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Secondary education

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Original poster

January Entrance Exams

164 replies

MalbecMummy · 31/12/2017 07:48

I can’t even begin to think of NYE as it just means it’s January tomorrow which mean entrance exam hell! Anyone else stressed?! Good luck everyone!

OP posts:
Rianna · 02/01/2018 13:57

First exam in two days . Not doing anything special . He did say he had some things in Maths he didn’t get but you know what ...so be it !
What will be will be . I will be glad when it’s all over though . Sitting three exams .

newyearnearlynewme · 02/01/2018 14:19

We've started! I feel much better now it has- may not be saying that when have to pick DC up in an hour or so and hear how it went!

Rianna · 02/01/2018 14:27

Newyear is your child sitting an exam right now ? Good luck ! Don’t worry if they say it was hard , sometimes that’s when they’ve done best . I will be glad end of January to know where we stand .
Even if I don’t care too much about which school - I still find it very stressful .

newyearnearlynewme · 02/01/2018 14:35

Yup- and interview- fun!

Rianna · 02/01/2018 15:02

Well let us know . Do you have a strong preference for one school or another ?

newyearnearlynewme · 02/01/2018 15:09

Not really- although today's probably least favourite but close. Good state option as well so trying not to think about it until we have any offers!

Rianna · 02/01/2018 15:14

Has the kid finished or still in there ??

Lotsofsighing · 03/01/2018 15:48

Out of interest a question for veterans: do you think it’s easier or harder to be doing these exams from a school where everyone’s doing them or no one?

We’re the latter (state primary, almost all going to variety of local comprehensives). It’s hard as my children complain and don’t see why they have to do exams when none of their friends are.

On the other hand, I imagine the atmosphere might get a bit fetid if everyone’s doing them. One friend said it was awful at her girl’s London prep as they’d all be comparing interview call ups etc. Quite a few did the London grammars with my son and I can’t say I found it a 100% supportive (the mother of a boy who’d got in wanted my son, who hadn’t, to come round to help them celebrate).

nocampinghere · 03/01/2018 16:31

pluses and minuses.
not sure one is better...

HermanMerman · 03/01/2018 19:03

I’ve done it from both - definitely better doing it from the state school where hardly anyone else was doing them. The bitchiness from other parents and the dreadful gossip/competitiveness when we did it from a prep was awful and really added to the stress

trinity0097 · 03/01/2018 19:34

Not so much the exams, but I would imagine that most children coming from prep schools have been better prepared for the interview aspect of the assessments than children at a state school, if you just take what the school would do, not what would go on at home or with tutors.

trinity0097 · 03/01/2018 19:36

You are forgetting about method marks in maths, which some 11+ tests will award if the answer is wrong, so if the method isn’t clear then no method marks awarded, so marks can be gained if the answer is wrong.

Many don’t at 11+, but some schools do for some of the questions want to see methods. If the examiner can’t figure it out in a second or so they will mark it wrong.

EmpressoftheMundane · 03/01/2018 19:41

Hmmm, some schools doing 11+ specify pencils. I suppose the point is to be neat and legible.

newyearnearlynewme · 03/01/2018 19:50

We are at state but a lot of kids are doing independent 11+ exams as well as grammars. I think it's easier as we get no advice from school about which to apply to so we all seem to work it out ourselves with a slightly scattergun approach. Friends at Prep schools get more advice but then they compare where other people have been told to apply to and so it all gets a bit competitive and stressy. We all seem to be taking it slightly with a pinch of salt at the moment but I guess that may change when results come out...

Clavinova · 03/01/2018 20:31

my ds still uses the pencils two of the leading west London independents handed out to children doing their entrance exams so obviously those schools don't have quite the same prejudices

Pencils are used for multiple choice answers and diagrams of course (difficult to change your mind and rub out pen on a multiple choice answer sheet) - otherwise I would expect a 10/11 year old to use a pen.

Lotsofsighing · 04/01/2018 10:05

Hermanmerman - that's reassuring to know that it was harder from a prep. I found the first time round so angsty that I possibly imaged that applying from a prep school was an idyll of laughter and happiness.

