NLCS first round

[PreplexJ]

How did your DD find the exam? DD found it very hard for both papers. Is it true that they only invite about 200 ppl back for the interview round?

my DDs are already at NLCS - just supporting others really!

Congrats!! by any chance have they given a slot .

thanks, thats very nice of you. Did you try any other schools too and what to expect in interview.. any tips would be great :-)

Not yet. I understand from previous years’ posts, this may take a few days. So later this week or early next week.

@Herewegoagain78 Please do provide any insights into the interview process.

Hello. The girls attending the interview will usually be approached by some chatty NLCS girls to calm their nervous. Parents are offered drinks and biscuits and a chance to speak with existing parents. Your daughter will speak with a member of staff, cover interests, what they like about NLCS etc, my daughter was given some maths puzzles to complete. Good luck everyone

Exactly what @PPLs said, plus possibly a short English text for comprehension. The key is to show them how you are thinking, don’t get discouraged if you don’t get to the right answer, as long as you try different ways to tackle the problem. They will be lovely so nothing to worry about.

Thanks, Herewego and PPLs. Are there any critical thinking type questions?

Also do they ask any current affairs questions?

Not that we recall. Just more an idea of interests, my daughter expressed her joy in drawing and her offer letter highlighted this. It’s a good idea to look at the website and come up with a few questions if asked. My daughter said she was very interested in the Dubai / Korea exchanges and asked if there are vegetarian options at lunch.

No current affairs questions for my two, definitely interests based questions that also turned into “what do you think you might bring to the school that would benefit the school/community?”. Did you visit, what was your favourite thing, what do you love about your own school - all that sort of thing.
Good advice re preparing her own questions.
The maths puzzles and English comprehension were about 2/3 of the time from memory. The whole interview took around 25 mins.

Thanks @Herewegoagain78 and @PPLs

Please could you advise if the comprehensions are extremely challenging. My daughter takes her time normally and could get flustered if there is intense pressure to perform.

Does anyone know how many are through to interview this year? Maybe more this year?

It would just be speculation. When we did the 11plus, we found most the children who took places at NLCS and including our daughter received multiple offers. Schools need to factor in that some offered won’t be accepted and they need to over offer. In our experience, children that didn’t take NLCS too HBS or St Pauls. There will be a % of children that won’t be offered after interview. It will depend how high they scored in the exam.

There are students didn't take SPGS / HBS to NLCS too. NLCS has a smaller 11+ intake compared to its competitors so they probably have to be very careful on overoffer, in recent years are operate on a long waiting list system.

Yes of course. All the schools over offer, that’s why some schools operated a first come first served basis ( Not NLCS) I am sure they have worked out the successful uptake ratio over the years and yes, there’s a WL too.

I wonder what the interviews to offer ratio is roughly… Admissions said they roughly interview 200-220 each year. Is everyone going in over this week?

Have DDs friends going in next week

Habs girls - we got an invite back. Can anybody throw light on the interview for the girls. Also do they interview parents?!

I heard habs do interview parents, would like to hear some past experience thank you.

Hi. Yes. It’s quite informal, I think you need to watch what you say. They were
interested in where else we had interviews and the likelihood of us taking a place up with them.

It's myth. They do not interview parents (unless it's a new thing this year). Whilst DD was having her interview, parents were invited in groups of 6-8 to have a meeting with a member of SLT to ask questions. We were not asked any questions.

Maths task, completed with interviewer. Prose passage (short) to read & discussed with interviewer, mood of passage and the like. Hobbies, what interests you, what do you like watching/reading. What do you like about Habs.

We were definitely taken into a room by a teacher that chatted to us and asked us informal chatty questions. We also had the group chat too. This was 4 years ago when our daughter sat the exam