City of London Boys 11+ interview

[1mum2boys]

Any mothers out there who received a disappointing letter today? It was a bit of a shock that my DS was not invited back for the interview because he has passed this stage with two other top academic schools. What surprised me was his ranking on Maths, which is his best subject and he has always scored over 90%. He was only ranked 329. However, his overall ranking was 213, which was not bad giving the fact that there were 700 candidates.

They probably over offer quite a lot and there are 60 or somplaces, maybe 120?

Yes that makes sense re 120.

Somewhere, you might find it if you google, is a governors' meeting minutes for City and they outline the take-up rate. It's very high at 10+, but not at all at 11+. I think they might over offer by something like 2.5:1. If you think about it, City is accessible from loads of places but might not be the first choice for those. Eg, you live in Shepherd's Bush, it's easy on the Central Line, but you'd prefer Latymer. Or you live in Muswell Hill and would prefer Highgate. Or whatever. It's not inconvenient for lots of people, but it's convenient for very few.

Very interesting points Coffeeismycupoftea

Good luck for tomorrow everyone!

Hi... just got our 2021 results and my DS didn't get through :( how do I get his score?

Just got our 2021 City of London results and my DS didn't a call for the interview :( is there anyway I can get his score?

Call admissions - although they might be pretty busy. What entry point did you try for?

13+

Ouch. What’s plan b? Is there a waiting list?

Applied to a few other schools. Will wait and see.. hoping we get atleast one school 🤞

Do you have a teacher at school who oversees transition? They might have an insight.

We've just had the same disappointment but for 13+. We didn't get rankings but my son scored 141 in all CAT categories so we thought he'd at least get through the ISEB stage. Now feeling incredibly pessimistic about everywhere else 🙁

I got the impression that the exam for CLS was hard and there’s a lot of competition. DS did is a few years back and I remember collecting him after the exam and some do the boys faces coming out - they looked shell shocked. He said that the interview was quite quirky too.

@LondonMummer

We've just had the same disappointment but for 13+. We didn't get rankings but my son scored 141 in all CAT categories so we thought he'd at least get through the ISEB stage. Now feeling incredibly pessimistic about everywhere else 🙁

I had to respond to this to give you hope. My son did get an interview but he was waitlisted for City (we had requested a bursary, so perhaps that was why?).

However, we had also applied to 3 other top academic independent schools. He got scholarships to two of them (including one that is right at the top of the league table, i.e. much higher up than City). And he passed everything else, (including the SS grammar).

Had I received the City result first I would have been very downhearted. I loved City, but City throws out some strange results, I think. Don't worry. With 141 CAT score I bet he'll also get some scholarships! I hope you'll come back to update us.

BTW which other schools did you apply for?

PS re quirky interviews. I overheard ALL interviews (covid last year) and city's was actually the most straightforward. Other schools were really quirky! City was much more boring - favourite subject type questions...rather than getting him to think or develop ideas. Strange really. Maybe it was down to the interviewer we had. I actually thought it was his best interview, too (he answered all questions confidently and without rambling, like he did in the others. Second tip: can't second guess the schools! Or at least I couldn't.

@lookhappy thank you so much for sharing your story. Gosh that's exactly what I needed to hear right now. City was our top choice so it's a real blow - as I say, to not even make it through to the exam is a particular disappointment.

He's also applied for Westminster and then a range of North London schools (some of which also seem to throw some real curve balls each year).

I've been concerned for a while that his very, very high CAT scores haven't seemed to translate into particularly outstanding test results but hopefully one of the other schools will see his potential.

Gosh it's a brutal business.

Well done to your son. Where did he choose to go in the end?

I think DS was asked to prove a maths puzzle couldn’t be done (he showed how technically this may be true, however...) and something like ‘how many planes are on the sky right now?