senior school entrance assessments Heriots, Watsons, Stewart Melvilles

[yoyo1234]

I just wondered if anyone had any experience of what the entrance tests consisted of for these schools?
DS will be sitting them in January/February 2017 for entrance into S1 and I wondered how I can help him prepare.
Thanks

Hi I don't think there's anything special about sitting these exams, we just went for it. But they all value open days, as simple as this may seem....don't miss open days. Extra curricular work (sports/music) are a big plus. Keep a portfolio.

Thanks, I will look into the dates for the open days.

Hi Yoyo,

The tests are based on the expected attainment for P7 pupils so nothing should be scary . There is math, English and a reasoning paper . The latter can sometimes throw some pupils however there are papers that you can buy from Blackwells (Bond) that you can have a look at prior to the day.

All schools do their best to put the pupils at ease on the day, don't worry about compiling a portfolio or missing an open day. That said you should try to attend those that you attend to apply to but that is solely to find out if the school is a good fit for your family or not as the case might be.

Happy for you to pm me if you want to discuss further,

A

Thanks Athens I will PM

They won't know if you have attended the open day or not, although I would highly recommend attending as they will give you a good feel for the schools and the differences between them.

Are you in Edinburgh? If so, I wouldn't worry about the assessments too much but if your child doesn't have experience in verbal reasoning/non verbal reasoning questions, I would get a couple of books to run through just to get used to those types of questions. We're in West Lothian and our area is notorious for being behind the Edinburgh state schools in Maths so I did do tutoring with both children (much easier the second time round once I knew what was expected!) to get them up to speed, but if your child is doing well in an Edinburgh school I wouldn't be worried.

Hi,
Can you recommend a book with sample questions?
Thanks

Bond Assessment papers are available online from Amazon etc