SPGS first round… what actual device are they using for the test?! Laptop? iPad?

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Hi, my daughter is due to sit the SPGS first round on-screen assessment next week but the school hasn’t said what device this will be on. She’s not at all accustomed to using the mouse on a laptop, she’s zippy as anything on an iPad but if it’s a laptop that will slow her down… if we know what it’s usually done on I can borrow a laptop and get her to have a play around on it for a couple of hours!!

if your daughter sat this test in the last couple of years could you let me know what it was done on?

Not ipad, it is a desktop or laptop with a physical mouse and keyboard.

For some VR section test physical keyboard is important.

I suggest you get her used to it as all the on screen assesments are on a normal computer with keyboard and mouse etc

Have you tried asking them? When I asked a school what they use, I was told.

What day did you get? Apparently the tests run all week.

Do you think they select the dates on first names or surnames or at random?

I'd like to change the day we've been allocated due to a clash but the email says u can't

They use normal computer and keyboard+mouse - it is a short exam in the first round. Based on last year, they seem to call by school - so all kids from the same primary will be together
Don't try to read too much into their call schedule - it is done to make sure that kids are together with other kids they know. Their process is very well managed to make sure kids are at ease.

Last year saw a few NLCS prep kids in the same session, they all hit the keyboard with crazy speed, well prepared.

Somehow I doubt that it was NLCS that did this particular prepping.

Agree don't think it is NLCS school for prepping the kids on CEM select.

What I meant above are the kids in the room are from NLCS junior (prep) school with the uniforms.

Keyboard speed isn't everything. Mental processing speed is.

For filling missing words, keyboard speed is also important 😂
At one point I was shocked by the preparation levels.

I think people need to be realistic about what's important.

I wouldn't like to have a kid at say 125 ave CAT4, prep them up to their eyeballs in the hope of making them into a 130 just so they scrape into a school like this.

Then unless they are continually prepped and stressed in the future they can't keep up with the cohort, sit in the bottom quarter and become anxious and demotivated because they are not quite at the required level.

I spoke to a parent a few years ago who simply said "everyone finds the right school sooner or later". Bang on the money!

Personally I think the right school is one where the child sits in the top half/ top third of the cohort. Not too high to make things too easy, but not too low so they always feel like the thick ones.

Every school will have a bottom half cohort.

I think some parents have a theory of having the kids surrounded by intelligence kids then they will get challenged and improved.

And many parents have high expectations and probably over estimates their DCs ability.

I agree on all that.

I wonder if sometimes bragging rights makes parents send their kids to the wrong schools.

IMOH, based on cluster theory, parents alike tend to form groups, private schools are quick to adjust and develop in line with the demands and desires of the parents to address the misallocation.

I do think it helps to be surrounded of dc with similar ability so they are learning at the same pace. I think each case is different. Some dc will work hard in any environment, some might need that extra push and to be stretched.

I spoke to an exam prep company who gave me feedback on the schools. She said that the likes of City & St Pauls (boys and girls) it is not just the child but it is also a certain type of parent. One that is super involved in their child's life and pushes them. I know two mums with children at SPGS and City and this describes them perfectly!

This really has not been my experience of St Paul's (girls) over the last five and a bit years. The majority of the parents I know are fairly hands off and tend to leave their children to manage their own academics and other commitments. Appreciate this is to some degree self-selecting, though, as madly pushy parents probably aren't the sort of people whose company I would seek out!

What makes you think that the majority of girls there are untutored CAT4 130-140s rather than heavily tutored CAT4 125s? There exist a lot more CAT4 125 kids than CAT4 130 kids. If the 130s are tutored as well, the 125s won't stand too much chance of getting a place anyway. If the 125s are tutoring and the 130s aren't as much, the school will have plenty of girls who got in "only with" tutoring.

If heavily tutoring 125s is enough to get a place at the school, they're likely to be the norm.

I didn't claim the the majority of girls are untutored Cat4 130-140s, I just said I wouldn't want to prep a kid excessively to try and reach that stage.

That said you do make a valid point imho, and one i'd overlooked. Cat4 125+'s (say top 6%) must be circa 3 times that of say 130+'s (top 2 percent), so if a lot of the 125+'s are "tutored up" they will no doubt form a lot of the intake.

I hope you didn't pay for this obvious info! 😂

As a parent of a SPGS girl, I would agree with this assessment: parents of girls in top 1/3 to 1/2 of cohort are probably hands-off and let the girls manage themselves. It's the bottom half who are heavily supported by parents by whatever means necessary.

So 50%, which is quite a lot!

How can one know if they are in top or bottom 50% when they applied? Does the entrance exam has such high correlation to the actual attainment progress? 🤔Ask the school?

I'm not sure there is a top half and bottom half as such. People are good at different things, aren't they? A girl who is really good at English and History might find herself not so good at Physics and Maths and vice versa. And you do need to remember that being 'not so good' at something in terms of this kind of school will likely mean getting an 8 or a 7 at GCSE rather than a 9 for most of them, so in fact that is pretty good at whatever it is (was at pains to remind DD of this in the run up to GCSEs).

@Jonny234 I'm not sure I follow your logic about not being in the bottom half of a school given 50% are. I was in divs 3 and 4 (ie the bottom half) until 6th form and it did't worry me at all - yes its over 30 years ago but SPGS was still considered externally as an academic hothouse.

Interestingly my view is they are pretty good at selecting girls who will flourish and they are very good at looking at girls as individuals and encouraging you to explore your own interests. I flourished under that educational philosophy.

My parents remained hand's off the whole way through. In the 3rd year at a parent's evening most of the teachers said I was struggling a bit and my mother told them, you accepted her and she wasn't tutored so its up to you. And to give the school their due. they provided some additional English teaching and I ended up with good O' Levels and went on to Oxford.

It maybe the world is now very different.... living in the north we haven't been engaged with the London schools with our DC.