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.

So based on that, they are saying that all boys are level after the first stage, so potentially they can offer boys 51-100?
I find that hard to believe….

@SWlondonmum123 i asked the same question to WUS and they said 2nd round is important, but children who did well in the first stage will have a better chance…but that was whispered to me (open day).
I think they have to say that, truth is we will never know….but they are going to want the top 30 boys from the exam.

I don't see why they would hide it, king's do all the academic side of the process during the first stage, there needs to be some way of ranking the boys due to the nature of the competition. SPJ on the other hand also have an academic component in the second round during the classroom setting, they also watch you very carefully, therefore it makes sense why they would only use that as a way to select the boys past the first stage. No top school is the same in their selection criteria and they each know the type of boy they would want to join their school.

@SWlondonmum123 fair enough….i know they do a maths lesson with a maths test and an English lesson with a story….however 2 or 3 years ago, first stage ranking especially for the top 30 was enough for an offer. May have changed…..and also could be what @SWLondon001 was inferring regarding rebalancing the ethnicity…..could be that a large portion of the top 50 tend to be from a certain ethnicity?

Also to add WUS do academics in the second stage as well, just like SPJS. But they certainly give weight to first stage.

Well I think if you were to look at this from an ethnicity point of view, it is obvious from anyone's observations of schools such as kings and SPJ that there are a large proportion of boys who are of a Chinese ethnicity and south Asian to an extent also. I think this is mainly due to the fact that there is a larger proportion of parents of boys from these backgrounds who invest heavily in their children's academia, extra curricular life etc and from a very early age and therefore it stands them in a strong position when they sit for such exams.

One of the year 3 classes had 60% Chinese ethnicity boys. I noticed similar on the WUS open day and yes their parents do heavily invest in their children’s education. A couple of years ago, our prep head said that kids fly in to sit the exams….which is probably one of the reasons no more sponsoring.
How much of this rebalancing is true, who knows….but I can see why, whether I agree with it, different story…but could tie in with 2 round now being the round that decides who gets in….

i guess in a similar way, if there are 15 Wetherby boys in the top 50, unlikely all get in. I think they want to have a balance of birth month, not all from the same school, ethnicity etc…

100%. Schools cannot balance ethnicity when a higher number of applicants are from Asia/South Asia. UK independent school education thrives on such interest and aspirations. Many indie schools are even going coed completely or at senior level to boost their GCSE and A-level results. They will not compromise on their league table rankings. Even the non selective boys indie schools are going coed for different reason- to fill up seats after covid. In today's age rebalancing is not possible.

Which year 3 class has 60% chinese? Not that i know. I have 2 boys one at year 8 one at year 4. In year 8, about 15% chinese and a few % other east asians. In year 4, about 25% chinese and a few % other east asians. May be a few % more are mixed. But still you see the trend. Their interests in the 3 top boys schools (WUS, SPJ, KCS, and exactly in this order), is rising exponentially in the last few years.

Passing stage 1 is predominantly (if not solely based on exam scores). This year, i would expect you to see way more than half of those in stage 2 being chinese, east asians (or mixed). But when school starts, you won't see that percentage.

But then, rebalancing in case like these, may not be a bad thing. I suppose even the chinese do not want to feel they are not studying in a British school.

I counted 10 to 11 based on photos on their classroom wall.

That’s the reason visa sponsorship at both Kings and SPJS has stopped.
Both my wife and I were surprised at the number….and you can tell a few were half Chinese and not included in that number. Although another class had maybe 4-5 out of 18.

I am not sure if that's the reason. Almost all of the them (or at least vast majority) are British passport holders.

King's, as far as I know, never ever sponsor student visas.

Iam not sure this is the reason as I read it somewhere- UK has tightened visa requirements for international students especially younger ones. These makes the schools work burdensome to meet the additional compliance and monitoring requirements needed for sponsorship later. Schools are still sponsoring senior school visa to boost league table results.

Another advice: many boys could not finish the SPJ reasoning paper (while most can finish the Math paper). So focus on timing.

SPJS website says 7+ Reasoning tasks being weighted according to age. What does it mean?

The 1st round tests are going to be the deciding factor, there is no way that these school (who are after the brightest kids) will not take the top 30 who do the best in their exam. This is a 2 hour exam, as opposed to one story and 20 minutes of maths. Yes - 2nd stage is very important, but no way all boys start from a level position. From 3 years ago:

"Mrs Shaw did tell the top 20 boys parents that they could have a glass of wine in the evening.. which suggests it will be pretty much automatic for them to have the offer."

@San2023 Reasoning score will be standardised according to age. For example if an Summer child gets 50 out of 60, an Autumn born child will need to get 53 out of 60 to match him. These are just example numbers.

Thank you.

On WUS Stage 1 feedback (for those who have asked the school
this year): does anyone have an idea of what the cut-off percentage for reading comprehension was? DS has always been a great reader, but wow, his RC % was less than half those for the other disciplines of Maths, VR and NVR. So the RC must be very hard/old style/obscure texts or MCQ very tricky…

@Fullmoon99 RC at WUS was very difficult from what I heard….WUS can go up to year 5 for their reading comprehensions.
i know a boy who got 55% in RC and 80% in Maths and didn’t get through to 2nd round.
My guess is that you needed 60%

Westminster Under School and Westminster School are known for their high expectations in English proficiency. Compared to many other boys' schools, their curriculum places a strong emphasis on English and Humanities.

Their comprehension assessments (7+, 8+, 11+, and 13+) are renowned for their challenging nature. The writing expectations go beyond the mere inclusion of literary devices such as alliteration, simile, and personification. The natural use of advanced vocabulary and complex sentence structures is essential, indicating that the child is an avid reader with exceptional verbal fluency.

It is noteworthy that most boys who sit for these exams excel in mathematics. Westminster Under School already boasts some of the most talented mathematicians, including the only child in the world to achieve a perfect score in the Junior Mathematical Olympiad last year. Therefore, exceptional mathematical ability is a prerequisite, while natural aptitude and ability in English distinguish the 22 boys selected from the 350-400 applicants for Westminster Under School.

Our son, despite consistently achieving near-perfect scores on EPP 7+ comprehension papers, found the WUS comprehension to be very challenging. He didn't get through. I know how you feel..

Did anyone get the range of scores for each subject for WUS? We were just given our percentages, so curious to see what the range was, as that would give a good indication of what the top level was.

My DS got 60% in comprehension and I was told by WUS that it was not sufficiently high in this category (admittedly the rest of his scores did not go above 60% either but admissions specifically mentioned that the cut off scores for each category was above 60% - how much exactly, I don’t know).

@NwLdnmum That's an excellent comprehension score for your DS. As I mentioned above a boy did not get through with 82 in Maths, 60s on Reasoning and 55% in Comprehension, I wonder if they have different thresholds for each subject.

Thank you. It definitely didn’t feel that way when we got the scores (he scored much lower than what we expected in the other categories), and has really put a damper on our hopes for the other NW London assessments :(
Having read this thread though, we didn’t seriously prepped for WUS and only sent him to get some practice, and it definitely sounds like WUS/SP/Kings are in a completely different league than most other 7+ assessments!