Sutton, Wallington,Wilsons Test 1 Results

[sleeplessofsurrey]

I suppose we will have an idea of how our ds did, but if you're like me I have no idea whether he will be 'eligible' given the numbers across the centres. Would also be interested to know if the maths really was easier than he though it would be, whether this will mean that the younger children will have an advantage with the scores standardised or does this make no difference. My ds is a spring bday. Does anyone know how many boys actually took it as apparently there were lots of girls at Greenshaw but also some boys there too? Roll on tomorrow. Hope they release the results at the same time.

Alas with multiple choice I know that I have no idea as to how ds did. In fairness I would not be expecting him to get through, but he wanted to sit as the majority of the boys in his class were sitting, so we went with the herd. He doesn't actually realise that there might be further tests to sit!

In terms of standardisation, you are of course correct:- if the paper was easy then there will be less effect of standardisation. Given that this seems to have been written by the schools themselves, I suspect that they can only standardise it across the population who sat it (which is what the sutton grammar mocks do, though they don't take age into account). So they will look at the September borns as a group, and the August borns as a group and see whether there was a notable difference in scores between the groups statistically. If not then they may not need to standardise much at all. It is usual for standardisation to have more of an effect for English and VR.

The numbers that I've heard quoted are 2,800, but yes, that would include girls opting for Greenshaw as well as girls taking it ahead of Nonsuch as a "mock" for English.

Unfortunately they probably can't manage to send that number of emails at exactly the same time. I'm hoping to feign ignorance at school pick-up time.

Time to check mail apparently though as you said wait to get away from school gate.

That's early! "The Selective Eligibility Test was taken by 2285 boys and 799 have been invited back to the second stage tests."

Wow that's quite some increase on numbers for the tests back in 2011 when DS did them..... Of course there will be some boys (and we know a couple) who are just after Greenshaw although if they then discover they are of 'selective ability' might they not actually be tempted to do the second round tests too - we have a friend who is having just such a dilemma!

It would seem that the number deemed of 'selective ability' is roughly in line with the % from previous years....

Is this the preamble to the results then???

Good luck - you may find you get them today. I seem to recall that one of the schools sent the results out before we were expecting them.

Results are out!

Wow - whoever predicted that the papers would have been 'done and dusted' marking-wise by Monday was obviously spot on!

Good luck....

Looks as if first round results are coming out now. Ds's friends are all in a football match so can't compare notes yet, but I am intrigued to see how many surprise results there are.

The original blurb said that they were expecting 2,500 to sit, so given these numbers I don't quite understand why the arrangements were so last minute.

In what sense do you mean last minute? Do you mean in sending out the relevant exam-related information? If so, isn't it because the closing date for applications was only a few days before the actual exam - I know it was the 17th for SGS! They always do 'fly by the seat of their pants' (from our experience with DS anyway) but then they're also doing lots of other stuff related to the boys already at the schools...I don't get the impression they are sitting around twiddling their thumbs...

Sorry didn't mean to sound 'snappy' and officious....

Got the email an hour ago, whilst still at work...

Called my son and told him that I hoped he was working hard because he some second stage exams to sit...

He nearly burst my eardrums with his shout of joy!

Good luck to anyone else waiting!

Gazzlw, they had encouraged us to register early, promising that those who registered before 2 September would get their test location and times by 12 September. On the 12th we instead got an email saying that due to overwhelming demand they couldn't let us know until the 18th. As they had always said they were expecting 2,500 to sit, there was an assumption that this number had been exceeded causing a rethink of how the testing would be run. No worries about it all being last minute, just surprised that they had apparently fewer applicants than expected and yet still had to let the original timetable slip.

As well a predicting swift marking I would also like to point out that I also predicted closer to 800 would go through (rather than 600-700). I hereby predict that the writing exercise will be on the theme of Harry Potter.

Well done to your son Shaq and well done for so well predicting the speedy marking and pass rate, Ladymuck....

From our experience, some of the schools would appear to be more efficient than others at sorting out the related admin, so you might find that one school was holding up the finalising of the details for round 1 of the selectivity tests....

Thanks gazalw!

Got the email to Greenshaw too, hadn't really considered that, but I'm thinking that I ought to. It would be a 45min journey for him, is it going to be that much better than the local secondary?

Would love to hear back from anybody with experience of Greenshaw, I searched some threads, but they are very old.

thanks

Can you drop any hints as to the possibly-less-speedy school Gazzlw? Is it the one who seemed to really struggle with the test day in 2011?

Ha you heard about that or did you experience it first hand..... :-). DS was lucky that he was in a small classroom when he sat it rather than experiencing the fiasco of one of the hall sittings....

I can't actually remember now...and it wouldn't be fair if I misremembered and blotted one school's copy-book...

Two of DS's primary school friends got into Greenshaw on selectivity. One family is happy with it, the other less so. But the family who don't rate it that highly were really after a grammar school place but the DS didn't pass for any of them....We had it on DS's CAF and we would have been happy for him to go there had he not got into a grammar school. We will certainly consider it for our DD (who is a few years off secondary school choices yet).

I had pretty close experience of it;). No, don't cast aspersions on any of them; it was just if one school was definitely weaker in terms of administration/communication then that would be useful information.

Football match over. No negative surprises in our class; one who would be borderline for English seemed to do fine with multiple choice.

Gazzlw, I'm assuming that for a true Harry Potter story they will be writing with parchment and quill. [Do any 10 year olds use blotting paper these days?]

Well done to your son Shaz.

Being nosey as a friend's DD sat for Wally girls. Is that also a two-round process now, and are the first round results out already?

Nope. The girls schools remain one stage and independent from one another. I pity anyone with bright boy/girl twins, as I suspect that they have lost most Saturdays in September.

I think that what that school lacked in organisational skills on that fateful day in September 2011, it more than made up for in its quickness off the mark with info packs for those boys offered places in March 2012....

They all seem to have strengths and weaknesses in different areas.....

Let's hope there's no Dolores Umbridge invigilating then, Ladymuck !

Well done shaq. I have the same query. Maybe you could start a thread !Also how do they balance all the girls as apparently there were a large number there last Saturday.

Hi people, not sure that this is really answerable, but would anyone have an opinion as to whether passing the selective eligibility test for SGS, WCGS etc. might suggest whether or not DS would be of a comfortable standard for the Emanuel entrance examination, come the time? Just in case that sounds confusing, I don't hold out too much hope that he'll pass the individual SGS/WCGS/Wilson's exams (though obviously we'll have a shot now that he's passed the S.E.T.), but we are planning to put him forward for several indies and I honestly feel I have no idea whatsoever how well he'll do! Anyone got any thoughts on this?
I'm so proud of him for passing the S.E.T. for the grammars. Took it in his stride. But God, he can be a proper numpty sometimes, so I honestly feel anything could happen in January.

I'm sure that hundreds are about to come forward to say otherwise but, in my experience of dozens rather than hundreds of boys, those boys who have obtained a place at a Sutton grammar have typically gone on to get 11+ academic scholarships at one or more of the mid tier London day schools (so Whitgift, Emanuel, Dulwich, Trinity rather than Westminster Under School or KCS). Whilst I don't think that this selection test was the trickiest devised, and much more will depend on his writing ability, I think you could take some degree of comfort in getting this far. I suspect that the second round of tests will be closer to those he will face at the indies, and will be worthwhile mocks at the very least.