Sutton Grammar 2nd test-what to expect

[London_Mum]

In previous years at SGS, English has been 50 minutes divided into 2 parts:-

1.Grammar, missing words and short comprehension -30 minutes.
2. An essay-20 minutes.

That isn't to say it will be the same this year. It may well be an extended essay, but that's been the format in the past.

[mommyg]

But hasn't Sutton already tested grammar, comprehension etc in the eligibility test? I was thinking that 2nd test was ONLY essay? Is that not the case at all??

[London_Mum]

Sorry mommyg - I don't know. I don't think anybody knows (or at least not yet). There's never been a second test date for SGS before this year.

[mommyg]

The first stage (eligibility) test will consist of two multiple choice papers.
A reasoning paper, which will be mostly verbal reasoning, but with some maths questions included.
An English paper, covering spelling, grammar and comprehension.

The second stage (ranking) test will consist of two written papers.
Maths
English essay

The SGS website quotes the above. So it must be just the essay .. its just the timings that is leaving me confused.

[London_Mum]

Maybe the timings aren't as you think?
An 8:45am session is unlikely to start at 8:45 on the dot. Perhaps they allow more time than you'd expect to seat candidates, have a break in the middle, hand out further papers, collect answer sheets and dismiss the boys?

Or perhaps the essay will be 50 minutes long and the children will have to write an alternative ending to a story (so need to read the story first) or complete a separate sheet on planning which counts towards the marks?
Finally, it is certainly possible a straight forward 50 minute essay could be required given that SGS are now trying to separate boys who have very similar scores.

[mum-of-three]

Can someone please come forward and throw some light on the actual pattern of the SGS papers? Really appreciate any help. I think WGS is also joining in the consortium so now its more than one school

[ThreeKids]

Hard to tell what will happen in 2013 as they are still working on it. This year the second SGS exam comprised a written maths paper and an English paper which comprised 2 extended writing tasks of about 20 mins each. The first of those was an essay topic, the second was a piece of text from which the boys needed to write a piece of text basically about what they could infer.