7+ Entrance North London

[ScorpioMum]

Hi all, we're looking at 7+ entry for our DS for top North London independent schools. How would people rank in terms of difficulty of entry: Habs, UCS, Highgate, Belmont (Mill Hill), Merchant Taylors? Any recent first hand experience?
We don't want DS to sit too many exams so are trying to decide to which to apply...

I guess it depends. I hated every minute of our one hour drive to school. I took DS out of that school and sent him to the local which is 15 minute walk away. He is a different boy now!

Yes, depends on the child. My daughter even did her homework on the coach at one point so got home with nothing to do (I am sure that is not school policy of course!) and they had a late coach and a late late coach to cover after school activity days.

My father drove us to school to age 18 and I remember that even now - we used to talk about all sorts of things and read to him from the Times. It was a good time to be together actually.

Hi all, does anybody have any experience with MT 7+ exam? Is it hard? They seem to have one or two chance places and a lot of applicants. They also say that they have spelling assessment which I dread. Can't decide whether to apply. Any thoughts anybody?

Hi all, just had our mock exam results which were very disappointing. I now realise that our tutor was not very good, to put it mildly. For example, he did not practice story writing with the DS at all as it happens. The new tutor seems a lot better but we practically have run out of time. She suggests lots of extra hours but I am not sure. Also unsure what to do next - to apply to all 5 schools of our choice and hope for a miracle or to drastically reduce our expectations, choose 1 or 2 schools and start looking for a mixed ability non selective prep?

I haven't read all your posts but is Belmont and option? They are as close to non selective as you can get without being non selective. Then try again with lots of runway for the 11+.

Belmont seems to be the only option. Any other suggestions?

Northbridge? Devonshire house? Aldenham?

Scorpio, would you like to say what you consider doing poorly means on the mock tests? I'm also trying to gauge if there is a rough percentage to aim at, under which it is not worth putting my daughter through the real tests.

We are doing well on the bond age 7-8 books but recently went through a mock paper together and only got around 60% which I thought was disappointing. I think she could achieve anywhere between a very wide range of marks on the day itself just depending on her mood - so frustrating.

Hi American, I would consider 60% as a good rate except I am not clear - did you do the test at home together? I meant a mock exam with a specialist company which in my opinion is a lot tougher on a child. Unfortunately, I do not have a clue what the pass rate is.

Scorpiomum, out of curiosity, did you do the mock exam with EPP?
Do they provide actual percentages or just actual raw scores?

We did with Enjoy Education. They provided everything, including the feedback and the actual test. Found it extremely helpful!

In terms of percentage, I would say aim for 90-100% maths, 80-90% English for bond paper 7-8, as they are really only the basics. For the mock exam, 80% maths and 70% english is the cutting point, for a top London day school.

WOW! I sat over 100 exams in my life, I do not think I ever managed 90 - 100%. Seems just a touch unrealistic to me.

Agree with wwwmummy

90-100% in bond books is very much realistic. EPP sample papers are very tough and the owner of EPP says target 75% for entry to top schools.

I agree that not many will score 90 -100 % with the EPP papers.
I guess the difficulty level of the mock exam will determine how to interprete the results/feedback against the schools under consideration.

Hi - so glad to find this thread as the support thread this year is very quiet. We are sitting 7+ for our DS this year. We are also sititng the MT exam which is next week but we have no information on what is supposed to be coming up. Apparently they only have 2 places, so we are not holding our breath. We have St Pauls next, whcih is only a few weeks away - the exam timetable came out last week. Anyone who has sat this test and can give useful hints and tips - especially with the NVR which looks like it is 45 mins long?? What we need to cover for the VR and NVR would be super helpful. Thanks

Omasa, it seems the 45 mins is for a combination of reading and NVR.
A good starting point will be bond papers NVR for 8-9.

Thanks Jifey. Do you reckon reading is a comprehension style reading? Seems a bit odd to put reading together with NVR

Schofield & Simms are better for NVR than Bond for 7+ IMHO

Omasa, I am inclined to think that may be the case given the stated time. Hard to tell.
Will love to hear from anyone who has been through this in the last few years.

Thanks CB2009 we have the Schofield and Sims 7-8 and bond 7/8 and definitely prefer the SS. We haven’t got the 8/9 Bond NVR but I’ve heard good things about t so will try it. Just feel like there’s not a lot of material at this age for NVR and vr. Most of it is geared towards 11+ so not very relevant

I thought NVR is basically an IQ test for which you can't prepare or rather there is very little you can improve as mother nature took care of it.

Omasa - I would also be doing 8/9 from Bond and also S&S.

ScorpioMum - harder to prepare for that say creative writing. Granted. But if children recognise the patterns and the approach for reflections etc then they certainly get quicker and can rule out some answers straight away. Afraid that you need to prep for all the tests!

Hi all, just found this thread and read it all with much interest. Lots of valuable information!

My DD1 is currently in an outstanding state school. She is going to try for Highgate, Habs and NLCS this year. We haven't got a tutor and have just been going through the material ourselves. Have gone through Bond 6-7, 7-8 in English, math, VR and NVR with relative ease. DD1 loves NVR so much we also did Bond 8-9 (but found it more difficult).

I was wondering if anyone could advice on whether EPP is worth getting? We've done all the school sample papers we could find and a few free "owl tutor" ones, but not sure they reflect the realistic level of difficulty.

Many thanks in advance

We got a lot of the epp stuff and i think it’s really good. But it is a lot harder than the sample papers you can get online - so not sure if you want to spook her (or yourself) so close to the exams. If you want a challenging paper have you tried habs boys sample paper online - might not be relevant for the schools you are Applying for but it’s a Hard paper and in line with the epp standard. I wouldn’t get their comprehension guide for £50 / it wasn’t worth it but the English, reasoning and maths one were good. One paper from each should be fine as they have 4 exam papers in each one. And there’s only a few weeks until the exams so I don’t think there’s is time to do Much more than that