Hampton 10+ 2020

[TriTri82]

Is anyone’s DS doing the Hampton 10+ this Saturday? I’m hoping the new lockdown doesn’t affect it. Be good to hear from others in the same boat.

Did everyone receive their emails today? Good luck to your children.

Late to the chat..... our son sat the paper on the 7th, he came out beaming and said he found the maths tricky on one question but felt good on the others, he also told me what he did for his English paper and sounded brilliant..... we got a polite no this afternoon. I’m baffled, he is a really bright boy, and we were fully supported by his teachers who all felt he would do really well. Disappointed for him. I know five other really very bright boys Who also didn’t get through.... has anyone had any better luck?

@VLCC I wonder how they are sending out responses before everyone has sat 🤷🏽‍♀️🤷🏽‍♀️

I suppose if they only have 35 places to offer with a target of say 90 to interview for those places and say 350 sat the test on the 7th, with say another 20 to sit this weekend, then if your child came in position 150th for example of those who sat on the 7th, then irrespective of what happens on Saturday they know they won’t need to talk to your son. FYI my boy also got the “thanks but no thanks“ email this afternoon. It’s no disgrace to not make the cut. I doubt that a single kid who sat that test is anything other than very bright, with switched on parents who put a v high value on academic attainment. To get into the top 10% of that grouping is absolutely exceptional - so it is in no way surprising or odd that your or my child failed to make the cut. What would be remarkable is if they had!

@VLCC such a good way of looking at it! Thank you xx

Sorry to know that your boys didn't get through....

We got an email inviting for interview next week. From 90 to 35 is still hard to sail. Now I'm not sure whether to prepare for the interview or not. The email said "strongly against interview prep", and my DS answers would normally be "yes" or "no".... not every interesting .

Does any of your DS sit in other 10+ exams?

Very well done to your boy Ross. Not sure how you would prep for an interview.

We haven’t put our lad in for any other exams. This was v much a trial run to see how it went. My boy is v pleased that he won’t have any more exams - and that we can go back to actual studying for a year, rather than practice tests and focusing on exam technique.

BTW, I have no idea how many are being invited to interview - the school website simply said they would interview “more than in previous years” and an earlier Mumsnet thread from 2019 suggested they saw about 70 boys last year, so I just guessed at 90 in my earlier comment.

Best of luck - just getting to the interview stage is a great result and shows you are on the right track. We on the other hand need a complete rethink. I did a v bad job in preparing my lad for these tests - but at least I know that now and have a good idea of The mistakes, so it hasn’t been an entirely fruitless exercise.

Well done Ross! Amazing!! And as @VLCC says, you know you are on the right track. We also haven’t gone for any other 10+. Our boy has woken up very positive and we have decided to spend this year focusing on improving exam technique and come back next year. I do think we need to start looking at other schools to!
Goodluck Ross, let us know how you get on!

Sorry to hear some of the boys didn’t get through but as you say, this was seen by most of us as a dry run before the big one next year. We also had some good news yesterday and heard our boy made it to the interview stage. It was rather unexpected as he did find a few of the Maths questions tricky but very happy he’s made it through.

I agree with other posters. I’m sure the school is well versed on over prepped, scripted answers so we will just be encouraging our son to be himself and try and enjoy the process. Odds are still against us so I’m not holding too much hope. Just pleased to have got to this stage.

@Ross11 , no need to prepare but perhaps get your ds to read a recent copy of The Week junior etc. They are looking for interested ds who know what is going on around them and can sustain a conversation along the lines of "what do you like doing at the weekends" or if the ds mentions reading he can talk about a book (it doesn't matter what the book is). Perhaps look at the school website too so he knows they play football and rugby (but no hockey or swimming etc).

Thank you for the tips @Singingrain1223

Thanks all!!!

I didn't prep my son much for the exam, did a few Maths papers since Sep and had a friend help him occasionally in English. Congrats @Sunny38! Hope both of our kids get through the interview stage.

@Singingrain1223 Thanks for the tips. We don't have the Week Junior subscription but have the First News, not sure they cover similar subjects. He'd rather talk about Pokemon than any of the things in the magazines . He did look at the school website last weekend but not sure any of the information stays in his mind...

Does anyone know why feedback isn’t given till March though?

