Has anyone successfully applied to HBS, Channing, SHHS or Latymer from a state school?

[entranceanxiety]

I'd like to prepare dd1 for entrance exams at HBS, Channing, SHHS and Latymer I think. She's at a good state school and I am thinking of organising a year's tutoring for her. I would be very grateful for any advice, especially on how to find a good tutor. Thank you!

My DD2 took entrance exams for HBS, Channing, SHHS, Highgate and NLCS (NLCS and Channing have same exam). She was at a good local state school, and had one term's maths tutoring. The HBS exam was very different from the others in that the first round was verbal and non-verbal reasoning, my DD practiced this quite a lot but was never brilliant at it and didn't get through the first round (although they told us she was in the top 50%). The other exams consist of maths and english, followed by an interview, she did better in these with offers from NLCS, Channing and SHHS. She decided on NLCS, and although her maths is not brilliant she has done fine there. (Waiting list place offered at Highgate - think they were looking for more of an all rounder at the time).

My point is that the grammar school exams are very different, you can practice reasoning but you can't really teach it.

As for finding a tutor, schoolgate personal recommendation is how we found ours - but parents can be very secretive! Good luck.

My dd went to a state school and is now at latymer. I can recommend the www.elevenplusexams.co.uk website where there is a wealth of information.

I think that it is difficult to find a tutor. Most tutors seem to offer group tutoring which is rubbish. Even if you find one that doesnt do this, its 15 minutes nvr, 15 minutes vr and 15mins each for english and maths. You cant do that much in that time.

Only the parent will invest the amount of time you need to understand the childs weakness and really find example work to address those weaknesses. A tutor will follow a fixed plan of work of bond papers and exam papers and not deviate from that.

From my dds school there were 5 kids that got into Latymer so it is definitely possible.

Good luck

Thanks both of you. tropicalfish did you tutor your dd yourself? And how is she finding Latymer?

You make tutors sound completely crap and pointless... do you think they're really all like that? I had assumed that we'd want a tutor mainly to focus on dd's maths, as she is very strong in literacy and I have the impression that children from prep schools are working at a higher level in maths than at our school.

ratherbeinnorfolk, that's interesting about the grammar exams being different. Would you recommend your tutor?

My dd was offered a place at HBS, we did not apply to others from your list. She was at an average London state primary school, we did not use a tutor, but I worked with her on Maths and we went through a lot of past papers. I agree with tropicalfish that only parent can actually go through the bother of understanding DC's particular weaknesses and even if you use a tutor be prepared to put a lot of work yourself.

Aika, that's good to know that it isn't necessary to pay for a tutor to have a chance at HBS. But how did you get hold of their past papers?

Is your dd at HBS now?

I also had a tutor! But I did alot extra as well which is why I think you cannot solely rely on a tutor.
My dd loves Latymer and is happy there. I dont think it is as disciplined as some other schools.

My dd came from state primary to latymer.
My ds1 from state primary to QE boys.

No actual tutoring , just past papers

Oh good, YourFanjo, another success story with no tutoring! That's good news... is your dd happy at Latymer?

tropicalfish how far in advance did you begin preparing your dd for the exam? And would you recommend your tutor? (doesn't sound like it?)

She is very happy, in year 9 now, options picked, never had any trouble with school at all.

entranceanxiety
Sorry for not making myself clear. We did not have past papers for HBS, but we practiced with Bond and also past papers from other schools: public, grammer, boys, girls, anything I could find online.
In my experience the main problem was that after state school DD was used to solving "one step problems", or if it was a problem requiring several steps, the teacher would walk them through each, so I had to work with her to build her confidence in solving problems in several stages. I also had to take through all of primary school maths, as some topics were not explained to her very well.

We did not go to HBS at the end, we chose a private school.

Thank you. I have noticed the same lack of confidence in solving more complex problems - I'm quite glad to hear it's not just my dd!