Dear All,
We moved from Dubai to London in September (and were in São Paulo for almost a decade before that) and this whole 11+ / 13+ process is driving me insane. Starting to have nightmares about finding DS wandering the streets of SW London come September 2020 (or 2022 in the case of 13+ applications).
Due to the cut throat situation re secondary schools in London, we applied to no less than 6 schools. DS sat the ISEB pre test in November and was called for second rounds of assessments and interviews this month.
I think that DS coped well with the written tests and probably achieved a solid score overall, better towards maths/reasoning than English. This is certainly only a guess.
With respect to the interviews, DS was clearly a little nervous (he told me a few times that he would rather sit 10 tests than 1 single interview).
So I would love your advice/opinion...:
How “decisive” do you think interviews are, in most cases?
Do they “make or break” an application?
The interviews tend to last 20 minutes, be quite general in nature and the outcome is naturally based on the opinion of a single interviewer.
Would a child with a strong score in the written assessment be likely to receive an offer of a place if the interview was kind of so-so - nothing too bad, just nothing too good either...?
I mean? Do 10-11 year olds actually interview well?
Greatly appreciate your views!
Thank you!
A Mother On The Brink