Acceptance and Refusal by prep schools

[westerngirl]

Did your child sit prep entrance tests at a number of prep schools and have different outcomes?

I just wondered what the schools base their admissions on. If two prep schools are very similar in standard, how come a child will get a place in one and not the other?

Also, at 7/8, is the test based on what the child has covered rather than their ability to learn? I think this is a very young age to dismiss a child based on their past educational experience.

From a not very large sample, my DS1's school results seemed to clump - people mostly got all or waitlist/ failled all. However, some of this reflected realistic targets, I think (and most didn't make it at Colet).
You would hope the schools could tell who had been crammed by expert pre-preps, and who was doing well without that help, but given that over a quarter of Westminster Under's interview candidates were from the same school, reportedly, perhaps not.
The most acadmic schools are I think really looking for current performance as well as potential, or that is how they would explain it, at least.

It is a tough one. My son sat one school. He was put on a reserve list. No one seems to be able to tell us the probability of him getting in so .....more waiting. It is a bit miserable.

Michaelahpurple, my son got one (thankfully, the one he wanted) and not another (didn't want to go there anyway, pah!).

I'm just wondering if it was because he didn't click with it the way he did with pfo one.

Guest1, will you be called off the reserve list if some candidates who have been offered a place maybe opt for another school instead. Can they tell you where you are on the list? Was it really the only school you wanted? We applied to just two schools and people thought we were mad not hedging our bets a bit more. Hope you get the best outcome.

My impression from my dc's pre-prep is that they fall into 3 groups. Some who pass all, some who don't get any of the more academic schools and some who are borderline and might scrape into one or two where the questions suit them or there is a lot of movement on a waiting list. Obviously there are always exceptions. There was a girl in ds's class who was considered by the school to fall in the first category who had a really bad day at the test at her preferred school. Who knows why - maybe she felt the pressure which would be sad. She did get offers from other schools, Our school is quite good at letting parents know which category their child falls into but either not all
schools are the same or some parents don't hear the message.
Purple, out of interest what is the school you refer to re Westminster?

Wetherby - seem to be flying really high in terms of getting boys into west and colet recently

WG... we have a perfectly good back up but the one where we are on the reserve list is "the right school" for him. His current school head teacher and class teacher could not agree more. They think he might have been moved to the reserve list because he is left handed and his handwriting is quite poor (AGHAGH). The school only accepts the exact number of boys and will make calls this week whenever a place is turned down. (fingers crossed!)

Guest1 that makes me so angry, I cannot believe the teachers have blamed his left handedness and hand writing! I am left handed and happen to have very good handwriting (although I never learned how to join up the 'other way round'). It sounds like a pathetic excuse to me. I really thought things had changed in schools, it was early 80's when I had my left hand tied around my back in class! I'm so shocked at your sons teachers! Besides, have they ever seen handwriting by some of the country's best consultants and surgeons?!

I'm waiting to hear about Dd's entrance exam results. Dd is not worried at all, but me? I'm an absolute wreck!