Winchester college's year 9 entrance exam.

[Iloveyouall]

How can we prepare for this? I hear it is the hardest exam ever.
Ds is overseas and hence can't use a tutor. Current school is not a feeder so they have no clue. Are bond resources helpful? If not, what is?

They sold Twyford down to have the Tory Canyon built.
That paid for a few bursaries.

I am using the statistical 'significant' Happy .

Did they? So what if they did? Bursaries for those who can't afford their fees are very important as part of the schools vision of widening access.
Anyway I'm not sure they did sell it by the way we recently received some info about St Margaret's Hill and how long they've owned it etc I don't think it said they've ever owned Twyford Down.
I going to see if I can find out.
To quote Arnie "I'll be back".

St Catherine's Hill not St Margaret's!

Happy - trust me : I audited the damages claims related to the protests and the building work back in the 90's.
Part of the land where the road now lies was WC land.
The mizmaze predates the college as well

The Mizmaze pre dates the college? Who said it didn't ?
I don't really see what your point is Talkin to be honest.
The college is committed widening access, no one can think this is a bad thing, the entrance exam is hard if you're aiming for a string of A's, bursaries are not grade dependent. These facts are relevant to this thread, the fact that they sold land for a road or that the Mizmaze is older than them is irrelevant to the thread. I just don't see what your trying to say.

happy
I wish OP well.
If she can afford the school for her DS (as you and summer have) good luck to her.

I have always been very open that I find the way that certain schools open doors - to people who would otherwise be utterly unqualified - a great weakness in the UK system.
I believe in a meritocracy.
WC is not part of a meritocracy.

And sadly the boys (and it is mainly boys) who are segregated so early on from the society they are then set up to lead have made spectacularly poor decisions over the past 100 years because they do not know of what they speak but have been taught to feel superior even when they (as individuals) are not.

We all want the best for and from our children.
I do not believe that segregation is an appropriate way to go about it.

"widening access" at a boys only boarding school with historic buildings and academic oddities is rather a chocolate teapot.

I can't speak for other parents but I personally do not wish doors to be opened to my DS because of his schooling and I very much doubt he does either. Neither am I setting him to lead society I also again very much doubt he has any interest in doing this. Finally I have never taught him to feel superior, he would be very upset if he thought that is what you or anyone else for that matter believe thats what he thinks also from what I know of the dons I've met I very much doubt they are teaching the boys they are superior.
We do all want the best for our children, but what is best for my individual DS and possibly others like him is simply not available in the state sector end of story. Luckily for him we are in a position to pay for what we believe is the best for him.
By the way Twyford Down was compulsorily purchased by the government from Win Coll against it's will, it protested as it didn't want to sell the land. If some of that money has gone into the schools bursary fund I think that's excellent.

Someone up thread linked to some Eton King's Scholarship papers. These are useful as a comparison if your son is going to sit the Winchester Election (scholarship exam) but not if he's just going for normal entrance.

The standard entrance exam is more challenging than Common Entrance, because the questions are more open-ended and require greater lateral thinking, but it is not a scholarship exam.

For example, the Winchester College Latin exam is somewhere between CE and GCSE level; the Winchester Election (Scholarship) is roughly AS level standard.

I know some really not terribly bright boys who have got places at Winchester with a clean sweep of C grades.

A friend is a very successful Latin teacher he saw how the Win Coll entrance exam was marked and past papers he felt it was in places very close to GCSE without the seen txt and a few parts were being marked at AS level. He has no axe to grind either way as he has no connections with the school it was just his professional opinion.
Ditto an acquaintance who is a French teacher who's never even heard of a Win Coll said in her view the vocabulary required for the French paper wasn't as extensive as that required for GCSE but the fact that you had to be able to use all tenses both orally and in written work made it quite hard, and there is no preparation of answers for the oral unlike CE so you had to be able to say for example in French "yesterday I lost my rail ticket, I wish to buy one now for my journey tomorrow" but without prior knowledge/preparation she felt this was a big ask for a 12/13 yr old and she felt that to do well it required the basics to be very well established. In the report the college sent me about the marking for all the subjects to get a top grade you could not "wing it" as it was marked unforgivingly.
In fairness many don't do well in either Latin or French especially those from abroad but we got the impression the school wasn't that bothered.

Talkin actually the worst examples of people feeling superior I have witnessed has been some Oxbridge undergraduates from comprehensives (not even the brightest). If you want shield your DC from the effects of segregation from 'normal' society and acquiring feelings of superiority dissuade them from applying to Oxbridge .

There are arseholes everywhere but it has to be said braying public school boys and arrogant public school girls are among the most irritating.
Gavel.
Hehe

Tuppeny that's why you have to choose your school well. Luckily most of the really academic boys' schools are not full of those and discourage it. As for the more academic boarding mixed and girls's schools, well I won't say anything (WA possibly exception).

I've met few if any "braying public school boys" at a Win Coll although it would be silly to deny that there aren't any. In fact the complete opposite, most are slightly reserved, self effacing, polite individuals. Some I've met of course have pretty awesome intellects and if your one of those sitting on the top of the pile at a Winchester you are clearly aware of this, but none I've met appear to feel or act in a superior way even if intellectually they are, in fact far from it. Maybe it's just the ones my DS chooses to mix with .

Is this what they call hijacking? Haha
No doubt about it if you've a decent family behind you, you'll be ok.

WA?

WA= Wycombe Abbey.

Happy you're like the school guru ;)

I don't think so, although we've lots of friends with DC's a a wide variety of boarding schools (some I wouldn't put the dog in let alone stump up my hard earned wages) and I'm a good listener and a trained observer /assessor of personality with an excellent memory for figures and micro detail but a crap one for names and faces! Oh and I work with children in all sectors.
God I sound like a bore. I'm not really.

Hahaha

OP - have PMed you

Bursaries I believe you'll find are dependent on performance at every year they are after all reassessed yearly. If a child clearly isn't performing as the school expects and doesn't look like he's going to make the grades required to go into the 6 th form then it makes sense to remove the bursary at the earliest possible moment before any more money is wasted Having said this I have not heard about any second year boys or any year boys for that matter loosing their bursaries because they don't/won't make the expected grade. But I'm not a regular attender at the school just pick ups drop offs etc so you could be right.

Xpatgb is there any reason why any leavers would necessarily be on bursaries? There may just be some boys who prefer a less academically focused school and the decision to move has been taken earlier rather than later.