7+ exams for Westminster, King's and St. Pauls

[Heist]

Hello Everyone, my son is writing 7+ exams for Westminster, St.Pauls and KCS this year.
My son is preparing for a while now and struggling in English a lot as of now.
Could someone please provide me more insights on the interview and activity tasks that the kids are asked to participate in and how to ace those bits? How could I prepare my son for these bits?
Thanks a lot.

@OptimysticMom Thank you

@Aba1 I know. I can‘t believe they are doing it. I don’t think it is possible to supervise and puts so much additional stress on the parents and the children... why not just do it on Saturday after WUS has restated teaching? The school would be empty on a weekend?

@annalenav Agree. Though I don’t think they will change it and this is what it is for this year. Very unfortunate.

@annalenav the issue is that a number of candidates are already holding offers from SPJ and KCS and the deadline for acceptance is at the end of the month. If they don't compete the assessment by the end of the month they will likely lose a lot of good candidates that would have picked WUS over one of the two other schools. Also I'm sure parents who already hold an offer may well just forgo WUS if the deadline were to be extended since they probably want to be done with the process and move on.

As @ annalenav suggests, not sure why they can’t consider doing it over weekends? If constrained by space, maybe do the exams over a couple of weekends to ensure sufficient social distance. This this is much better than letting parents supervise the boys during the online exams ....

@annalenav and @MsMeanwhile feel for you and totally understand your POV. However, dates for internal candidates’ exams have already been set over the weekends you are considering available for 7+/8+ assessments. Thinking pragmatically, the school cannot upset the current parents who are paying over £21/£42k pa or more for boys currently at school, for the sake of ‘prospective’ parents, can they? It is not an ideal solution at all, but they have thought it through. In any case, here is what I have advised my 7+/8+ students to look at: secure.testingforschools.com/player-demo-iseb/#/ Also, you could get a trial subscription to BOFA so your son gets a bit of practise. All the tests incorporate a substantial practice section at the beginning to ensure candidates have had a chance to practise these different methods of input. He will need to use a keyboard, the examinations cannot be taken on just an iPad. They will be inviting many boys to interview, so not all is lost. All the best.

@OptimysticMom - Thank you very much for the valuable information. Really helpful, especially these online exams are a new thing to them and the kids/parents as well. So, any slight information you have will help us immensely. Any idea about Maths and English comprehension, will it all be Multiple Choice format ? And like another mom asked earlier, how are they going to ensure that the exam at home was attempted in all fairness? Do they any mechanism to judge that? Also, I heard interviews are also going to be remotely done. Is that true ?

@TAFZMom, as mentioned before in the thread, in English he will be required to type individual words only, not sentences. For Maths, it will perhaps be a combination of MC and typing calculations/answers (completed on paper/worked mentally).

Interviews these days are all being done via Zoom. Same format of questions that would be asked in person. Get help from your tutor to advise what/what not to do re: online interview. AVOID sitting through interview as many (annoying, but well-meaning) parents tend to do. It won't help your child and would not be looked upon well by school.

You should have/will be receiving further info from school re: invigilation if deemed necessary. (The 11+ students have received detailed instructions for the same in Nov.) School will know how able your child is via interview; they have these to weed out over-tutored kids. Cannot imagine parents/pupils 'cheating'; that child will remember it for life. Disgraceful of anyone thinking of it. Good luck.

@OptimysticMom thanks so kuch for your insight. It’s very helpful. Is anyone’s son sitting Sussex House this coming Monday for 8+? I haven’t received any communication about cancellation. Wondering if anyone else has heard from them. Thanks

Sussex H emailed us on Thursday to say that the exam is off and will be rescheduled later. If you didn’t hear from them you may want to contact them on Monday?

@OptimysticMom thank you so much!

@OptimysticMom Thanks a lot for your help!

@OptimysticMom- thank you for the insight. Extremely upset about this format. My boy has worked very hard and I know for a fact that there are parents out there who will want to provide a little extra 'technical' support. It's sad but it is what it is. I wish they had asked for cameras to be turned on and assign a teacher to a group of 20 or so boys for monitoring.

@Bravcol1 thank you for letting me know. I’ve written to them. Relieved to know they aren’t going online.

@Nataly21 absolutely agree. It seems unfair to have this set up. Diluting the exam process is not what schools should be doing at this stage.

@Aba1

I've emailed the school about this. So far no response. Have asked them how much typing would be required and if parents can assist with that and how they will ensure fairness for all.

I know that a girls school has switched to online assessment but will be required to keep cameras open and have been broken down into smaller groups which will be monitored by teachers and volunteers.

@Nataly21 I’ve written to them to. Hopefully if they see the same concern from several parents they might do something about it.

Did anyone hear back from WUS?

@annalenav

They replied just now and said the only typing required is single words.
Also, they will be strongly considering references of the students from their current schoolls.

@Nataly21 All schools typically do rely heavily on school reports, since the current schools have known the children longer. Any good Head will be objective and will give an honest opinion whether a child will be successful or not at a certain school. It's also not in interest of heads to over state a child's abilities since this could hurt future candidates from that school. Hence any scores in the online exam that don't tally up with school reports, will be heavily scrutinised by the registrar and reassure concerns from some posters that they will be disadvantaged through some parents giving their child an extra hand. Schools including WUS will follow up after exam to get some additional feedback from Heads ahead of the second round. So again an opportunity for some scrutiny to be had on any unexpected scores. Good luck to those sitting on Thursday.

Not sure how your boys feel after today’s WUS tests. My son felt math is much easier than SPJS

@MsMeanwhile my son takes 8+ tomorrow. Any tips on the format of the exam? Was there enough time to do the questions? My sons isn’t used to working on the computer so worried he might not be able to finish his exam. Were most multiple choice questions? Thanks in advance for your help.

The WUS exam was very easy. We experienced technical issues, dragging/dropping, signing in was problematic. But school was very understanding and gave children quite a lot of time to finish the tests.
He couldn't finish Math at SP. He said verbal and non verbal reasoning was very hard at SP too.

Not sure it helps but the reasoning test was a CAT4 test. I think I have heard of them in the past but was not sure.

@Aba1 We had English and Reasoning split into 2 and Mathematics was one paper only. You must sign into Zoom first before the assessments commence. Once your zoom is set up and you've logged into the test, do not leave the test screen or you'll have to start again.
They will give you a couple of practice questions at the start- listen to the instructions carefully. Assuming 8+ gets a similar test, make sure you have a decent pair of headphones or volume controls are loud and clear. Hope this helps.