Preparing for 7+ (WUS, SPJ, King's) – Concerned About Advanced Topics

[heliomum]

Hi everyone, I’m new here and we’re currently preparing for the 7+ exams, aiming for Westminster Under, St Paul’s Juniors, and King’s. I recently noticed that a friend’s child (same age) is being tutored on topics like basic probability and percentages. I had assumed these were more advanced topics, so I’m now wondering—could these actually come up in the 7+ exams? My child hasn’t covered these yet and has no understanding of probability or percentages. Would really appreciate any insight from parents with experience. Thanks!

Have you checked out example papers online

For maths its
add, subtract, multiply, divide
the time
shapes
money
non verbal reasoning

Here’s a Kings paper but there’s little difference in the schools

4,5,6

7.8.9

The question does come up in some of the exam papers that are sold to parents. Whether or not it will be in the actual exam is a mystery but I do agree personally, that probability is maybe too advanced a concept for a 6/7 year old.

What mark do schools like Westminster/St Paul’s expect from a maths paper like the one above?

Our school ( not one of the above but another Kings school ) expected around the 75% mark
However
We were told they needed to show a good understanding in all areas

So if there are ten questions on division and they get them all wrong that suggests they don’t understand it. Wheres
if they just get a couple wrong they would have 80% in division so that’s fine.
They placed additional importance on verbal ( in English ) and non verbal reasoning and questions that test general knowledge and ability to work through something in stages.

Thank you so much that’s really helpful!

We did the 8+ successfully. The advice we got was that accuracy, speed and confidence matter much more than going far ahead.

I agree that you should get the schools own practice papers or rubrics to work out exactly what’s in-scope.

Then for your practice, you might want to go just a little ahead of that, only so that when your son gets the actual exam he feels confident that it’s the ‘easier’ stuff.

We also framed the work as ‘accuracy practice’ i.e. it’s not hard, but the skill is to avoid silly mistakes, read the question, check your answers etc. That helped avoid complacency.

Eg I would check his work and tell him how many he’d got wrong and then ask him to find the mistakes. Or have him mark his own paper.

Thank you so much!!

I wish your dc very good luck.

My main advice would be keep it stress free.

When my twins did their exam for a Kings school they sat with another girl
Three of them shared a big round table so it was less stressful.
This girl, my boys told me, drew blood scratching her face with anxiety. She was a wreck
According to her mum, who sat outside waiting with us, it was the only school they wanted.
They weren’t there at the start of term so must have failed
Stress can be more detrimental than not knowing your percentages in maths.
So keep it fun and don’t let any of your worries show through OP

At WUS, at 7+, students aren’t expected to know percentages. What’s usually checked is their understanding of fractions, and that’s tested quite a lot. In Year 4 (i.e. at 8+) at WUS, percentages come in, especially the most common fractions converted to percentages. A toss of a coin and a basic understanding of probability is also helpful. Most papers—not just the 7+ or 11+, but even unit tests at WUS, SP, and Kings—tend to have challenge questions built in. These challenge questions help the school identify the stand-out candidates, but it’s not essential to get them right to move to the next round. Can a challenge question have percentages, there is an outside chance, but don't fret about it.