No prep for 7+ entrance exams - successful?

[CrownMe]

Has anyone's child been offered a 7+ place at a top school without having prepared for assessment tests / entrance exams? This school emphasises it is looking for raw talent and actually discourages tutoring and preparation.

This whole 'raw talent' thing is bullshit. The most talented singer in the world benefits from rehearsals. We all know practise helps. On the day these tests are very tough and frankly age inappropriate. It is bad enough to test this way but to send them in unprepared seems cruel. Not hothoused and pushed, but prepared and given confidence.

What do you think tutors do? they show the format and do practise papers. Implying doing it with mum is not tutoring is absurd - so mum has the privilege of knowledge and can prep her child - so another pays for a tutor for the same service.

This. it doesn't matter this could be a mum or tutor. someone needs to do the prep with a child. I also don't buy into "they did some practice papers the week before" story, surely they practiced some things without going through the tests well ahead of the actual exam.

The absolute certainty of those saying it's impossible to get into a good school at 7+ without tutoring is... interesting. As is the certainty that anyone who doesn't tutor for the 7+ is lying.

Pushing the 'tutor or you don't stand a chance' narrative betrays a totally paranoid mindset and massive parental insecurity (which tutors absolutely love to exploit). If you want to spend the cash (and think it's a good use of your child's time) go for it, but don't try and imply that it's the only way for everyone.

Also, what's the plan if your DC gets into one of these schools after intensive tutoring and can't keep up? Do you just tutor all the way to 18?

I also don't buy into "they did some practice papers the week before" story, surely they practiced some things without going through the tests well ahead of the actual exam.

If you mean it's worthwhile for child to be able to read, write and do basic maths well before the exam then yes - that should be a given if you're entering a child for 7+. And it would be unfair to enter a child who'd never done a handful of practice exam papers so they know what to expect if you don't want to supervise that yourself then by all means pay a tutor, plenty of unemployed graduates delighted to take your money to sit in a room on their phones while your child does the paper. More than that i the way of preparation is not necessary ime and imo but the tutoring industry will want you to think otherwise.

of course you can get in to these schools without paid-for professional tutoring. But for the overwhelming, vast majority of the applicants (save the 0.5% who are operating at genius level) it is simply untrue to say that you can be successful at 7+ without any tutoring (professional or by the parents).

(the word 'tutoring' seems to be triggering for some - so they call it 'preparing'. so - you can 'prepare' your child yourself or you can pay for a professional to 'prepare' your child. either way - they are 'prepared'! )

not everyone is lying - there is no certainty on that. but there is certainty that you can not trust what you read on the internet and taking these stories as fact/evidence/data to apply to your decision about how to 'prepare' your child - would be a bit foolish.

I don't think a tutor is necessary but you need to prepare them . I would say 7+ is the hardest entry point, as at 4+ you can't really do a huge amount, they can skip, cut things count, fillow instructions etc. 7+ they know what a test is but haven't been learning long enough to really understand what they want so you need to cajole them into prepping and the exam itself can be stressful. At 11+ a bright kid will be fine, they can look at schools see if which ones they want to attend and work independently to get there.

I think OP asked if you can pass 7+ to any of the super-selective schools (like WUS) without any sort of prep, just show up with the bag of the existing knowledge in the framework KS1 curriculum. In my opinion, generally, no, you cant. You do need to get extra skills/knowledge on top of the standard school curriculum, plus a child needs to practice exam writing techniques.
You can prep yourself or hire someone and the point is you don't need an expensive tutor. how intensive or low-key prep needs to be varies from one child to another.

"tutor" is a trigger word here indeed, I know one child who prepared for 6 months with a tutor once a week and some extra prep during the weekends for 1-1,5 hour with the parents (no extra prep during the weekdays ) Id say this is rather a low-key prep,
then i know another child whose mother spent all weekday evenings for 7+ prep and tests (a child was withdrawn from all extra curriculum activities during weekdays), they had no tutor but i'd classify this as a very intensive prep, does it make sense? mother then told everyone that they passed with no tutoring whatsoever and they were also from state school

It’s a 1 year sacrifice for the child. To be one of the 22 selected for WUS out of 300/400….you need to be fairly bright, but also need to a significant amount of prep…..as no doubt WUS take the top 50 scores through to 2nd round.

we look at it as 1 year of sacrifice and then one can relax for the next 11 years.

