7+ exam

[Shehr]

Anybody taking the 7+ exam this year? I have noticed there isn't a thread on it this year. We are going to be trying for St Paul's and Kings. At the moment we are really struggling with the comprehension. Anybody else in the same boat?

Hi all,

Those are thinking to accept St Paul’s offer, where do you advise to live? I need recommendations within 20 mins drive and 15 mins to walk to the train station or underground with good connections to the central London due to our work places.

Many thanks.

You can live in Barnes area depending where you can drive your son to school. You can then take tube from hammersmith station on the other side of the bridge (hopefully they won t close it anymore and in a few year they may reopen it to cars) or you can live in hammersmith and walk you son across the bridge (if they do close the bridge, there are bus shuttle to SPJ from hammersmith, but that is a 40/45 min journey for the boys). Would not recommend to live in Fulham as driving over putney bridge in the morning is just a nightmare.. Otherwise you can live in Putney/Roehampton area.

Forgot to say there is Barnes station in Barnes with train bringing you to Waterloo, depending on where you work might also be of interest.

@Lolakath19 Thank you very much for your recommendations. Is there any specific part of Hammersmith do you recommend when I was walking there to be honest I didn’t feel safe?( When my DS in senior school he will be walking alone. )
Also is there any specific part of Putney or Roehampton you recommend? I saw on the map tooting looks closer as well but I have no idea about it.

@curiousma I sent you an email

Does anyone have any experience of the SPJ school bus?

Any route in particular? I think there are quite a lot and depending on the area people might have different opinion, some are a 15min journey some are 1h..

Thanks. It doesn't seem like the Hammersmith Bridge is going to be repaired anytime soon...

Quick update on City junior - I followed up with the school and they resent email. Apparently they had issues with school mailing system. It was positive news... So no email doesn't mean unsuccessful

@ViewsAreMine @puzzledmom

Would you be able to share your DC’s experience of the City junior exam? My DD will be sitting next year and there is obviously not that much information available on it…

Thank you!

@karmi2010 we struggled to get much info from DS except it was Maths, Comprehension and writing based on a picture. We couldn't find any past papers

Thank you @puzzledmom!

Does anyone know what the next stage of city junior involve ?

Just noticed your post...my DS sat in 2021 Jan and is in WUS. The maths was easy, grammar wasn't too difficult, mental maths was a bit more difficult than online maths. The main focus was on reasoning - it was quite tricky. Apart from this, the boys had to do some creative writing where they had to build on ideas or describe things. They had to write it down and this was then emailed across. Hope this helps.

You could live in Barnes...prices are relatively depressed due to the bridge situation. Always a great area to live. Alternatively is upper Richmond Road in Putney, lower Richmond road or somewhere around Putney common near the Telegraph pub. Putney is within 10-15 mins and offers better connectivity if that's what you are after.

Schools tend to be more sensitive than what we perceive them. Kids from the same prep school or same/similar pedigree of schools are grouped. State school children are put in a separate group by some schools. Some of the younger kids are also given due attention. This in no way means that the entrance criteria is lax for any group. It merely helps examiners focus on the minimum checks they want to do for a particular group. This is generally true for interviews or group exercises of 5-7 kids. For bigger groups (activities or introductions), expect things to be random.

@StrugglingPa Thank you very much for the information. That is very useful.
Could you also give some general information about Westminster and what made you to choose WUS particularly.
Many thanks

@StrugglingPa is the information you've given about exam format above about WUS? Do they not have comprehension?

Would appreciate insights on level of reasoning? We've done CGP and Bond 7-8; should we move to 8-9 too?

Thanks in advance!

@puzzledmom They did have comprehension...most probably it will be multiple question format. There was no story writing but there was creative writing in the interview round.

@Curiousma There is a big emphasis on discipline and values. There is a good amount of sports, a lot of stress on acads and in terms of English, the focus is on clarity of thought and expressing it in words. The teachers are well experienced; there is no elimination test to graduate from primary to the great school.

The level of students is relatively high, and while the boys seem competitive, most are well-grounded. The big downside of WUS is that it isn't co-ed. However, it has very good sporting facilities and a large ground in the form of vincent square, a large indoor facility just off vincent square but it doesn't have massive buildings or an opportunity to significantly expand its facilities.

@puzzledmom Yes, reasoning of a higher level will help. I didn't get to see the questions, but DS said he hadn't come across most of them previously. General parent feedback, later on, corroborated his v of events.

Overall I feel that the WUS level is 2 terms ahead of the general level in most schools.

@StrugglingPa the boys have exams in Y6 that they must pass to move to the Great Schoolz

@StrugglingPa thanks... appreciate it!

No, not from the intake of 2021. Pls check with the school to confirm.

My students who get through WUS written exam tend to do Maths and English at Y4 level (with some challenge questions I give from 11+ papers). SPJ is similar, but Maths at Y4 and English at Y3. There is a heavy focus at Westminster on vocabulary, which most boys struggle with.