Upcoming girls’ independent SW London schools 11+ exams

[Oceane11plus]

Are there any parents on this board with DDs due to sit independent school exams in January? If so where do you stand in terms of shortlisting schools, revisions etc Are you planning to do any work over the summer?

We are still in the process of fine tuning the list of schools... We will probably end up applying to about 4/5 schools, of which 2 are in the same consortium which means 3/4 exams max.
As far as I am aware, our prep has not recommended any specific revisions for the summer, but I was still planning to make her write some maths, English and VR/NVR past papers, as 2 months without doing anything seems too much so close to the exams. I was thinking of making her do one paper a week in each subject, on top of reading and boosting her vocabulary, with two weeks in August without any paper/formal work.

Any tips on what we should be doing at this stage and over summer holidays, notably from parents with past experience, would be super useful!

Thank you

Hi @Flossietea!

@Yellownotblue we caned Atom. Started in May and did about a 40 mins a day in between Zoom lessons as I needed to keep DD anchored to the table instead of drifting towards tech, and luckily she really took to it. We carried on through summer but cut this back once school started and shifted the focus to mocks.
She effectively 'finished' Atom last weekend, just in time for the ISEB, the definition of finishing for us being 100% campaign areas covered with gold stars in all subtopics, then in the final week the same questions kept popping up several times in the mocks. Once this happened I realised there's nowhere left to go with it for us.

I do think it is brilliant. They must have swept the competition away and are probably creaming it in (wish I'd come up with the business model) but I was lucky in that DD enjoyed it. I wouldn't say she particularly increased her scores by using it and I don't think it is a necessity .
For me it was simply convenient. I am lazy at both setting work & marking it. I could just say to her 'do some Atom' or set some custom practise and she'd do it, it was marked, then she could review & learn from her errors. I found that a dream & loved the stats.

Wow MNHQ have been super busy deleting. I've been careful not to reveal detail of exam content, have just commented on time pressure etc as DD will be 'up against' others who have yet to sit the exams.
I'm not stupid!

Looking back on my deleted post I don't think we are allowed to say how similar parts of the ISEB are to Atom
Serious eye roll

@PatoPato

Looking back on my deleted post I don't think we are allowed to say how similar parts of the ISEB are to Atom Serious eye roll

Or disimilar more like.

I wonder if Mumsnet have been contacted by a certain online learning provider?

For all those stressing out that their DDs didn't finish the ISEB math section, don't despair - its a good sign. Three years ago the only child in my DS' scholarship class to not finish was a total math genius - the type of child that was doing GCSE math for fun at the age of 9 and I think he is now some sort math Olympiad champion. He was quite upset about it at the time but subsequently found out during the scholarship process for his senior school that he had scored 142 despite not finishing - he had got every single question correct and was on the most difficult "path" but ran out of time. They have to design the test so that you don't get loads of kids getting the top score otherwise what's the point....so don't panic!

Wow! I’ve never had a post deleted before and I that was for saying something wasnt in the WT! I wouldn’t have thought that helps anyone much, just reduces stress which in the current climate I would’ve thought kind.

Surbiton sending us recipes for red cabbage just now made me laugh out loud.

Love your wisdom @Iateallthesmarties894 - I needed to hear that stroy and am clinging onto it for dear life! Hope is everything right now so thank you for sharing.

@Stircrazyschoolmum & @WarmAndco3y - we are so on the naughty step. Am a bit

If I said pink elephants weren’t in the WT would that get deleted too?! (Long week!!)

Thanks @Iateallthesmarties894 for the reassurances. Would like to think that's the explanation for DD's reaction to one of the ISEBs but probably kidding myself! I did try to tease out what happened but asking too much seems to unsettle her so will just wait to the BIG REVEAL (i.e. interviews, or not) in January! At least Xmas to focus on in the meantime...

Welcome to the thread @Flossietea and @Trialsat11

And really good luck to all the DDs doing LEH on Sunday.

Re the online provider we're not allowed to mention(!) it was a nice feeling cancelling the subscription this week - yet another milestone done - and after Sunday no more VR & NVR, EVER!!!

