what are the characteristics of STUDENTS at Oxbridge "feeders"/academically elite schools

[TealDeer020202]

just asking out of interest e.g. st paul's girls school

Fairly obvious surely?

Clever.
Academic.
Probably hard-working, but some will just be the sort that can reasonably effortlessly pass exams.
Interested in their chosen degree subject and able to convince the interview panel of this interest.
Decent chunk of luck

And for every one that succeeds in getting a place at Oxbridge, there are are probably 3 equally worthy candidates who for some reason or another didn't.

(Just remember that Cambridge hand out twice as many offers for Maths as there are places, set them an exam and fail half of them).

ETA: And in the case of "feeder" schools, the private ones you also need parents with a sizeable amount of money available or a very big bursary.

I know huge numbers of Oxbridge graduates and there isn't some kind of magic formula.

At an "elite" school (and there aren't that many), being bright enough to get in at 11+ or later (or at least not in the bottom quartile of the school's intake), plus the facilitation of the school, plus a bit of luck on interview day, is enough to give a decent chance. Degrees with subject aptitude tests remove a lot of the subjectivity/luck.
More generally it depends strongly on the school, and on the degree subject. If you want to do classics and you're at a snotty school with a decent classics department, you can probably walk in - it's among the least competitive degrees. If you want to do a competitive degree, like most STEM subjects, and you're at a school with little experience of oxbridge applications that can't facilitate you, you're going to have to be in the top fraction of a percent in ability and very motivated to seek out preparation that your school can't provide. There's then a continuum between those extremes.

as an spgs student - one factor is absolutely money

money for ecs, money for tutoring, money to go to this school (yes we have a good bursary system but if you fall in that awkward middle category where you have too little money to not worry about 31k per year but too much for a bursary)

another one is how driven we are, i would say as an overall. spgs is the liberal girls school (like how westminster is the liberal boys school), which does give people lots of freedom to choose their future ie. if you fuck your life up thats a you problem, so in general lots of students are choosing to study and to get good grades either for their goals or for the love of learning.

and also 'feeder' schools give you lots of freedom. as i have said before, spgs is the liberal girls school, and that comes with no dress code, being able to go home if you dont have classes etc. (unfortunately not yet westminster level of 'there's a pret on the way to the music block') - this gives people a sense of identity, confidence and allows people to develop their ideas about the world.

yes i am aware i am absolutely shoving my school down everyones throats but does it look like i care

Very academically able: eg for spgs, almost all pupils are in the top 10% and half are in the top 3% intellectual ability. It's very hard to get in: money is absolutely not enough.

Extremely hard working. The pp above who is at spgs probably doesn't even realise how hard they all work compared to most schools, because it's so ingrained in the culture and very much the norm. The casual mention of tutors - despite being in a school working at the speed that a class with only top-10% ability, well-behaved students can achieve - gives a clue.

Reasonably well-behaved and respectful of teachers, although many are quite sassy (but rarely very disruptive)

Very self-confudent. Since childhood, they've been trained by teachers - and usually also parents - to think critically, and their opinions are listened to. They've been given opportunities to follow their interests, and sipported in their efforts. As a result, they deep-down believe that they have a worthwhile contribution to make: that's the famous private-school confidence.

Very high expectations of themselves, which drives the hard work and also drives anxiety. This comes mainly from seeing so many successful, incredible peers. The lowest achievers in the class would be top-table in another school (since they're all top 10% academically) and there are a significant number of truly exceptional kids. So their personal bar for their own achievement is set incredibly high.

This drive is not only academic, but usually also in sports/music etc. Almost all will play at least one instrument and will have progressed through the grades: some will be grade 8 in several instruments. Almost all will be competent in sports and reasonably fit: some will play one or more sports at a high level, with external training camps as well as being taught at school.

They usually have intelligent, driven, successful parents with very high expectations of them. No, of course not all such parents send their kids private 🙄 - but it's pretty much a prerequisite to being able to (and choosing to) pay private fees. Only driven parents would choose an elite school like spgs for their DC: it's an incredibly hard-working, full-on environment for kids and only driven parents think that's worth the personal effort and investment from their children, to build the education, skills and strengths for their future.

They're also fun, interesting, normal kids! They'll have their own interests, love their families but get frustrated at siblings, help out at home willingly enough but would rather sit on the sofa,, adore their pets, are interested in the usual trends, worry about friendships - just like any other kids.

Is tutoring common at SPGS?

As username.

Didn’t attend a “feeder” school, didn’t have tutoring, never did Duke of Edinburgh or certain sports or hobbies, didn’t come from a moneyed background, nobody helped me apply or write a personal statement or gave me tips on the interview. I had an ordinary upbringing.

Same for my DC who graduated from Cambridge last year and nephew who’s in first year at Oxford.

These universities want exceptionally clever young people who can think outside the box, who can articulate themselves clearly and who have excellent critical thinking skills. They don’t really care about your “feeder” school or how much money has been thrown at your formal education, and they can spot from 100 miles away students who have been primed for the interview or who have paid for someone else to write their personal statement.

I can answer the tutoring at SPGS question. My DD went there from a non selective private primary. Never had a second of tutoring, either before or during SPGS. Whilst I'm sure some did, none of her friends did either. They were bright, self-motivated and loved studying so that it wasn't really ever a problem that they were expected to do a lot of homework. I remember one girl writing an essay overnight and winning a Cambridge essay competition - just so bright!

It's a great school, if you're that sort of person. I would never aspire to it for somebody who wasn't.

within my circle its a big yes - private tutors not so much but lots of people do online supplementary school type things

for me personally my dad 'tutors' me although its more just dumping work at me and explaining things when i don't understand/get it wrong (this really depends on the type of child and parent though because he's been doing this since i was very young).

for most people they only do private tutoring if they really need the help, for example weaker subjects at gcse where you're uncertain of 9s. tutoring for maths is where the majority of people do it - lots of my friends do thinkacademy and my dad teaches me. this is probably because maths at spgs is very highly competitive and its quite common for students to be learning a-level content in lessons very early, so the tutoring supports this/teaches more advanced stuff earlier to prepare for things like bmo/imo. (you could also argue its because its the asian parents though)

i would like to add this is my personal experience and its quite limited to my circle of friends who are all very competitive and academically intelligent so it may be different when looking at the school/year as a whole, but this is my personal view.

the high expectation point i want to comment on - i absolutely agree with this but i would also like to point out that the gap between the 'bottom' and the 'top' is extremely large because there is no upper limit on how amazing and impressive you can be. there are people who take maths gcse in year 3, place on bmo/imo rankings, place nationally in music competitions, win in divisions three years older than them in sports. these are the people you hear so much about, but irl the 'average' person is honestly a lot more similar to state school/less hardworking schools than one might think.

I imagine wealthy and/or involved family is a common characteristic even at the state feeders like PSC.

I don't think HBS demographic and economic characteristics are similar to SPGS.

The only common characteristic I can see is IQ and maybe competitiveness (though I know children at both who are not very competitive).

Yes.

I'm pretty sure this is very friendship group dependent. We saw barely any tutoring (I think a couple of girls had some near the end of A Levels for specific topics they found harder) and the vast majority of DD's friendship group are now at Oxford or Cambridge.

I think the common thread with the people who got into Oxbridge (apart from being v clever) was that they all seemed to genuinely love their subjects and needed no encouragement to eg do extra reading etc since they genuinely found it fun.