what do elite schools do to prep their kids for oxbridge

[TealDeer020202]

i.e. westminster, eton, st pauls girls. I know they have selective cohorts but surely they have some kind of programme prepping their kids. what do they do, anyone know?

The DC aren’t at those schools, but lunchtime classes with practice questions/exam techniques and also interview prep sessions

at my DS' school they don't do that unless you request - he asked me to make this post to find out what other mums know (he's also trying in student forums). what specifically do they do that he could ask for?

Encourage wider reading of journals, lots of practise interviews.
There are Essay writing competitions, masterclasses and webinars run by different colleges. Anyone can access them, but some schools are more proactive about getting pupils to take part.

Apparently, teach them how Oxbridge essays differ from A Level essays, and all the nuances and traditions that they have.

My DC went to C and was repeatedly told to "think back to your Oxbridge prep sessions" when writing essays... they went to a very bog standard comp that didn't send many people to Uni, never mind Oxbridge, and certainly didn't do any prep sessions ! Also things like the weeks starting on Thursdays, and the internal processes and procedures.

Which subject? Not all subjects have pre tests

If you go onto the Oxbridge websites they have great links to interview prep questions and videos

Takes a while to hunt them out but they're there somewhere squirrelled away

The schools will hold a mock interview to check the DC know their subject

There are books with interview Q&A for subjects like maths

Some interviews require an iPad and iPad pen such as maths and they will be linked so the interviewers can see what the interviewee is writing easily

Most of the teachers at these schools will have gone to Oxbridge so can help prepare in so many ways. Some offer private tuition too - this could be useful perhaps? Could help and advise with applications etc.

When your DC went to C they will have been allocated a college to communicate through so he can email them and ask all of these questions and ask how best to prep himself

They will also have monthly guest speakers come in.

A friend of ours goes to the local sixth form college and they didn't give her any interview practice which seems really basic.

These schools are highly selective and recruit good teachers. So delivering three (or usually four) A levels at grades A star A is taken as tead.

From Y9 the schools provide enrichment/extra curricular activities - guest speakers etc. Students are encouraged to read outside the curriculum eg not just the set texts but all the works by a particular author, stuff on historical context etc. So their students have a much greater depth of knowledge than students from schools focussed purely on the mark scheme. The wider reading etc also stimulates genuine interest in the subject matter

Students participate in Oxbridge essay competitions ( if you win/or are highly placed in one of these you will generally get an offer) or they do internships in relevant jobs etc.

Engaged parents can duplicate a lot of this but it has to be consistent and it has to start early.

Admissions tutors are aware of this context when making offers.

Encouragement to do super curricular activities
1.1 support with writing personal statements.
Admissions test practice (especially for maths/science tests)
Interview practice
Those are probably the key areas of support, however, proactive students can find everything they need to help them on the Oxbridge websites - apart from perhaps a tutor to help with admission test practice.

My DC don't go to elite schools but the support for Oxbridge at their private included

• reviewing personal statement
• arranging a mock interview
• helping them choose college and course options
• reviewing the submitted work
• extra lunch classes for those sitting exams like maths

For what it's worth, my friend is a teacher at the local state school and they did all of the above too!

really? I thought the oxbridge essay competitions were just a embellishment on your CV didn't really mean much was just a nice flair/thing to have

I think you will find that those who win (or nearly win) are all very bright students who have shown real interest in and understanding of the field they want to study field and are subsequently successful in their applications…

My dd is at an 'elite' school and just had an offer from Cambridge. Bar doing a few practice interviews and looking over her personal statement, there wasn't a huge amount of prepping that was generated by the school. Her friends who were applying for subjects that required them to sit exams (like engineering or medicine) were also given practice in these. By contrast, her friend at a state sixth form has a whole Oxbridge clinic that applying students attend regularly for coaching etc...

I think private schools like this are confident in the quality of their teaching and ability of their students - but are also trying to promote a robust approach for their students, and not make a huge deal out of the Oxbridge process. Every year there will be lots of disappointed Oxbridge candidates - and for kids at these high achieving schools, who are used to excelling and getting top grades, being turned down can come as enormous shock.

I used to work for an Oxbridge prep company many years ago and saw a lot of kids from the schools you mentioned. So some of those kids are still paying for outside help in addition to everything they get in school.

As pp said, in school it’s mostly things like pushing way beyond the curriculum, internal essay comps (Eton used to have an internal essay comp and then those essays would be submitted as part of their application), practice talking with an adult 1:1 about an academic subject (as opposed to a job interview type environment).

But I will say this - of the many students who I tutored from some of these elite schools, I still knew which ones would get in and which wouldn’t. It was something about the way they responded to questions/problems/ideas.

My kids state school 6th form does this. Has a programme for those aspiring to oxbridge/russell group.

Essay competitions, mentoring, trips and interview practice

We live near an elite private school and they invited high flyers from the local comprehensive to join their information evenings on applying, join in when they had visiting speakers and gave interview practice. TBH student room forum gave the most accurate advice and the mock interview was discouraging and not at all like the real thing. DD got in and is now invited back to the private school as a speaker!
Best prep is to get your DC to talk to an adult about their chosen subject, preferable someone they don't know. You could ask school for a mock interview perhaps.

They know which college to advise pupils to apply to. DSs school only let one pupil per subject apply to each college. Sometimes ex pupils are academics at the colleges. They do mock interviews and know how to word the school reference. Also,they tend to imbue a self confidence in their pupils which helps them in interviews.

Hi OP, my daughter got an offer for Oxbridge this year. She goes to a state comp (so I'm clueless about what the likes of Eton etc do) but it does some prep for Oxbridge.

One thing she found really useful was every few weeks students were asked to bring in an academic article to discuss in small groups. You can get this stuff from websites like google scholar. It helped my DD get used to the academic language being used (she was given a paragraph to read relating to her subject 15 mins before her Oxbridge interview) and gave her wider knowledge, not just in her subject but in others. The beauty about discussing it in a group is that all sorts of articles were being brought in and discussed, it wasn't just about my daughter's subject.

She did have a couple of mock interviews but didn't find them particularly helpful. Her Oxbridge interview was done on Zoom so if you can get some mock interviews set up, consider doing them in that format - I presume it's the same for both Oxford and Cambridge.

She found this website really useful: https://www.insideuni.org.

Super curriculas are important. She has a huge knowledge base about her subject and continues to keep learning and expanding on it aside from what she's learning at school and studying it at A Level.

This guide is really helpful and a good starting point if you’ve not seen it:

www.undergraduate.study.cam.ac.uk/files/publications/super-curricular_suggestions.pdf