@PatoPato and @Stircrazyschoolmum, I know, right!
I’ve been on mumsnet, ( not with same UN), for over 17 years and I’ve never had a post deleted. Oh well!!! Hopefully we won’t be too long in the naughty step..
Meanwhile all the best to everyone doing ISEB tomorrow. I’m looking forward to start putting up some Christmas decorations and getting rid of all those 11+ plus books. This is last DC for me smile

@dazedandconfused11plus, your DD sounds like mine. She could come out chatty, but once I start to ask questions she gets unsettled, so I just tend to leave it and accept whatever she volunteers.
Those doing LEH on sunday, wodjing uiu sim the best too. We aren’t doing that one.
Welcome to our newbies and delurkers

Just popping on to say hope it’s all going well for everyone! It’s horrible, but nearly done! X

WT done! DD said it was ok and she finished both papers, so we'll just have to see.

She said it was easier than the CGP 11+ practice book we'd been doing, which had really given us the wobbles.

We're going to have a break from VR/ NVR for a bit, and concentrate on Maths and English for ISEB in January - and do a month of Atom just for technique.

How did LEH go for everyone today? I am glad our pre-Christmas exams are done and dusted now! We can have a bit of a breather until January.

Such a sigh of relief after finishing the last exam for December ! DD felt the VR / NVR was pretty much in line with GL which the school had sent for familiarisation and the problem solving was a lot of fun though she did miss 1 question in that .Fingers crossed for the result season now !

Creeping out of the lurk zone. DD did LEH today and came out very happy. She did both stages for Tiffin, first one she was distraught and said that she had missed out a quarter of the maths, but by a miracle got through. Second stage was fine. Now just KGS and SHS. I swear it wasn’t this stressful for DS a couple of years ago.....
Will the LEH exam be weighted according to birth month?
We are all broken and need a week off before any further preparation!

Also creeping out of lurking! DD sat ISEB at Putney last weekend, and LEH today. I think she found LEH to be fairly tough actually- lots of questions! I couldn't get much out of her around the actual exam, also trying not to stress her out with too much unnecessary rehashing of the thing. I still am not quite sure what the problem solving section entailed (logic, I think?). I guess time will tell! Hope everyone else felt ok about it! At least we are done til early Jan and as this is last of our DC, we will give her a proper break over the holidays and in fact will likely just bin revision materials entirely!

Welcome to all the delurkers and I can imagine the sigh of relief to be done with exams for the year!
I am very jealous of those who are completely done with written exams and can afford binning all the revision materials. As I was tidying up the house I was so tempted to discard everything this weekend but felt obliged to keep it as DD still has the consortium exam in January. The reality is that she has been in holiday mode since she sat the ISEB a few weeks ago and I doubt we will do any extra revision, effectively taking the consortium at their word...

We are all done now, DD has done ISEB. She seemed happy with it. We have done all our interviews and essay writing. ( one virtual and one face to face). So it’s just the long waiting game until February and March for the grammars. It’s such a relief to be done. I can start my Christmas shopping now.
Wishing everyone all the best with exams left to do. And praying we all get what we want when the results are out.

@Normalisboring at one of the virtual open days for LEH someone asked if they’d weight their exam results by age and they said they would but they didn’t specify how.

My DD had a positive experience at the LEH exam yesterday, although she said she didn’t manage to finish all the NVR questions in the time. But she actually enjoyed the logic problems at the end and remembered them well enough to quiz us on them over Sunday dinner afterwards!

I really hope she’s done well enough to get an interview. She was completely sold on the school based on the goodie bag. Branded jelly beans and a Christmas card from the school dog - they know their audience!

Ah lots of people doing LEH and PHS which were our top two! Good luck to all. The waiting is so hard, but the girls have all done so well. Also, I would say try not to read too much into what they say/don’t say after exams. After the Putney exam I was so worried, as she said somethings hadn’t been at all what she was expecting... and she said her LEH interview questions were very hard and she wasn’t sure but gave it a go. Got places at both, so it’s never a given.

DD did LEH on Sunday and thought it went well so fingers crossed. Just looking at the dates for 2nd interviews and realise there’s a clash between WHS and LEH - what happens if you are lucky enough to be given a 2nd interview at both but they want you to come on the same day (with no time to travel between the two schools?)

Just tell one school and they will offer you an alternative date/time. It’s very common.

DD didn’t clear the SPGS pretest and it has been a day full of crying today :( She is beginning to self doubt her other tests now and the worse part is that none of them come in till Jan . It has been such a shocker after clearing Tiffin Stage 1 and Nonsuch Stage 1 .
I’m hoping it was just the CEM format which threw her off and would be fine with the other tests but the wait is so much more difficult