Sharing in case it’s helpful for anyone else!
We’ve just found out that DS is through to the next stage for Winchester and Radley (the only two we applied for, plus a day school where he already has an offer).
It’s been quite a journey, and I wanted to share because it might give some hope to other mums in a similar boat. DS is summer-born and didn’t pass 8+ for Westminster or Dulwich College. We ended up moving out of London to the countryside, and he’s now at a gentle, sporty, all-rounder prep where he’s really thriving.
Last summer we decided to try some grammar-school style prep after being recommended a brilliant local tutor. She was a bit sceptical at first, but quickly realised he’s actually very bright and can focus really well (which, as we’ve since learned, is half the battle!).
Around the same time I had an event in Cambridge, so we made a weekend of it. DS completely fell in love with the university and now wants to join the Night Climbers(!). It was a good chance to chat about what it takes to succeed and why the extra work matters.
So he had weekly tutoring sessions and mountains of homework. To be honest, we often couldn’t get through it because he’s in prep from 8am-5pm and was just exhausted afterwards. My plan was: two weeks away in the summer, then revision throughout August… but plans changed last minute, so we only had the last two weeks of August to revise.
In mocks he was doing “OK-ish” — usually in the 70s — but kept running out of time. There were also some gaps (punctuation, fractions etc.) that just hadn’t been covered in school, so he was confused by certain topics. When he didn’t pass the first round, I wasn’t shocked — he told me he only answered 12 out of 20 questions in Non-Verbal because he didn’t manage his time (ironically NVR is usually his strongest area, and his CAT is 137!).
He was understandably disappointed but carried on preparing for the ISEB. I have to say, the school has been brilliant this year — both his maths and English teachers are excellent.
They use Century because of its ISEB link, and in early September he did VR and NVR diagnostics… and to my horror scored under 40%. I panicked and signed up for Atom, where he got a very respectable SAS 110 — so we were completely confused!
We kept practising in Atom as I found explanations and videos better than on Century, and over the two-week half-term he worked really hard, doing 3–4 hours a day. For mocks, we stuck with Century because my conclusion was that it reflects the real thing best. We bought the home version (£40/month), which lets you download eight mocks a month (school version does not include mocks) — actually cheaper than buying the ISEB paper packs! The downside is that you don’t get a detailed question-by-question review, just a graph showing areas to improve.
I sat with him for the early mocks and took notes on what he was getting wrong. The maths mocks were really tough. On TestReady (the shorter 20-minute exercises) he was scoring around 95%, but on the full mocks it dropped to closer to 80%. Doing everything on the computer, though, was a huge help for time management — he finally learned to pace himself properly and stopped missing entire sections.
We did 2 mocks each week in the month leading up to the test. By the time the real ISEB came, he said he recognised all the question types and felt calm about the timing.
I later spoke to his English teacher (his English diagnostics hadn’t been great either), and she said Century’s diagnostics are notoriously harsh. I actually found Century Bond Online Silver/Gold/Platinum practice tests as a better option as it allows to progress.
Now we’re absolutely delighted with how it’s turned out. I’m sure the groundwork he did last year, plus strong teaching at his prep in Year 6, made a huge difference. But honestly — I do wish there was less stress with all these practice tests and mocks!