In-Year Admission Exam for Year 8 at a Selective Grammar School

[tryingMyBest111]

Hi all,
My DS has been invited to sit an in-year admission test for a highly selective grammar school in South London for Year 8 entry.
I'd love to hear from any parents whose children have gone through this process. What was the test like? How challenging was it, and are there any resources you'd recommend for preparation?
Any advice, experiences, or tips would be hugely appreciated.
Thank you!

Ask the school for a sample paper.

And you need to name the school, otherwise tests and processes for School B might be completely different 🤷‍♀️

@FlowerSticker, thank you for your reply. It is St Olave's Grammar School in Orpington. Unfortunately, the school has not provided any sample papers or information about the format of the in-year admission test.

(Questions may come up in other ways, ie via interview)

This is a state school. Given the scrutiny and opprbrium generated back in 2017 over its illegal activities regarding progression from year 12 to year 13, I suspect that St Olaves would think very, very carefully before contravening the Admissions Code again by interviewing applicants for in-year (or any other) places

I would ask admissions exactly what is assessed: subjects, timings, whether it is school-written or external, and whether they expect current Year 7 or start-of-Year-8 content. Then prepare with short timed English and maths papers, correction logs, and a little interview practice if that is part of the process. Do not try to cram every 11+ resource.

It really won't involve an interview.

Well over a decade ago now, but when DD was invited to test at this stage of year 7 for a place at a local grammar school, we were at least told that they would sit papers in Maths, English and Science. I think that this combination is quite common, but some schools do also test in MFL (if St Olaves does, then presumably there will be a choice on the day of which language paper to attempt - I would assume that Latin would not be included, since not many state schools offer it). We had a look on the school's website at the KS3 and specifically Year 7 curriculum pages, then DD went over topics mentioned with which she wasn't familiar / confident, mainly using BBC Bitesize (there was something in Maths that she'd complete missed, which came up in the test, but since she got a place, it can't have mattered too much and when she realised how her answer had been wrong, she reckoned that at least the teacher marking it would have had a good laugh at her effort).

St. O's curriculum info is here
Subject Information - St. Olave's Grammar School https://share.google/ViGADFguGsz1zGjBu