It will take a while to write down the detailed feedback to each child (Hence the administration fee). And they are having the 11+ exam at the moment too. There are a lot of kids sitting exams. x

@Ross11 , it doesn't matter which he has read but it's the matter of sustaining a conversation, Pokemon is fine too. To give you an idea at 11+ iv my ds said he read both the week Junior and first news so they asked him what the differences were between the 2 and he answered something about puzzles in the magazines. They just want to know about the dc, it's the same at all schools at 10 or 11+.

The 11+ process is completed mid February and then offers need to be accepted by early March. It’s after that, the Admissions team will turn their attention to feedback. I guess it’s just a case of capacity as this period until March will be their busiest. It will be really helpful to eventually get feedback. A lot of schools don’t bother so I’m quite impressed with Hampton on this.

Hi @Ross11 @VLCC and @Singingrain1223

I noticed you all say you practiced past papers with your DS. On reflection we probably went into this a bit blind. Can you recommend sources for us to prep better for next year?

Good luck with your interviews x

@Thisonesfortheroad Hampton don’t publish past papers but schools like CLSB, Dulwich, Emanuel, Whitgift all do, so worth giving those a try. You could also use the likes of Bond books which have exam type questions. We didn’t do any Maths tuition but I understand Maths is fairly fast paced at Hampton so they look for children who have natural ability in this. @Singingrain1223 might be able to confirm if this is correct with their actual knowledge (rather than my “hearsay”). As the English was creative writing only, we found reading to be the best prep for this.

My ds did the 11+ a few years ago (and KGS 10+ which was just for practice and he found the VR hard which I think they have now removed). Yes I agree with practice papers listed below and lots and lots of reading esp of classic novels like treasure island. Yes the maths is fast paced in the exam and at the
School and the 10 and 11 plus maths papers seem so hard but I know ds who have achieved 100% at 10+ and another with 99% at 11+. A few years ago Hampton would take a high scoring maths child with weaker English but now you have to score highly in both. The English is also taught at a fast pace. The school is great but the ds are all rounders. If you have a ds going for an interview perhaps also read the first year blog on the website, the boys love things like baking.

Does anyone know what the pass standard is for either the 10+ or 11+?

@Mumchumof2 , I don't think you would know, I only know about the high maths marks for long winded reasons, the ds with high 10+ maths mark didn't take the place in the end but his parents were told during the long drawn out process, it was a few years ago. You do need to do well in the exams and pass the interview.

Thank you @Singingrain1223

@Thisonesfortheroad

Hi *@Ross11* *@VLCC and @Singingrain1223*

I noticed you all say you practiced past papers with your DS. On reflection we probably went into this a bit blind. Can you recommend sources for us to prep better for next year?

Good luck with your interviews x

I made my son to do random papers I could download from the schools websites. Never had anything from Hampton. We didn't do any Bonds recently. I bought 2 Maths Revisions Practice Books (CEM and GL) for him to go through in case he doesn't understand the questions. So mostly just to tap him to go the right way, know that he needs to go back and check then answer, not finishes 10 mins early and doesn't know what else to do. He learnt Maths all by himself.

He's in a local state school at the moment. His current English teacher from school is very helpful.

I'm slightly sceptical of the "I did 5 mins maths revision with my son & he breezed it" stuff.

My son (state primary) told me some of the questions on the maths paper when I picked him up, and it was literally nothing he had done in school or revised with me.

That's fine - now we know the score for next year, but those kids who passed are either being appropriately prepared for this type of test at their schools or at home - or they are maths geniuses on a par with Gauss, and can find a proof for a tricky arithmetic progression problems, from a standing start, in 2 minutes. Or they can abstract a problem into a pair of algebraic expressions, create simultaneous equations, and solve - never having done that before, and do it in 2 minutes.

Somehow I struggle to believe that there are 35 little Carl Friedrich Gausses in SW London who all happened to apply for the Hampton's 10+. Instead understanding what type of questions are getting asked, and then having appropriate preparation in quickly recognising and solving them, is probably the difference between passing and failing this exam.

Your response is funny.

I did at first contacted the tutors, but then I thought if he failed for the written tests 10+, I might get him a Maths tutor for 11+. I just want him to try to see how it goes by himself.

As I said I bought 2 practice books and asked him to try the random past papers, but I have never tutored him myself or had any tutor in Maths. He had extra help in English from friend and his current English teacher in school.

I also learnt Maths, Physics, Chemistry 3 years advanced of my age all by myself before, and got to Grammar without any tutor. My dad just threw the books at me and told me to read them. A few times I didn't understand anything, I just asked him or his colleagues at his work to explain.