Withington Girls School Entrance Exam

[Ceebeejay]

I have put my daughter down to sit this exam in January and wondered if anyone had any experience of taking this? Not sure if most of the girls have extra tuition or not as I haven't done any with my daughter. Any info would be welcomed - thanks :-)

The school's own website says not to prepare.

Ceebeejay - are you looking at the entrance for 11+? It is a very hard exam, designed to spot the brightest girls, but they are looking at how the children tackle the questions, not just on whether they get the right answer or not.

They ask questions beyond what you would expect most children to have covered in y6, specifically to see if they can think. As such, it's difficult to tutor for this one specifically. Having said that, if your dd has not done any practice papers at all (Bond, nfer etc) she may well be thrown by the format and not do as well as those who have been prepped for it (and I suspect that most are). I'm assuming your dd is currently at State school (otherwise the school would be prepping for you) and this will be taken into account when they assess the test results.

DD2 sat WGS, MHSG, SGS, Alt Grammar & Kings last year (couldn't decide where would be the best fit) & she said that WGS had the hardest maths paper (& maths is her thing). She did get offers at them all though so she couldn't have done too badly!

thanks for that reply Berries - DD is sitting for prep - year 5. We have only looked at the WGS specimen paper they sent and I noticed it was a bit above the level I was used to seeing! Where did you decide to go in the end as we are also looking at MHSG?

We decided in the end to turn down WGS and MHSG in favour of Kings. DD is very bright academically but can struggle socially (she's youngest in her year & young for age anyway) and we thought Kings had the best pastoral care. MHSG was too big & rushed for her at that stage. and WGS was too intense for a girl who is more than capable of spending too long contemplating her own navel! Most people thought we were mad but one term in I'm happy that it seems to be the right choice (or at least not a wrong one iyswim). This was solely based on dds character, I know lots of girls from her prep school who have gone to both & flourished there as they are all good schools - they just offer different things (but do check the level of homework at MHSG, prefereably by talking to someone who's there)
Good luck with the exams.

Berries, we've decided on King's! (if you remember my thread from last month) Going straight into the juniors there rather than changing to a prep.

I shall maybe be looking for pointers at some point!

Ceebeejay, I have heard that despite Withington being regarded as the most academically challenging (which it is), girls who are very bright but have not been prepped do often get offered places. Almost as if the school are able to see that they are just very bright girls who have not been prepped IYSWIM. So rather than just creamof those with the top marks in the exam, they are looking for raw talent/potential. This was from a woman who has 2 sons at MGS and no daughters though but she seemed to know what she was talking about.

If you haven't taken the assessment yet, get some practice papers in as Berries suggests!

Good luck!

Oops, just remembered I name changed and used my RL name for that one as it was local.

ceam off

cream off

I may be dozy but I do have an English degree!

Many thanks for all the suggestions - have just bought the bond papers and will do them with her tonight. I know its a bit late (exam in 5 days) but it'll make me feel better that I have done something. They look really good - hadn't heard of them before!

Ceebeejay - good luck for your dd. Try to make sure she doesn't panic during the exam, they are keen to find out how the girls think. When DD was interviewed she was asked to explain where she was going with one of the questions she hadn't finished, so they are looking for potential but going through some of the Bond questions will help.

Myredcardigan - glad you've made your decision & I'm sure your children will love it at King's. Any questions please ask, when are they starting?

I'm sure she'll do well. I went at 11, so not much help, but it might help you to know what we call the classes, because it's a little different, so you'll know what's going on if someone uses a different name!

The Juniors are all on one corridor, so a little separate from the 'big girls' and it always seems lovely and friendly.

Year 3 - Transition
Year 4 - Form I
Year 5 - Lower II
Year 6 - Upper II

Year 7 is Third form.

Sorry I can't help more, but hopefully that's some use to you :)