Holland Park Banding Test

[Rossie74]

Hello,
Anybody has any information about the Banding Test for Holland Park School? type of test, subjects,..,.. any information is really appreciated.
My son will take the test on November and I would like to help him to prepare it. He comes from a private school and I heard that the test is totally different to the 11+ exam they practice at the school. Thank you so much!

We haven't done Holland Park, but DD is sitting a load of banding tests at the moment and they all seem pretty similar.

The one she did yesterday took about 2.5 hours - she said there were two English papers (one of which sounded like VR to me), two Maths papers, one NVR paper and another that DD couldn't remember the name of but was Spatial type tasks from what she described.

She's done a lot of the 11+ Bond books from WH Smiths and said they were helpful. She's very dyslexic but does very well on NVR - said she has no idea how she did but could finish all the papers and do all the questions in all sections - she massively struggles with Bond Book 11+ VR tests due to the dyslexia and NEVER finishes in the time, so that suggests that the questions were easier than you get in those.

There were practice questions at the beginning of each section apparently.

Banding tests don't really require you to get any particular score so I wouldn't worry too much about prepping.

The banding test assesses ability. Schools that use them, admit children from all different bands in proportion. No point prepping.

From what I have heard Holland Park does move children up and down the bands quite a bit, so there is little point in prepping for VR and NVR.

For our school that is very different though. They try to move children as little as possible, so most children are stuck in their bands, even if they are top of the class.

Most of the children in band A at good schools have been tutored in English and Maths, which gives them a longterm advantage and which makes it less likely that children in lower bands who have not been tutored will move up. I am telling you this, just in case you are considering other schools as well.