Purpose of common entrance exams

[Foreignimport]

Hi. I've got two DD who are in prep school. Year 7 and Year 8. Their time at school has been ruined by constant mocks for CE exams and now the real thing for my DD in year 8. It just seems constant exams.

What I don't understand (being foreign) is what is the point of CE and why is the prep school obsessed with it? My children already have places at selective high schools for entry in year 9 (based on a whole gamut of exams, CAT scores etc done earlier).

The high schools in question don't seem to give a damn about CE and if my children had gone to those schools in year 7 they would not be doing CE at those places. In fact nobody at my prep school seems to need CE at all. It all just seems a total waste of time and it just generates stress for no reason.

Are other prep schools doing this? It's too late for my eldest DD but I feel like taking the younger DD out of the school if possible and asking if the high school can take her next year.

The short answer is that for most pupils it serves no real purpose other than perhaps provide the secondary who mark it with a benchmark for setting. It also gives a curriculum for years 7 and 8. Relatively few, mainly more traditional boarding schools, use it as an entrance test now. Most of these pretest and make conditional offers confirmed on achieving a minimum score. The reality is that few "fail" to meet this.

Thanks. As far as I know, all the kids already have a place at their next school based on prior exams.

This just makes me feel angry. We were told that once the next school was locked in, there would be more time for fun activities and the stress would be off. Instead it seems the school just likes inflicting exams for the sake of it. My year 7 did CE preparation exams last term, more CE mocks this term and now has been told to prepare again for more in Oct/Nov.

It's not even GCSE preparation. It's seems just to learning vast number of facts with no understanding required at all.

Agree. Ds did CE but we moved dd at year 7. Their former prep no longer does CE and has its own curriculum for years 7 and 8, although numbers seem to be dwindling.

In 5 years time I suspect there won't be enough dc taking CE at age 13 for the exam board to continue running it.

The CE curriculum isn't aligned with the GCSE curriculum so secondary schools find the year 9 entrants may have brilliant French and Latin but have missed key components of KS3 in Geog, history etc.

It used to save schools doing their own entrance exams. Schools then used to demand a certain percentage average for admission.

I can remember arithmetc, geometry and algebra weeks, and a latin grammar paper every Friday morning after break.

The head gave up when SMP, modern, maths came in, sold the school and retired.

Some boarding schools set their classes according to 13+, year 8 exams. So we know kids doing well at 11+ and slacking off so lower level maths and English at 13+.

Talking to the school our DDs are going to they don't seem to give a damn about CE. They take a solid number of state pupils who haven't done CE. Essentially all they want is a rough idea of how able the child is for initial streaming then they move them around in year 9 once they actually see how they do. They see no need for constant exams in year 7 or 8.

As my DH tells me (he's British and went to a comp), GCSEs are easy and two years is plenty of time to cram them in. The school they are going to seems to get 80%+ 9 or 8 at GCSE and basically everybody getting at least a 7.

So I find it hard to see why they need to be worked so hard now. I'd just want them to be children. Really annoyed with it all.

Why did you decide not to move your dd2 at 11? Was dd1's experience of year 7 too late for admissions? While gcse courses are technically two years the foundations are laid earlier and there may already be gaps by year 9. We also found year 7 and 8 at secondary an easier introduction to school life and later option choices.

They shouldn't be stressed about it. I can understand that you may be worried about burnout when there are so many more important exams in the next few years, but since these ones aren't important can you reframe them so they're fun? I remember quite enjoying my CE exam prep. I had to do them to get into secondary school.

@Lizs. I really regret not moving them at 11. We just felt it was easier logistically to keep them at the prep and didnt want to rock the boat by moving either of them.

We were also undecided on the next school for either. We had offers + academic scholarships for the one we wanted but it's somewhat further away. We were concerned about the length of day for both. So we hesitated. The prep school aslo said year 7 and 8 would be fun! Utter rubbish.

@MisschiefMaker My DD are both on the autistic spectrum. It's not really noticeable but they both suffer from anxiety and tend to become very focussed on stuff like exams. The teachers really trigger them by pushing performance.

The type of material they are doing is way beyond what is really necessary. My DH has gone through GCSE syllabuses and the type of stuff they do in top set for English and Math is already A level than GCSE. They are only 12 and 13! It's just not necessary.

In state schools it’s SATs in Yr 6 and once they get to secondary school it’s exams and assessment tests all the time until they finish university. CE is just a different route related to the independent school system or one part of it as there’s also 11+ 14+ type entrance exams for done parts of the sector.

I’d say we do have a very test based system, but wherever you are in it, it’s tests all the time after a certain point in their school careers.

The common entrance process is becoming obsolete. It used to be an exam sat in y8 in prep schools for entrance to secondary independents, but without the pretest that is now done in y6. Consequently the poor kids have to do both, pretest and CE.

Many schools are now scrapping it and pupils are moving at age 11 instead. However most boarding schools only start at y9, age 13, so it will continue for these schools.

I moved my DS out of his prep at 11 and so missed the CE process. We never regretted it.