11+ Interview Prep, St Paul's Boys/Girls, Westminster, Eton, KCS

[YourMerryLemonLeader]

Hi All,

I am new to mumsnet, so apologies if this is the wrong thread.

I have triplets, 2 DSs and 1 DD, all of 11+ age.

Naturally this means costs pile on and unfortunately they don't study well together.

I was wondering when do parents start preparing for the interview, do they pre-empt this even if they know their child might not make it to that stage, and how important are the interviews?

Is it worth getting a tutor for these interviews and if so what is the going rate, either online or in person for an 11+ interview tutor? How many sessions required? Anything else to know?

Thank you in advance.

There are many that do prepare for interview with a tutor, but it is not needed. I would focus on preparing for exams first. Look at the test criteria for each school you are applying to and focus on that prep. Get a tutor to help make sure you are covering the right content. If they get interviews, you can help prepare them yourself by asking them general questions so they get practice answering questions bout themselves. It is good to practice in case they get nervous and can't think of a response. Make sure they are up to date w the news and reading a good book prior to interview. I have had two dc already do the 11+ and both did well.

We used these guys for an in person mock interview and they were excellent.

They looked at body language, eye contact in addition to the general questions and gave us a very detailed report.

Home - 11 Plus London

It's important to find a tutor that is honest with you and tell you where your child is under performing. The majority of tutors don't do this.

My first 2 did the 7+, awhile ago now, but it seems to be consensus that focused and regular interview prep is necessary especially for 11/13+ onwards.

Many of the schools they are applying for have multiple interviews which seem to be quite intense.

The first 2 we prepared themselves and with the help of their prep school.

My ds just did 11+ and my dd did it two years ago. Both got in to the schools they interviewed for with out much interview prep. The main thing is making sure they can give an answer when asked and not go blank. I think if you want to be sure have a tutor do a session with them. And you practice with them asking random questions. Give guidance on what a good response is and what a not so great response is. But the schools my dc interviewed at only had one interview, so not sure about the schools that do multiple ones.

Thank you, this is really helpful — and yes it's a handful!

I will checkout Progressio too and honestly £20/£30 seems like a bargaining these days.

The online tools for exams/ISEB test seem really strong, interview less so. (Generally Speaking)

However, I did hear from one of the mums at St Paul's today that some ex-pupils and staff have created a real-time 11+ Interview tutor and preparation platform which sounded intriguing.

7+ seemed like a lot less faff looking back, but maybe that is also recency bias and the fact we are prepping for so many schools amongst the three.

I really appreciate the offer and I may reach out to you shortly.

Congratulations to them and you, that sounds amazing!

If I may, how many interviews did they have at each school and were there any group interviews? Was there also consistency in the kind of questions asked and the 'difficulty' across their schools?

Will send you a private message.

There really isn’t any need to pay for interview prep for any of these schools. They are 10 years old and will not be asked anything earth shattering. Just get them to have a vague idea what’s going on in the world, prepare them to talk about their hobbies and warn them they'll probably be given a picture or object to discuss but there is no wrong or right answer!
Anyone taking your money for body language expertise etc is taking the mickey. All these schools are full of boys in particular who can’t look you in the eye, are painfully shy etc. Over confidence/ cockiness does not go down well either. Please save your money for the fees!

I have 2 DDs at these schools - one had about half an hour of practice interview because at 10 she was very shy and tended to clam up when nervous, the other didn’t have any. It may be that they expect more from prep school DC, as compared to less polished state primary applicants, which would have helped my DDs.

They both had a mix of group work, individual interviews, response to a picture/graph/object at different schools.

There is a massive 11+ industry which in my opinion is somewhat exploitative of parents who are anxious about the process. So I’d advise being quite picky about who you trust, and how much money you spend.

Please excuse my late posting, but could you introduce me to an interview totor?

Hi Geace,

We have been using a platform called intrvue.ai.

It is effectively like doing online interview preparation with a tutor but much more affordable. The feedback is super useful and detailed.

We will also do 1 session with someone in person however intrvue.ai has been really helpful so far and a fraction of the cost.

If you would like to message me I can pass on the details of one of the private tutors I reached out to.

Hi,

Our tutor helped mine to prep to interview. got offer from st paul , king's college and eton.