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.

We struggle in the composition part. Its not always easy straightforward. Sometimes, the child can write really well and sometimes he cannot come up with the whole thing and spends time on thinking. How much writing are they expecting, I mean in no of words not paragraph? Same is the situation with dictation. EPP general dictation is hard for us to finish completely. My son some times gets worried if he is not able to follow 1-2 word and he stops writing further. Too many things to keep in mind for a 6-7 year old.

My younger son very rarely manages to finish his comprehension paper if it’s 20-25 minutes to read the text and to answer 15 questions, some of them include 3-5 lines to answer. But I think that it’s challenging for the vast majority of kids. I love it when they put “now go back and check your answers” at the end of the test when my boy never reaches the end within the time limit! 😁

Yes - creative writing is very hit and miss, all depends on what he has to write about, but I feel he has improved this more than comprehension.
Forget checking, no way will there be enough time! Similar with dictation, one tough word and it can throw them to miss the next few etc....
Someone said there was no dictation last year....it was listening...circle this and a bit of mental maths?

I was also of the opinion that for Kings - no dictation - it’s more relevant for St. Paul’s. We haven’t done it - but honestly, who knows.. they keep changing the format.

We are sitting 8+ for kcs this Saturday. Thinking to take it easy as both are exhausted from preps and need to be in a good form. Maths explanation part seems to be an issue for us. Writing and comprehension hit and miss, depending on the theme. I feel everyone is in the same boat. Is anyone here taking 8+?

Really interesting that King's has a totally different format for maths, no 2 step problem solving, instead explaining how you come to an answer and then some puzzles. Section A is straight forward, section B and C can be problematic and only 10 mins for each.
Like everyone else, comprehension and story very hit and miss.

Annoying format tbh, as they don't do it in school, more of a calculation type in school . I guess some children will find it easy, but we do struggle here with that.

I don't think anyone will find it easy. Really hard to explain something in sentences. No idea why they are doing this!

What about SPJ-I hope they didn't change their format!

We are sitting the 8 plus too this Saturday

Glad to have found this thread to calm my nerves somewhat. DS is sitting for the KCJS exam on Saturday. Struggling with consistency as well. He is also currently in a state school so not much by way of prep during the day. We are trying to do a paper a day this week and will take a break on Friday.

Nothing on Friday, probably a comprehension today, maths and reasoning over the next couple of days....

I wonder how many of the 400 boys are super prepared?

We’re also sitting the 7+ at KCJS on Saturday, I’m super nervous. Consistency is our main issue too - seems to be the same across the board. Not really a surprise though, these poor boys are 6. It was the same with my older son a few years ago.

100% agree - it's really unfair on them! The benefit being they don't need to do the 11+.
We've toned it down a bit, as we've realised his reading comprehension score is based on how much he enjoys the story....the maths paper format is really tough for a 6 year old, with only 10 mins.

How important is handwriting in this exam? Are there marks for handwriting, or does it not matter as long as it is legible?

I can only say from experience- my older one’s handwriting is rubbish and he still got in. It’s a lot to expect to do so much in a very limited time and that too in impeccable handwriting:)

I think there is only 1 mark available for joint handwriting. But handwriting needs to be legible, so wouldn’t worry too much.

Have your sons been to mock exams? Mine has been to one and the result page (including all who sat it) showed that the vast majority boys were not very high performers as I feared especially in English. After seeing that, I'm a lot more calm and realistic about the actual level of candidates.

We did one mock at the start of the Summer….it was more to get him used to the situation and allowed us to iron silly issues such as not leaving an entire page out, not writing faintly….etc

I think at least 200 of the candidates will not be very prepared, probably 50 will be extremely well prepared, the rest somewhere in between.

good luck! We are in the same boat - state school, so early or after school prep.
Absolutely hate maths explanation thing - my son struggles too and sometimes what he writes doesn’t make much sense 😂

We did a recent mock with EPP. Average for comprehension was about 50% and 68% for composition.

The scores on our result page were lower. And the range showed that virtually no one was getting over 80-85% on any paper. Added with the fact that no one boy will get the similar score across papers, as they all have stronger and weaker subjects, it really didn't look like there were many boys at all getting 70-75% on ALL papers.

@2minutesplease goodluck to you as well. We made the decision to move this year, so I am worried we started prep a little late. 😅Hoping it all works out.

On our EPP groups average for comprehension was 50% and composition was 56%.
although I think the top scores on English (excluding dictation was 75%).

EPP comprehension tends to be harder than the exams.

Also the kids that do these exams are the ones that tend to be more prepared.

i would guess if that was the exam, a score of 65% probably gets you into the 2nd round.

Groups have been assigned, we’re group 13 which superstitiously I am not happy about! DS 1 was group 14 which I felt a lot more comfortable with 🤣