Rgs Guildford assessment procedure

Independent Schools as an alternative to Grammar

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twelveminus
Posts: 208
Joined: Sun Sep 23, 2012 7:58 pm

Rgs Guildford assessment procedure

Post by twelveminus »

My son sat this today. First 30 minutes comprehension (written). Piece was Charles Dickens. Then 30 minutes creative writing - descriptive-type pieces, rather than fantasy

Then 60 minutes vr. Multiple choice. My son said it as much harder than tiffin's paper, harder than the bond stretch papers he had been doing at home.

Then interview. First write hobbies, musical instruments/singing, individual sport, team sport, other interests onto piece of paper. Interviewer takes two boys at a time, alternating questions. Just simple one sentence answers relating to thing written on form. One final question was only one that wasn't straightforward, but not too hard, just what would be your ideal X.

Lunch was poor.

Maths after lunch, very easy, multiple choice, my son reckoned it wouldn't help differentiate, because others he spoke to found it very easy also.

Seems to be favour boys with strong English. Though my son said vr was hardest part.
menagerie
Posts: 577
Joined: Thu May 26, 2011 9:37 pm

Re: Rgs Guildford assessment procedure

Post by menagerie »

That's interesting. My DS felt pretty much the opposite!

My DS said the maths was the hardest he's yet done; VR was easier than Tiffin and English was fine. (Though the essay choices seemed a bit limiting and uninspired to me - not sure how they can have shone in those.)

DS stronger on english than maths normally but not sure that will be in evidence given the essay options.
twelveminus
Posts: 208
Joined: Sun Sep 23, 2012 7:58 pm

Re: Rgs Guildford assessment procedure

Post by twelveminus »

Well that's reassuring, that someone felt the maths was hard. From a balance perspective.

My son is extremely able at maths, so obviously that's a factor, he found the junior maths challenge quite hard (he got a silver), so that's his level.

I don't think the English should be limiting, you can tell a lot from the quality of any kind of prose, certainly there's much with my son's that I'm able to point at as less than ideal.

Obviously not terribly creative as an exercise, but I think in terms of the senior school curriculum, these English tests are more about testing your ability to write essays and cope with the humanities than actually a real interest in the creative spark in a given story.

Not sure about the vr, we were working intensively on vr before sitting for tiffin (late November) but none done since then, except for one yesterday, which he got about 96% on, so it didn't seem like he'd lost anything there, but it could be that he couldn't do one or two (he said he had to guess at one about inserting a three letter word into other words?), and judged on that fairly limited basis.
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