Entrance exams Good Luck

[DivaMum23]

Just want to say Good Luck to everyones DD/DS taking entrance exam in 2012
My DS will be sitting his entrance exam first week in January.

I wondered if they were a group who for whatever reason had other commitments today (not sure if any other entrance exams are taking place elsewhere locally perhaps at a boys' school since ds didn't mention seeing any girls). At risk of outing her, dd is doing Science as her activity and can't imagine many girls will.

Possibly, though again I can't think of any nearby on the boys side either. But C did manage to have its open day on the same morning as the OOC Kent test and Wallington Grammar tests, so doubt they would have checked!

Good luck to dd. Ds is in Circus Club (because anything vaguely lesson-like would be a real turn-off!).

When I first read this thread I was aghast and felt like I'd let Lisa down as she is also doing entrance exams but has neither been tutored or done any practice exams. She attends a state junior school and is working at level 4a/5. She has done entrance exams for 2 over subscribed private schools in Surrey and Hampshire, and enjoyed doing them. She has been offered places. If we were trying to get Bart into one of these schools it may have been a different story but I hope that anyone reading this will feel reassured that you don't necessarily have to tutor your children.

Think one of dd's friends did Circus club. Could n't believe how many kids there were yesterday, many more than we encountered at 13+. How many of them are in the current Year 6 in the Prep school?

There are 40 children in Year 6. Including these 40 I think there were 300 sitting yesterday, so a lot, but not on Whitgift's scale. There'll either be 4 or 5 classes of 22/23 in Year 7, depending on "quality" - if they take 5 classes then there'll be fewer Year 9 places in 2014. I think that there were 2 sessions of each club, so you either had first lunch followed by club or vice versa. Ds was in the old gym, thought he did well on reasoning, not sure about essay, and felt he had had a good stab at maths.

We can obviously relax for ds1 but have to get ds2 prepared for 2 years time. Current Year 4 is very oversubscribed, so v little chance of getting him into the prep school. Thankfully ds2 is a more compliant child, but then he will also have to shake off any reputation that ds1 will have gained!

Will be interesting to see what happens with the 2014 13+ intake. dd's prep is likely to have a record number of her peers staying for Yrs 7 & 8 and I'm wondering where they are going to go on to as it means competition for places could be fiercer. In the meantime fingers crossed for all of us!

I think this year is quite a bulge year all round (as is year 4 by the looks of it). You certainly wouldn't know there was a recession judging by private school applications!

I presume that it is always hard to get the numbers right for 11+, in that most children will be sitting for more than 1 school anyway, and it will be hard to assess whether you're the first choice school. I guess it is traditional for those sitting 13+ to have already registered for their senior schools, and probably even to have taken some sort of pretest, though I guess Caterham, Whitgift and Trinity are different in that respect.

Interesting that there are so many making a positive decision to wait until 13+. I guess that in itself that could represent a financial decision by some, prep school usually being cheaper and possibly even more thorough at teaching in year 7 & 8.

dd had her last interview yesterday - just the 4 week wait now !

Well interviewing is always a good sign (assume it wasn't at C!). Did your dd do any of the scholarship assessments? Numbers seemed low.

No she didn't, although 2 of the 4 kids applying from her school did. One music/sport, another art.

Freaking out waiting to hear about independent school interviews this week. Will be son be asked for an interview for one of the schools he tried for? My heart is beating just reading this thread. Ugh!!! Keep thinking worst, (state school son) wasn't tutored for long enough, could have done more, to wildly optimistic - he's a bright kid, well read, interested, etc..top of form..But privately educated children at primary level seem to have such an advantage as they are prepared solely for these exams. My son brings home Sats papers from school and they seem elementary and frankly boring in comparison.

Already turned down for one school, two to go. EEKKK

Anyone know if RGS Guildford have sent out 1st batch of letters yet please?

Our son sat entrance exams for two independent boarding schools on Jan 11 and 20 respectively. We live overseas so the papers had to be fedexd back to the schools, which would take a few days. I'm wondering how long it takes to mark them and send letters out. Hopefully they email an acceptance/rejection letter too as the post can take up to a couple of weeks. I am reluctant to ask them when they will be notifying us - don't wish to appear pushy. Also I don't know if they have an official notification date for everyone or if they just process and notify individually. Our daughter went through this 9 years ago but I can't remember time frames. It is good to hear others with similar concerns about preparation. My ds is at a local independent day school which very much teaches to the UK national curriculum so all his tests are KS3 based. I also have no way of knowing how it compares academically with uk schools, although it is considered one of the best here. We do not have tutors for entrance exams here so he has been stuck with 'Dragon Mum'! However, he has complained little about the hours spent going over past papers and is looking forward to boarding school. I hope and pray he is successful in getting into one.
Agonising with you all!

Awaiting the results from Caterham; tomorrow is D day.

I think - if your postie arrives - that this is results day for many schools in/around London.

Waiting here today .... dd still asleep but we don't get post before 10.30.

In the good old days of 2 deliveries we always had our first delivery by 7:30. Now we have to wait until midday! Hope that everyone gets the news that they're hoping for (and the decency to respond to any unwanted offers quickly to save some other family grief and stress ).

So, are postmen being slow all over the south east?

hello everyone, I'm applying to westminster school for the 2013-2014 school year. i live overseas, and will only be able to do one year of GCSEs. I'm going to the open day in September, and would like to take Maths, Biology, Chemistry and Physics. I'd appreciate it if anyone who's come across the entrance exam papers in these subjects could share their experience with me, and tell me about the subject and general interviews.

many thanks