7+ 2024/25

[Caps0218]

I haven't seen another thread similar to previous years, so thought it would be beneficial to start one as exams are now 1 month away.
I think SHHS, UCS, KCJS and WUS are all in October.

Also - Curious to see if number of applicants are down this year, with Labour's VAT raid.

Kings and Westminster 2nd round week on Monday. I assume results will likely be out middle of next week. Good luck everyone.

Good luck to all! I wonder if King’s will give us the date when they’ll send out results...

We need some help. Please 🙏. We need recommendations for non-verbal reasoning practice books with challenging level similar to these ones attached. My son is struggling with this type of NV questions particularly. We did Bond NV ages 7-8 but it’s not at the same level.

Tomorrow at KCJS, is Glencairn Gate at the end of Glencairn Road?

May I ask where you got this sample paper from please?

thats right

These are part of EPP reasoning test papers. My son sometimes gets these right and sometimes doesn't so I thought some extra practice on this part would be helpful. Can anyone help please. I am not able to find the right resource for practice these type of NVR.

You can try CAT4 Level A practice.

Just finished Kings assessment day,
It seems they started with a hula hoop game to break the ice and warm them up In the classroom.
Next was playtime outside in the play ground.
Then back to the classroom for some more games, mainly word / English activities.
Not sure how they mark them? According to DS there didn’t seem to be any marking or writing notes by the teachers.

DS’s group had no maths or number work.

i wonder how much the 2nd stage has weight in the overall process, as it certainly seemed a lot more relaxed than WUS and SPJS that have additional writing, maths tests etc…..
Seemed to be at most 9 groups, so 108 kids.

Maybe they already have made their decisions based on the exam results and are trying to see if there are any difficult kids?

Same reported by my son. I think they were assessing how well the kids listen to instructions, how they follow them etc. I think there was a teacher supervising each group of 6 so they could make notes at the end of the session. But to be honest I think that written examination ranking weights so much more than activity session. Although… who knows!

Also looks like in the classroom activities, which there were 5 of them, the groups rotated, so one group did scrabble while another did the alphabet countries etc….It really seemed just a fun day, and perhaps just to spot anyone who didn’t get involved or was not well behaved etc….
I think the interview will have much more weight.

My son was in group 11, whatever it means!

If there was a group 11, then that would mean at least 132 children.
i wonder if they over offer….say 65-70 especially as it’s the first of the big 3 schools?

I think for 7+ they offer 70+waitlist.
how was 8+ for those who did it? How many boys were there do you think? Feedback from mine was very similar to 7+ above

Although the activity session seems simple, I think it must be important. Otherwise, why did they pass so many to second stage. We are in the afternoon. There are 4 groups of 8+ and 2 groups of 9+. Each 14 boys. So 56 boys for 14 places in 8+ and 28 boys for 12 places 9+. Even for 8+ when some will go for SPJ or WUS, they are still interviewing many. Even more so for 9+ when almost everyone offered will take the place (no 9+ for SPJ or WUS). So why would they interview those ranked 13th to 28th? To look for bad behaviour etc? wouldn't be so many with bad behaviour in ranked 1st to 12th I suppose?

But then I don't know what they look for. If looking for behaviour, I guess the difference wouldn't be that much. Nobody's behaviour "stand out" as my son said (at least in his group). If these are to test their ability, those tasks were not that representative of their ability I am afraid.

i think a lot of scores will be very close, there may be 5% between boys 40th and 60th? Which is more or less the same score….I think the pairs interview will be more important and could differentiate the kids, so child A who scored 5% less than child B may perform better and hence get the place?
In a class of 20 there may be a clever but not well behaved child? I am sure they do this just to see if there is an issue with 1 or 2 kids? You never know.
WUS and SPJS have proper academic lessons in stage 2.
But today was just fun games….and my DS said the teachers didn’t take any notes.

I’m getting the impression that King’s might assess soft skills quite a lot? My DS said the games needed to be done in pairs as a team?
He also said there was a Rushmere teacher and an assistant teacher who “did their own thing on computers” while games were played. I assume they were typing notes directly on the computer/ticking boxes… DS also said there were 12 children in his group. His group number started with a letter… anyone else?

For the King’s interview, will parents be interviewed as well do you think?

My DS also had a letter and number

No - parents aren’t interviewed - just the boys

Just asked him and he had also had a letter and a number.
Not sure why they would need to have both? Why not just 9, rather than A9 or B9?

He also said the typing on the computer was at the start, the rest of the time they were with the boys during the activities.

My son said some boys were more patient than others, listened to instructions more or less carefully… probably this all matters. One of the games was challenging not in an intellectual way but just not that easy to do, maybe they watched how the kids react, will they give up or get frustrated etc

Yeah, I think King's second round was more about the soft skills, which are just as important if they want to take these boys to 18 with good results in all areas. I like that they try to see the whole child rather than picking just the top 50 something scores. I'd like the idea of my son being with the other boys who have shown great soft skills in many different settings not just great exam scores. They saw everything academic in the first round, with a more comprehensive assessment than WUS and SPJ. They had written comprehension, creative writing, dictation, listening, reasoning, and three different math papers!

Indeed, their first round covered all the academic sections. So it must be soft skills. DS said that a few kids from his first round group were in his second round group, so I assume it was done alphabetically again. Just odd to have a number and a letter assigned to each group!
I asked him if the teachers were taking notes, typing on a computer and he said just at the start was the typing, but then there were with the kids and no note taking or typing.

All the best to boys in WUS round 2 today. Looking forward to hearing how they found it 😊