Winchester college exams

[mnuser080911]

Hello,
My DS has a place at Winchester for 2024. His school have not sent many boys there in the past. They are suggesting he will probably sit the Election exams based on his current progress. How many boys sit these exams instead of Entrance and is the bar ridiculously high to actually gain a scholarship/exhibition? We don't see the point of him sitting for something he won't pass. Any insight welcome. Thank you

Last year for the election 2022, one of my friends' son sat the Election exam. There were about 4x something students in total. The election papers are definitely difficult. You can download the past paper from the school website and let him try to see the general idea and level of difficulty that the papers expect. The school also mention in the election application form that the paper are supposed to cover KS3 level of knowledge.

If your school has not sent many boys to Winchester College in the past, you can ask Master of College for his guidance on how to prepare your son.

Good luck.

The Election exam is difficult and designed to identify the best of the best, so it takes no prisoners. Being awarded a scholarship now carries only a notional automatic fee reduction (anything over and above is means-tested). Only boys with scholarships go into College, though it’s possible to have a scholarship and choose to go into a Commoner house.
Your son’s offer of a place will hold pretty much irrespective of how he does in Election, though; and you might like to note that the majority in top sets have sat Election rather than Entrance.
Finally, if the school doesn’t send many to Winchester they may well not have the expertise to prepare him effectively for Election, which is quite an unusual exam.

Thanks, this is helpful. Is it correct that maths, English and science have a heavy weighting in the selection? And do most boys take more than three of the optional papers? Thanks again