7+ 2023 - Lessons Learnt

[Razzmata]

@ash90603 hi starting the thread on parents journey on entrance exams - private schools

Be realistic about the academic potential of your child.

Going through the process now for the final time with youngest DC and it amazes me how many parents set their sights on top academic schools for their children and then put them through years of tutoring to try and achieve it. The children are literally broken by the end of it and then often fail to get into these top schools.

The parents then blame schools, the tutor, the exam, the pressure or stress of it or even the child themselves, but never actually recognise it’s just not the right place for their child. Never was, never will be.

We can all be aspirational and want the best, but sometimes a reality check is needed.

Don’t ring up and scream at the support staff if you don’t get what you want.

The decisions are impossible to make and failure to get exactly what you want is not a reflection on your poor child or an indication that the school is shit after all.

@ash90603

@Razzmata Thank You for creating this new thread. The 7+ exams 2024 one was getting busy. Since so many of us have been on the 7+ journey this year, wouldn't it be so amazing if we try and consolidate our experiences and learnings for those starting now...

Our son has now received an offer from Kings and has cleared the St Pauls Stage 1.. had his interview session yesterday🤞thus the delay in jumping on to this thread... anyways, so back to the key learnings... Gosh so much is popping up in my mind, ok let me try and write some here and will keep on dropping by for more...

1. Be realistic ... totally agree with @DibbleDooDah, please please don't be over ambitious. If your child is not academically inclined or not showing signs of interest, please don't push. It would get very tough and stressful otherwise. Really not worth all the effort if it ends up taking the whole love of learning away.

Our son is from a state school but was academically advanced. We felt his curiosity nd keenness to learn more wasn't satisfied by the school so we looked for Independent Schools options.

1. Divide and rule ... my biggest learning really.. while people and schools discourage tutoring, reality is that there is just A LOT to cover in very little time.. each subject goes into greater depth of topics and sub topics... I ended up wasting two months trying to cover it all at home and the result was those two months had the most number of fights and crying rounds my son and I had during this whole preparation journey.. please be kind to yourself and dont take it all on.... its v difficult to sustain.

We went to a company that prepares for 7+ exams and signed him up for 1:1 classes initially and then group sessions once he was at par with other boys from prep schools. We handed over writing and comprehension completely to them and later added maths probkem solving etc too.

This gave us a focused plan of action..we did maths (mainly times tables and arithmetic) foundation work at home along with spellings and reasoning and lots of untimed practice papers. Timed practice was only started from this summer onwards.

Eventually, we managed to learn times tables up to 12 and the spelling lists up to Year 4 (bit of Year 5 also) and reasoning books up to age 8/9 (bit of 9/10). Since he was motivated and had strong support, it just helped to carry on and keep moving forward.

1. Right resources.. there is so much available in the market for prep... our most preferred ones are, bond/cgp for reasoning, exam paper plus for practice papers, prepplus for classes and specialised courses, national spelling lists for spelling practice, hit the button for times tables and amazon progress charts, stars/rewards for motivation.

1. Its the effort that counts... it was more than one year of prep for us and we registered for two schools only.. couldnt have imagined him sitting 3/5 schools exams as its taxing. From the onset, we told him to not worry abt the end results and just give his best.. he knew that he would still be loved as much if he couldnt get into any of those two schools.... but have to accept he did have exam nerves and to manage that we enrolled him to a few mock exams that helped.

Umm think thats me done... at least for now 😅

To those starting now, only advise is to not forget to keep showering lots of love during this process.. you will get stressed and nervous, as its quite a draining process but please be gentle on the kids and if its getting too much, just outsource .. its better than turning the home into a pressure pot.

Good luck 😘

@ash90603 Thank you for your detailed message. We are going through this with our DS next year. He's at a Pre-Prep, which helps, but we will also look at tutoring from January.
Regarding times-tables, SJPS say on their website that they need to know year 2 syllabus, which is 2,3,5 and 10 times tables.....you mentioned that your DS did to 12. Is this totally required? Our DS knows 2,3,4,5,10,11 and the division versions for these. Just wondered if he really needs 6,7,8,9? Thank you.

Since we had time and we wanted to cover all bases, we kept working on the times tables and did until 12 ...it makes things v easy if they know them well.. the SPJ syllabus doesnt mention 24 hour clock I think but know there were questions abt it.. also do know that maths benchmarks are v v high as most boys are v good in maths, so we wanted to ensure we have these covered. Since yours already know the most would try and cover 6,7,8 and 9 also..

@ash90603 Thank you again. Indeed we will cover them, as he has time on his side.

I would just be really clear about how much you care about these schools. My DS is in one of these v selective schools now and ... it's ok. Maybe even pretty good. But worth endless pain and effort and tears? Definitely not. And the truth is we can't measure the value add of most of these schools.
And on the academic potential - the truth is, which is why some of us go through this and do the tutoring and all the prep, it's pretty hard to tell at 6. Could you have perfectly predicted your own abilities then? Doubt it. Definitely couldn't have done with mine. I think in hindsight I'd have kept them in a less selective school for much longer and let them show who they really were a bit more before choosing a school for them. Because they're going to change a lot.

@iap thank you for this insight. This is how I currently feel and am feeling conflicted about what to do with my 6 year old. My older son is doing the 13+ and I feel like I know him and his needs so much better than his 6 year old self and we will be choosing from a wide range of senior schools (presuming he gets in!), rather than just one.

On the flip side, of I could avoid the 13+ for my youngest, that would be great too!

Such a tricky decision.

@iap some very valid points indeed..
Have heard horror stories of the 11+ and 13+ competition and wanted to try our luck with 7+.. glad he received the offer from Kings and really hopeing if its a yes too from SPJ.

Extracurricular activities are a bonus, being academically bright is one thing but schools also appear to be looking for ‘all rounders’ sports, volunteering, music & even something like touch typing can really support an application.

Thank you for sharing your experience -it's very helpful! Did you do much in terms of story writing, as St Paul's doesn't have creative writing at the first stage and comprehension is multiple choice.

A big yes to creative writing as it took us the longest to get to grips with.. yes its not tested in Stage 1 for SPJ but for other schools like kings its very much in the stage 1. The expectation is that the 6 year olds will be able to use the

• literary techniques likes similie, alliteration, onomatopoeia
• varied sentence starters
• strong vocabulary
• punctaution
• speech / dialogue
• 3 paragraph story with a begining, middle and end

Its too much really and requires disciplined practice over time.

Thank you!

Can anyone please recommend which specific books to start with?
(of the Bond/CGP/S&S/EPP)

Yes, get CGP books now because their books are light-years ahead of Bond - the answer contain brief explanations and in my experience there's simply better topic coverage.

Bond books are often decades old (but still relevant) and Schofield & Sims are fine but nothing spectacular.

Then, as test day approaches, consider getting timed tests from EPP (or their sister company PreTest Plus). PreTest Plus is online tests while EPP are downloadable PDFs.

@ash90603 can you please pm me with any tips on how to go about bring child upto standard for creative writing? Any tuitions that help etc

What would be the best comprehension paper in CGP for 8+ prep for KCS and SPJ?

CGP don't do practice papers (for school entrance tests ala 11+) below Year 5, only workbooks. Hence, I'd recommend starting with this.

Hello ash90603. Have read a lot of your feeds as it has been superbly useful in terms of 7+ knowledge for us - so thank you. May i ask what company did you use for prepping? Thanks 😊 x