get the school you prefer.
We have awful problem with schools here and hoping for specialist ss for dd as alternatives are really dire

Last year paid for DS to sit CH he had already decided he didn't want to go so literally put his name on the paper and that was it. That's the trouble with kids they can be tutored within an inch of their life but if they don't want to perform on the day they won't. Wish I'd known could have saved the entrance fees . Luckily he did want to go to his current school and passed with flying colours ....

considering DC is at one of the top ranked primaries in the city and is top of the class there.

I'm afraid that's irrelevant. There will probably be lots of kids from prep schools sitting these exams, who will be working at least 6-12 months ahead by this point, and most of the others will be top of their class or being tutored so be ahead of their class. Those who are average or below average just don't sit the tests. I'm glad you're happy with the school you've got.

Was there a verbal or non verbal reasoning component, and did your dc practise this?

Are you in a big city? Children are prepared years in advance for the super selectives. Unfortunately top of the class is fairly meaningless when it comes to these exams. It's all about technique and speed not who is the brightest in my opinion. There is less than a 1 in 10 chance of getting a place so targeted preparation is key.

ZOMBIE It probably doesn't matter as the thread was started 4 years ago.