Wallington County 'A' mocks

[Stokers]

sandunip, it all depends on what school and how many applicants. So, for DAO there are about 1200 (?) applicants, and they admit c. the top 120-130 each year - so here, top 10%, HBS has about 2200 applicants and we're not completely sure on numbers because they're not as open as DAO, but conservatively, top 93 and then c.35 WL so 140 or thereabouts - top 6%.

And it depends on the type of exam - getting into DAO requires very different skills than Latymer, for instance.

So, I think the best thing to do is find someone in your school or area who got into the school you are targeting and speak to them about where their child was this time last year. Maybe they did a mock, too and have a score they can share, or they remember what and how much work hey were doing.

[Daogroupie]

Sandunuip, a student could get the bottom mark out of the three thousand at Sutton and still get into the school of their choice. It all depends on how the parent reacts to the mark. It is simply an indication of current level but a lot can happen in the next 14 weeks. Students who do well may become complacent and those who do badly may use it as a wake up call to focus more. Which mocks are you doing? DG

[Kingston mum]

I agree with Daogroupie, my DS sat both parts of Sutton mocks last year and his results were over the pass mark for the SET but not by much, probably 15 marks above the bottom line, sorry but I can't remember exactly. I didn't know about the fact that you have to be in the first 10% to have a chance and I'm glad I didn't as we have continued with the usual preparation. He didn't give me any significant feedback to know where to concentrate so we took 3 weeks off in the summer and then we did some work every other day for 1 h to prevent summer brain drain. In the end he got into Tiffin which was our first choice, also we got an offer from SGS and he got the initial letter from Wallington to say he should put the school on the CAF. Also he was invited for the second part at Wilson but we didn't go as it was too far for us to consider it an option.
So what I'm trying to say is go for the mocks, they are invaluable for giving you the feel of the real exam but do not think that if the results are not in the first 10-15% you don't have a chance.
You have 4 months until the real exams and that's enough to concentrate on the weak bits but I have to say that DS is very good at English and this takes time and a lot of reading and I think it is the clincher with boys exams
Good luck

[Daogroupie]

Great feedback Kingstonmum, thank you. It is great to hear your story and your confirmation of how helpful the Sutton mocks were to you and how you were not put off by a lower than expected result.

The fact that you have to be ready to nab a slot in January and they were all gone in a couple of weeks means that the cohort all have parents who are making sure their students are well prepared.

In my opinion this means that ironically doing well in the Sutton mocks can be harder than your real exam.

You have some of the top students from all over the home counties and in your real exam there will be hundreds of students who have done no preparation at all.

Each year there are usually about ten students in each paper who get 100% in the Maths though interestingly I have been studying the results for eight years and not seen a 100% in English.

But if your student does really well do not think it is in the bag. I know of a student last year who came in the top ten in Paper A. The parent's response to this was to celebrate as if a school place had been secured and the student was feted a little too much which is not the purpose of the Mocks.

The year before I knew the top ranked student of both A and B. They continued to prepare methodically and secured a place at every single school they sat. DG

[mumsdarling2]

Completely agree with everything that has been said. DS did reasonably well at Wallington mocks but quite badly at the Sutton mocks. We felt completely lost as we didn't understand which result was a closer reflection of DS's ability. Finally we decided to go with the Sutton result and ramped up our preparation. I am not overstating when I say that it was a wake up call. It worked. DS did extremely well in every exam he sat. So do take Sutton mock result very seriously but don't be disheartened if it is not what you expect. There is still time.

[sandunip]

Daogroupie, Thank you for your feedback. My DS is doing Sutton mock this month. I will see how he is doing. He is ok with Maths, but He struggled a lot in Wallington English paper and lost 21 marks. I think we really have to focus on vocabulary and SPAG. Thank you

[grgygirl]

What do you think of the top boys English mark being 59/70 and most between 35-45/70? Even the top girls English mark was 62/70. Does this mean the English was hard? Not a lot of feedback from ds unfortunately!

[Daogroupie]

Was the English all comprehension?

[grgygirl]

There were two comps apparently, one of which was a cloze type. Ds said it was marginally harder than the GL paper comps and the timing was tight but not impossible, like the Bond CEM papers.

It's hard to know how to improve comprehension skills. Any ideas other than lots of practice? Often on the multiple choice papers there are 3 very similar answers.