My ds got into our top choice school. He was at a Prep school(very academic). There is no way that we could have got our school without the Prep school. They really guided him and us through this process. We did not tutor because we felt our school was thorough. They all say they don't want tutored kids, but to pass these exams the children need to be navigated through it by people who have 'inside experience'. The one child in our group who was offered WUS, was exceptionally bright. Not just your academic child, a child who stood out by miles in every single aspect. If your child is so, go for it.

I see the argument along the lines of “if your child needs tutoring to get ready for his 7+ how on earth he’ll keep up at school”.
I am absolutely convinced that if a child at the age of 6 can absorb all the info/exam technique/preparation offered by tutor/parent/prep school and successfully apply it at the formal exam - this child is clever enough to keep up with the pace at the school he sat exams at.
If a child is not “top school material” yet he just won’t be able to learn whatever is needed for the exam, regardless of parents and tutors efforts. Like the baby who cannot walk when he’s only ready to crawl.

I don’t think it’s necessary to tutor at this age. Bright kids will get in. We did tutor for about a month before the exam, but none of that came up. The only things in the exam were covered in the year BEFORE at their state primary. I mean, my year 4 kid said everything was from year 3, and my year 2 kid said everything was from year 1 or reception(!) but they are both bright kids who pay attention in class and soak up everything they’re taught. I’m glad I tutored them because I’d have felt super guilty if they hadn’t got in, but in retrospect they didn’t need it.

Are you talking about 7+ exams at top schools?
Because at KCJS and SPJ the boys had Dictation, listening, mental maths, non-mental maths, comprehension, composition where they were supposed to write 3-5 paragraphs of a story with descriptions of a setting, characters, problem, solution etc within 20 minutes, verbal reasoning (80 questions in SPJS). I find it hard to believe that any school curriculum covered all this in Reception or Year 1. My second son is now in year one and they are learning 17+1 at school. Not exactly what is required for 7+ at top boys’ school.

I think you're absolutely giving op false information.

At WUS specifically there is no year the curriculum is ahead of KS2. Any parent there can check that anytime for any future year on aptus. SPJS is notorious for not making this information as readily available but these are competing schools.

They are not going into a education system out of phase with any schooling. That's just the truth. Schools that reasonably prepare for the 7+ (excluding wetherby for the moment) add *VR a couple of months before exam season.

WUS who openly prepare their kids for the 11+ also only introduce *VR couple of months before the pre test. Things like past questions from the challenge are introduced but only when it fits the curriculum.

What do parents who care about attainment do with their kids for fun? Things like hit the button, pip deck, museum visits etc. These would absolutely prepare for those exam conditions without the 7+ pulling all the oxygen out of the family.

I know SPJS for round 1 have 4 sections; Dictation, Maths and Comprehension / verbal reasoning and NVR. What is listening?

I think the question is about prep for 7+ and the level of knowledge which is required to get in in the top schools not the actual curriculum in Y3 in those top schools. prep preps that reasonably prepare for 7+ also load parents with extra homework (a pile of tests) to go through,.

When scores of well-prepared candidates sit 7+ at top schools, its a simple tick-the-box approach and they simply pick the ones who score the highest across all exam elements (at least for the 1st round). well-prepared candidates for example will write advanced compositions that certainly go beyond the level of what is required from Y1 child.

Interesting that so many have removed the creative writing element from the initial stage (SJPS, WUS and CJS). Think this was to prevent many "pre-prepared" sentences, paragraphs having an impact on the scores. Creative writing is now in the second round for many schools.

I don’t want to say which schools as it would be outing, esp as my eldest went for an occasional place. One school is top 5. The other still has a good reputation locally but is approx 40-60 nationally.

I was surprised too because I expected the exams to be really tough.

I only gave the experience of my own kids, so how can you say it’s false?

KCJS did Listening. The boys had to listen to pre-recorded questions and put the answers on the sheet. There could be maths or other questions like pick the picture of something out of a few. Testing listening skills and attention to details.

Thank you.

We didn’t do any prep for 7+ and my daughters had offer from 5 independent schools they we applied - 2 of them was so selective and competition was high.

@Pointerdogsrule may I ask why from 2026? Thank you