11+ Exams - Are we being realistic? / Waiting List offers

[Greenstheword]

This is my second time going through the 11+ process. Eldest DS was a breeze - academic and enthusiastic about revising for exams.

My 10 year old DS who is now sitting exams is mildly dyslexic and scoring 100-120 on CAT tests, depending on the day.

He has problems with spelling and his handwriting is slow and untidy. His Maths is great but he rushes and makes mistakes. On ISEB papers he generally scores in the 80's % On Atom he's scoring on average 115.

I am worried he will end up without any offers at all. We just learned he did not make the second round for Kingston Grammar. Our other schools are:

Hampton, Reeds, Emanuel, Ibstock and Radnor House. Realise he's unlikely profile for Ibstock but didn't want to leave it out as we live very close by.

Has anyone had WL offers from the above schools and did your DC have a similar profile.

CEM was universally considered too many questions in too short a time frame from the feedback I’ve received… so sounds like they all found it difficult.

DC said content mostly wasn’t too bad though some impossible to answer but just “way too many questions”.

So many children there, it was like Piccadilly Circus. Three sittings per day. And two days worth.

I feel v worried DC won’t get a space anywhere. Also got a no from kgs.

I thought Radnor would be a nice safe back up but looks like that’s not the case looking at the sheer volume.

The number of questions for the CEM test at Ibstock was ridiculous and my child found it depressing and stressful. So unnecessary. The whole thing just felt like a cattle market. I don't know why they can't just use the ISEB which can be sat at their own schools and is far more civilised. Sure, bring them in for a group exercise or interview after that if needed but we could have done without the that * CEM test.

It seems like most struggled at Ibstock. I know my DS did. He was shaking his head at me when I collected him.

We had the same experience at Radnor. My DD said it was impossible and feels so despondent as she felt Radnor wouldn’t be so tricky. Also, I have heard from 2 children now that at least one of the sections was exactly the same as Ibstock (one actually put their hand up in the exam and told
the invigilator that they had the same questions) so those children felt they did a bit better as they had already seen the same questions, although definitely not all of them.

also had a no from KGS and now feel like she stands no chance of getting Radnor either. Am actually quite surprised that they made it so hard, it didn’t strike me as a school who would want he kids to feel so rubbish after the exam.

Radnor was a joke for us!
they didn’t let DS go to the toilet and he had a toilet accident! 😐he hasn’t had one in 7 years …

I mean they gave them watermelon just before test what do they expect?

they re getting Kneller Hall and they know they ll be getting popular hence the complexity on the exams ; definitely not a back up anymore

@LoveMyADHD I am so sorry to hear that. That is shocking. I hope he was ok x

yes he’s ok… I really hope he made a good mess on their lovely chair! 😂😉

when do we find out about Radnor .. is it new year?

@LoveMyADHD I think they said by the 9th Jan x

Worried about the exact same thing!
is ds sitting any more schools? X

Lovely! Can’t wait to hear that…. ”thank you for weeing all over us.. it’s a No!”
😎

My DS said the NVR bit of the Radnor computer test had 24 (or was it 27?) questions in 4 mins. WTF?

That made me laugh out loud! Great sense of humour 😂

Your poor DS though. How awful. I hope he's recovered. Bit naughty of them not to take him to the toilet??

The snacks were a fair try but I do think a biscuit wouldn't have gone amiss.

Yes trying for other schools this week - Emanuel and Claremont next. I thought Radnor and Claremont would be soft options and good bankers... not so sure now :(

Very nervous about Emanuel as it's our favourite. We can stomach a no from kgs - but Emanuel is the one we really want but competition looks ridiculous.

Saw DD's tutor from 4 years ago in town today (who doesn't tutor other DC now) and she said all her kgs tutees didn't get in except one and she thought the bar was very very high this year. She was quite upset about it.

So is it that there are more students trying this year? Or the cohort is just very bright? Or KGS was more popular than ever this year? I have a feeling Emanuel is going to be even worse.

@LoveMyADHD so sorry to hear, he deserves a big treat! How awful and unfair.

