KES Edgbaston exam date - October not January

[Turtlegirl]

Email in today tells me that KES are changing the date of the next entrance exam to Saturday 8th October, from the more normal January date. They felt this would be more convenient and less stressful than the later date. They will interview after the exam as usual and send offers out before Christmas, but decisions will not have to be made until after grammar school offers have gone out in March.

Closing date 28th September. Open days Tuesday 28 June between 6pm and 8pm and Saturday 17 September between 1pm and 3.30pm.

[Enjoyingthejourney]

Thanks for the update, Turtlegirl. Is your child due to sit this year? Mine is still in year 4, but judging by previous parents talking about their children not wanting to do more work post the 11plus in September, this sounds like a good idea.

Do KES still have the creative writing test? The focus on creativity in the new national curriculum is sadly non-existant so the downside would probably be a lack of time in exploring this area before October. How much weight is given to the creative writing in terms of the whole test?

[veryhopeful]

Hello Turtlegirl,

Will it be same case with KEHS this year then?

[bluejay]

Turtle girl, we received the email also. I think it is a great that KES have moved it forward. At least it's all over and done with and all DC who will be taking the exam can enjoy Christmas without another exam looming.
To be honest by Sept/October the DC are as prepared as they will be and the KES exam is similar to what the children are learning at school. There is no NVR and it is more geared towards Maths and English. There is a VR test but both my DS have said that it was fairly simple as they had already prepared for VR when sitting the grammars.

[Turtlegirl]

@Enjoyingthejourney - I have no kids left to sit anything now! My middle son is in Year 8 at KES.

They do still have the creative writing test, and usually it's a piece that takes some ideas from the comprehension I think. I don't know the weighting that is given.

@veryhopeful - I'm afraid I don't know about KEHS. You could telephone them and ask!

I agree with bluejay that it's a good idea to have the exam near the grammar school tests rather than having some parents feeling that children should have another 3/4 months of tuition/practice tests etc.

My son who gained a place, however, did no preparation whatsoever after the grammar school tests. He passed for QMGS in July, completely flunked the KE tests in September and was offered KES after the exam in January. He is an especially good creative writer, so having the opportunity to demonstrate that in the KES exam will have worked in his favour. I don't think the national curriculum really played a part in his gaining a place. He just writes well and loves language.

[veryhopeful]

Thanks for the reply TurtleGirl

[quasimodo]

They do still have the creative writing test, and usually it's a piece that takes some ideas from the comprehension I think. I don't know the weighting that is given.

I believe the creative writing test is an extremely important part of the test.I know from speaking to my colleague at work that this was one part of the tests which enabled her son to win a scholarship at the school this year.The quality of the writing was discussed by the headmaster in interview with both her and her son.In respect of the mathematics there are always some questions to distinguish the most able in that part of the test.I know there are others on the forum whose sons have scholarships at the school who may be able to add to the discussion.

[veryhopeful]

The exam dates for KEHS has moved to 7th Oct2016

http://www.kehs.org.uk/Welcome-from-Registrar

[mike1880]

And cut from two days to one.

[rimjhimm100]

They do still have the creative writing test, and usually it's a piece that takes some ideas from the comprehension I think. I don't know the weighting that is given.

I believe the creative writing test is an extremely important part of the test.I know from speaking to my colleague at work that this was one part of the tests which enabled her son to win a scholarship at the school this year.The quality of the writing was discussed by the headmaster in interview with both her and her son.In respect of the mathematics there are always some questions to distinguish the most able in that part of the test.I know there are others on the forum whose sons have scholarships at the school who may be able to add to the discussion.

That's right Quasimodo, it was brought up in our interview too.
Maths - they have 3 sections on the test A, B and C in order of increasing difficulty. As I can recall, section C had 6 questions and DS was told at his school (before they sat the KES exam) that not everyone is expected to be able to do section C as that is the 'scholarship' section! Don't know how true that is but DS's feedback (after the exam) was Sec C was quite tough. He attempted 4 of the 6 and I guess that led to the scholarship interview. I would like to add that DS isn't particularly mathematical, but as we had done loads of Maths, it enabled him to have a go at Section C. So, what I am trying to say is that those who are taking the exam this year should not feel that maths can be a problem in the KES test.

Good luck!