St Georges vs Lancing vs Hurstpierpoint

[Labro]

Wondered if someone would be kind enough to give any opinions on any of these for 13+ entry. DS is currently in Yr6 of a prep school, started there at the beginning of Year 5. Hes a bright lad (expected to get high level 5 or into level 6 at key stage 2 Sats) but I'm not familiar with how the whole process for common entrance works. Hes currently on a 75% bursary, what sort of questions do I ask??? Hes sitting St Georges pre test in January which feels really early - what preparation should I get for him??? He's not very familiar with non verbal or verbal reasoning type tests. All feels a bit overwhelming. Oh and hes not a sporty type either!

Do school not offer pretest practice ? Bonds paper or similar online may familiarise him with the style of questions or the schools may have some example tests on therir website. Lots of schools pretest in yr 6 and award a place subject to meeting CE results. Criteria for Hurst at CE are lower than many (50% iirc). CE papers are marked by the school you are applying to but it is tricky to have a back up at that late stage and you may not have a definite place until June 2015.

If you need a bursary you need to ask the bursar at what point in the process you would know the outcome in case you need to reconsider the choice of school and also how often it is reassessed.