Indy school pretests and interviews

[nokissymum]

what are they like and what form do they take ? Is the pre test one child at a time or done in a group ? For the interview, do they call candidates in one by one and parents wait outside or are parents invited in too ? What was the atmosphere like, was your dc bitting their nails ? What would you have done differently to prepare your child given your experience. Please share your story as we will be venturing down this path soon. Thanks.

Last term someone from Eton came to my DS's old prep school to discuss admission to Eton parents were quite categorically told that 1. you had to achieve a certain mark in the computer generated test and 2, they did not take the top 10 or 10% (I cant remember which) of boys who took the computer test.
Colleger is right about Winchester the boys are invited to have a "conversation" with your chosen housemaster it lasts at least an hour and half and is a much more relaxed my son did no French rather wrote a piece about what makes a good bowler and possibly a VR test or maybe a NVR test but not both the format varies with each house but the atmosphere is definitely more informal and relaxed.

Happygardening, this is simply not true about Eton so the source is wrong. Having been to two individual group meetings at Eton for both children they both said, two years apart, the same thing. This was straight from the registrar's mouth. And I know for a fact they take boys above the top 10% and even top 10. I'm not going to go into details on the public fora but take it from someone who categorically knows!

Realistically, do you think Eton would turn down a boy who came in the top 10, played two instruments and was in the 1XI Rugby team? And there are boys at Eton just like that.

I'm probably am wrong and in fact wouldn't have said this if the comment had not been made by the registrar and has been recounted to me twice following two separate visits to DS old prep one person was actually a teacher who attended the meeting. And I agree with you why would they not take those in the top 10 or 10% the only thing that makes me wonder if it is true is that at least three boys we know were not offered places (they were doing all the other things music rugby cricket drama etc) but later got scholarships and as you know you have to be really clever to get one of those.
Anyway lets not row about it. I think we both agree that the interview process at Winchester might be better for a child who is initially shy.

I have to back up happygardening here. I cannot remember the exact numbers involved, but I heard Charles Milne say twice (once on assessment day and once when he visited DSs school) that several boys with the highest scores on the computer test are not offered conditional places following the assessment. He implied that this was because they had that very introverted personality you sometimes see in incredibly clever children.

Now to back up colleger! He went on to say that if the boys still wanted to go to Eton then they could take the scholarship as they would feel more comfortable in College than in one of the Houses. So many of these boys end up at Eton eventually.

My son is going through this (he's Year 7). Didn't get into Eton on the pre-test and found the computerised test quite scary as it's unlike anything they've ever done before (things keep disappearing and it's disconcerting). Harrow has a more relaxed approach and if you're lucky (have a good reference) your son will be invited to meet 3 housemasters before the test which will mean he is more at ease on the day. The test is VR and NVB (computer based) and there is a short writing test as well. The interview is similar and they are looking for boys who can flesh out their answers a bit. Questions include How would your friends describe you?, What are you good at/not good at? Which famous person would you like to meet? I think it's a big ask for some 11 year olds, but obviously others are happy to chat to a virtual stranger. Good luck!

Thank you for your replies, they're all really helpful, there's a lot to think about. Yesbutnobut good luck with your son's applications