Anyone know about scholarship interviews based on reading an article?

[emilycl]

DS has been called for a scholarship interview for year 7 entry. All we have been told is that he will be given an article to read and 20 minutes to prepare. Then they will ask questions.

This sounds like a reading comprehension exercise but as it's an academic scholarship interview there must surely be more to it. Does anyone know what DS should expect?

They’ll want to see if he can comment intelligently. Is he sharp, does he make connections, how is his general knowledge?

Is this likely to be a newspaper article or could it be a book review for example?

HugoSpritz That's very interesting. Is there any way to prepare for it?

Get him something containing age-appropriate articles to read (such as The Week Junior - his school library may have a subscription) and engage him in conversation at home about what he has read and wider context/implications etc. See if he can argue both for and then against the same proposition. Watch or listen to the news with him (world, national, local) and discuss the items which have come up. Talk about things you see when you’re out and about and invite his views.

LarkDescending Thank you so much. This is really helpful. DS goes to an ordinary local state primary and has never done anything like this before.

How did he get called up for the interview? Am hoping my son could get an academic scholarship but have no idea where to start?

@0P, my ds did this at St Johns leatherhead a while ago, it's as straightforward as it sounds. If it is this school the scholarship is worth 10% of the fees and lots of dc are invited over the week. We didn't accept due to other offers.

@Taurana He sat the entrance exam and then they invited some of those to a scholarship interview. I have no idea how many they invited and so it's all a bit nerve-wracking.

*Frostyskies1223 Do you remember what questions he was asked?

OP, he actually had a choice of object, article & picture. He chose picture but his interest was about the environment & the teacher said he should have chosen the article as it was about sea pollution or something similar. Practice using an article from The Week & ask him standard comprehension questions.
The good news is he has got a place & well done to him. The bad news is they invite A LOT of children to scholarship iv's & the scholarships - 10% academic & 5% sports - need to be considered with the fees jump from years 8 - 9. With my ds it gave him a real confidence boost that fed into iv's at other schools. Best of luck & enjoy the process knowing you are on your way to offers.

In case it's helpful to anyone, the interview came in three parts. For the first part he was asked to read a news article and was questioned about it in detail.For the second he had to solve some maths problems out loud in front of the interviewers. For the third he had to play a game of Taboo with the interviewers!