Two advantages I have thought of about applying from state. Firstly, I don't think you get scared into applying to lots of different schools - I wonder whether sometimes kids apply to many so as to bump up the offer numbers that their school can put on their websites.

Secondly, for us going to a state secondary held no fear. Both times we've only applied to three schools that we think offer something demonstrably better than the state schools we've applied to. We haven't applied to 'bankers' just for the sake of having some private school offers since we'd rather go state (and I'm not entirely convinced that's what we shouldn't be doing anyway).

But then when I was talking to a boy the other day who said they'd do an English paper and a maths paper every week as preparation at school, I did think that sounded a lot less onerous than what we're going through. My god the battles...

Thisdoesnotgeteasier · 04/01/2018 11:06

Good luck to everyone - we went through all this last year. It’s easy to say now but (in the vast majority of cases) the schools are pretty good at finding the right fit. The best you can do at this point is make sure they get good sleep, eat well, ideally avoid bad sickness and not get too stressed.

We applied (from state primary with the luxury of a great state secondary option) to three private schools last year for DD of which she eventually got two offers. While not having any support at all or help with prep from our primary school I thought it was less stressful as only a minority of DD’s classmates were going through exams and the playground and school run chatter about it was minimal.

The most painful part for us was the waitlist as she had to wait until literally the last day before getting an offer from her first choice.

We were quite nervous that as she just scraped in that she would be bottom of the pack there but that has proved not to be the case. She is thriving and even managed to get the second highest mark in one of her end of term exams. It doesn’t feel like having gone the state school route for primary was any disadvantage to her.

Good luck.

DragonsLiveForever · 04/01/2018 14:33

Trinity - " a bit backward..."

How prejudiced...(and insulting).

DragonsLiveForever · 04/01/2018 14:35

"It’s just babyish" - no it isn't. I am a senior person in a company and often write in pencil!

newyearnearlynewme · 04/01/2018 14:56

DC did an exam this morning- they were told to do the maths in pencil...

BurnTheBlackSuit · 04/01/2018 17:42

What kind of pen is it normal to use?

ChocolateWombat · 04/01/2018 18:36

This pencil thing is a red herring.
Honestly, their papers will be marked whatever they write in.

It is usual to write English in pen and it's not uncommon and often encouraged to do maths in pencil.

Stop fretting about this non-issue.

Writing legibly and particularly in maths, making sure the answers are clear amongst any workings is more important. Often in maths it helps to underline or circle the final answer, especially if the answer isn't at the bottom of the box or any workings, but usually a line is provided to write the actual answer.

Top tips;

  • read the question and check it is fully answered (in maths sometimes there are several steps and children carry out part and forget where they need to finish up)
  • don't forget the units in maths, or labels on axis
  • don't spend too long on a hard maths question or one worth few marks if the paper is likely to be hard to finish.
  • remember that lots of computerised VR/NVR don't allow you to return to previous questions so all need a good go, even if it's a guess, at the point of working on them.
  • In Comprehension, check if 2, 3 or how many examples are asked for and make sure enough are given.
  • In Comprehension, underline the exact part of the text where an answer is given and if asked for more than one, underline all of the possibilities before writing answer - the first might not the be the best.
  • Check over at the end if time, reading questions as well as answers carefully - it's surprising how many children will just sit there and not do any checking.

Good luck to everyone.

Original poster
MalbecMummy · 04/01/2018 20:23

I have just checked that DS knows how to spell the name of the school! Tick! Smile

OP posts:
orangina · 05/01/2018 09:03

We are in the middle of 11+ chaos with DS.... 6 sets of exams! I am feeling less stressed than 2 years ago when I did it all with DD for some reason.... How are everyone's sons coping with stress? DS is v laid back to the point of horizontal, which is great from one pot, but on the other hand there is no sense of urgency in getting him to try and finish a paper....

(sigh)

And he is a left handed pencil user, otherwise any kind of pen results in huge left to right smudges.....

nocampinghere · 05/01/2018 09:27

orangina Dd is also a left to right smugdemeister
have you tried frixion pens? They're the only pens that don't smudge for her.

hope everyone is holding up, i found that when the exams actually started the stress levels eased up considerably.

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