Independent School Exams (Essex)

[seriousmum]

Hi, my DS recently undertook the CEM and CSSE exams. We are now seriously considering the option of doing the exams for St Mary's Colchester and New Hall, Chelmsford.

Does anyone know what format to expect for the exams i.e. level of difficulty for the maths / english papers; and what type of VR questions should we be focussing on - especially considering a limited amount was required for the grammars.

Any thoughts welcome with gratitude in advance.

Also posted in the "independent" section of this forum.

ta

[Minesatea]

Not recent but DD sat the St Marys exam 6 years ago. She said the whole experience was much more relaxed than the CSSE exam and much easier. She had plenty of time to spare, in fact she thought they waited for everyone to finish before moving on. The reasoning paper was a mix of NVR and VR but cant remember any more. Mostly though she enthused about the quality of the mid morning snacks!




edited emoji error!

[seriousmum]

Ha! Thanks so much for responding. We will just practise as many VR types as possible. NVR shouldn't be unfamiliar considering she did CEM.

[Blitz]

New Hall will send a copy of last year's papers to help prepare for the exams if you get register an interest. The past maths paper we were sent a few years back was a lot easier than a CSSE maths paper.

[seriousmum]

Thanks Blitz. really helpful.

[natnats]

Daughter took New Hall exam. Was all day affair and she had the usual tests in maths and English and also had to make a presentation ( she chose Georgian Architecture and only had 3 days to prepare as we nearly forgot about it as we were consumed with 11+ stuff. The day was organised and very pleasant and she was offered a place but got a place as SHSG