Just to reassure some people, I remember many of the children who found the Ibstock test terrible and pressured did get offers in the end. I think the test is very hard but then the pass mark is far lower than if it was an easy test. I wouldn't read anything into how hard they found it as it seems like everyone found it very hard.

sorry I meant last year, it was the same process. I think the same happened at St John's, awful pre-test and then results were more encouraging than ppl expected.

I think I posted on another thread that when Dd sat Ibstock a few years ago she said the computer test was the hardest by far of all the exams she sat. Ridiculously time pressured etc. Almost everyone we know got an offer. With Radnor, we know lots who got a waitlist place and they all ended up getting an offer. Good luck all.

Both Emanuel and KGS are increasingly popular options. The sheer number of applicants sets the bar very high. But WL do move - I know of several who got KGS and Emanuel from WL last year. We also have a friend who got Kings Wimbledon but not Emanuel

@LoveMyADHD How awful of them! Such a dreadful experience for a child - hope your DS is fine and recovered!

KGS seems to have become more popular this year as has Ibstock. In general co-eds in SW London tend to be really popular. Radnor seems to have become also more popular, as the low numbers available somewhat curtailed interest. Emanuel has been incredibly popular for some years now - to the point that it might be less this year as people are aware that it is rather tricky to get into! (plus the sibling policy does not help if you do not have sibling there!).

PS The thread on 'SW Girls: private and grammar" is actually open to parents of DS, feel free to join [imho, a nice support community going on there!]

I'm sorry about the DS who had the accident. That's awful.

If Radnor becomes more popular and can be pickier about the scores of it's kids, somewhere else is surely going to have to be less picky, like Claremont? There's a finite number of places and probably a decreasing number of kids, given the cost of living.

DS is sitting Claremont next weekend. I really liked it so I've got my fingers crossed. He's done so many exams now that he has reported that he doesn't get that adrenaline rush anymore and he said his Radnor manta ray story was a bit rubbish 😂

My DS was crossing his legs after the Ibstock exam as he was desperate for the toilet. Sorry to hear about your DS having an accident. It's so incredibly stressful for them. We're joining the masses at Emanuel on Friday. I don't actually know many that got offers last year. It's insanely popular these days.

Our only hope is that they said in the video for Emanuel they invite back 2/3 of the candidates - so that would be what - about 700 kids?! Really? (I'm assuming 1000 are applying or more). That's a lot of kids to run group assessments for.

I remember some years ago WHS did something similar - they invited back 250 girls from 750 - so top third - but they only had 60 spaces - and they chose mostly, apparently, based on the results of the test. The bottom 190 never really stood a chance.

So perhaps this is just false hope again on my part....

Que sera sera...

Thanks for lovely messages for DS all - I warned him he has to firmly refuse any juices or fruits at Emanuel 😭

we d love to sit for Claremont but we re bit too far ….

good luck for all those sitting Friday!
we still have 4 schools to go with Ibstock on Wednesday as we couldn’t sit it this weekend and from what I hear it ll be another disaster - who the hell knows what to do to survive this crap!

If they had 60 spaces they would hace probably offered some 120-150 places, so 250 interviews actually gives you quite good odds of an offer.

They’d over offered a year previously and had to put on an extra class. it caused much annoyance with the parents so such a generous number as you’ve stated didn’t apply. Very few were taken from the waiting list and so there were a lot that never had a chance. Of course you can’t know this until it happens but with very popular schools they aren’t going to run deep into their waiting lists as they don’t have to. For many applying it’s their first or second choice.

@Geville you obviously hace some inside knowledge that I lack...

My comment was just informed by the fact that even very popular schools get rejections - children getting offers from WHS, for instance, may also have offers from LU, SPGS, and the like. Going by my DD's indie, only some 50 percent of offers from even very popular schools get accepted. Whether that means the school offers more at the start or offers less but dips into the waiting list, it means that more than the number of spaces available get a chance (eventually).

How many schools is everyone sitting? We had two last week, two this week, and another 2 in January. Seems like a lot but at least they are very spaced out.