11+ entrance for Westminster/St Pauls/City of London Boys
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11+ entrance for Westminster/St Pauls/City of London Boys
Hi
Does anyone have any experience of getting into any of the above schools. DS is uber academic but slightly weak in English composition. Any tips welcome as we know the level of competition will be ferocious.
Does anyone have any experience of getting into any of the above schools. DS is uber academic but slightly weak in English composition. Any tips welcome as we know the level of competition will be ferocious.
Re: 11+ entrance for Westminster/St Pauls/City of London Boy
not full of useful advice here unfortunately luckydip, but ds will be sitting entrance exams for these 3 and Latymer Upper so thought I'd say hi!
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ElizaBennett
- Posts: 28
- Joined: Tue Sep 22, 2009 11:40 am
Re: 11+ entrance for Westminster/St Pauls/City of London Boy
Have experience of some of them and all I can say is it's the same as for any entrance exam. Prepare your son with general exam techniques, encourage him to read all sorts of things, not just fiction, and make sure he's secure in his maths topics (I think most of the schools send out a list of what will be covered in the maths papers). If you're not using a tutor, make sure he's familiar with the format of verbal reasoning papers; a bit of practice here is very useful.
My top exam tips for my boys were:
a) answer all the questions. If you can't do a question, leave it and come back if you've got time at the end. This is particularly important for verbal reasoning and maths, where they can get stuck on a section and fail to finish.
b) even if you don't know the answer, have a go. DS2 in particular would not guess at the definition of something if he didn't know for sure, when often he was pretty close or bang on.
c) make sure you show your workings in maths, even if you think the workings are so obvious you don't need to show them. You can get marks for approaching it the right way.
d) if a question on the English comprehension is worth 5 marks, you need to write more than one sentence. If it's worth 10, you need to write a paragraph. If it asks for examples and it's worth 3 marks, find 3 examples.
e) A story or long piece of factual writing needs a beginning, middle and end. It only needs to be 3 paragraphs but it needs to have structure.
I think most of the schools have a descriptive or factual option for the writing task eg My holiday doesn't need to be a story.
Both my sons were successful at a couple of these schools. If your son is uber academic, I should think he'll be fine.
My top exam tips for my boys were:
a) answer all the questions. If you can't do a question, leave it and come back if you've got time at the end. This is particularly important for verbal reasoning and maths, where they can get stuck on a section and fail to finish.
b) even if you don't know the answer, have a go. DS2 in particular would not guess at the definition of something if he didn't know for sure, when often he was pretty close or bang on.
c) make sure you show your workings in maths, even if you think the workings are so obvious you don't need to show them. You can get marks for approaching it the right way.
d) if a question on the English comprehension is worth 5 marks, you need to write more than one sentence. If it's worth 10, you need to write a paragraph. If it asks for examples and it's worth 3 marks, find 3 examples.
e) A story or long piece of factual writing needs a beginning, middle and end. It only needs to be 3 paragraphs but it needs to have structure.
I think most of the schools have a descriptive or factual option for the writing task eg My holiday doesn't need to be a story.
Both my sons were successful at a couple of these schools. If your son is uber academic, I should think he'll be fine.
Re: 11+ entrance for Westminster/St Pauls/City of London Boy
Thanks Eliza, that's reassuring.
Does anyone know about the 11+ sponsored award computerised screening test for City of London boys? I've just had a note about this and have no idea what it is, what are they screening for?!
Does anyone know about the 11+ sponsored award computerised screening test for City of London boys? I've just had a note about this and have no idea what it is, what are they screening for?!
