Interview prep: Winchester, Harrow and Eton?

[laurauk68]

Hello all, this is my first post on the forum although i read it with much interest;
i just wanted to know if there is any advice out there on how to prepare for school interviews. DS is turning 11 in March and has been called to interview by 4 schools; i am not convinced that the DS's school really knows what to expect and me and DH certainly do not ! I am really concerned that while DS is ok academically it is just so much to ask an 11 year old to perform in an interview.
Any pointers and tips would be very much welcome, thank you, Laura

The Wn Coll interview lasts about an hour and a half, described as "conversation", there's no tricky questions and certainly my DS's was very informal, each HM will have a slightly different format. There is some formal testing lasting about 20 mins, when my DS did it his formal testing was completely different from his two friends who were interviewed by different HM's. I think he did a math test and a short piece of descriptive writing. The HM's are really trying to get a feel for your DS to see whether or not he would thrive at Win Coll and in his house,
Good luck.

Tell him to be himself, to be prepared to speak about his interests, both academically and extra curricularly and to demonstrate what he has to offer them. Also what he likes about that school and why he is enthusiastic to go there. To look the interviewer in the eyes and to shake his/her hand firmly. Above all to try and enjoy it - they are very good at interviewing 11yr old boys so will want him to do well and will do their utmost to ensure they get the best out of him.

My DS best friend is doing Eton on Thursday and Win Coll on Friday, fingers crossed for him.