Tiffin boy waiting list 2008
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Whilst we wait ...
Looking at the table of data provided by SVE, we can see that 40-50 people dropped out last year eventually. With the number of initial offers at exactly the same number as last year and identical rules governing place allocations, there is no reason to believe that this year's will be significantly different. The previous 2 years the figures look a lot higher but may be skewed by the multiple offer system that existed though I don't think that greatly.
Therefore geling, FWIW I think your chances are very good and I am keeping my fingers crossed for you, not to mention your truly.
From a personal point of view I'm really hoping that a boy living round the corner makes it. I'm told that he is in 27th place (score 224) and happens to be one of my son's favourites from school. It would be just fantastic for him and my son to catch the bus together at the bottom of the footpath just 4 mins from home.
Deducing from the posts above and my son's friend's story, the updated picture of the waiting list breakdown looks like:
1st: 5 on 228
6th: 6 on 227
12th: 13 on 226
25th: 2 on 225
27th: ?? on 224
....
Last Thursday evening, I took a call from the doyenne of the Tiffin tutors who advised me that 5 of "her boys" will be declining the offer - scholarships. If anybody has any similar stories while we wait, they'll make very interesting reading.
Finally, I ought to add a "Past performance is not a guide to .... DYOR" etc !!
Good luck to all.
Therefore geling, FWIW I think your chances are very good and I am keeping my fingers crossed for you, not to mention your truly.
From a personal point of view I'm really hoping that a boy living round the corner makes it. I'm told that he is in 27th place (score 224) and happens to be one of my son's favourites from school. It would be just fantastic for him and my son to catch the bus together at the bottom of the footpath just 4 mins from home.
Deducing from the posts above and my son's friend's story, the updated picture of the waiting list breakdown looks like:
1st: 5 on 228
6th: 6 on 227
12th: 13 on 226
25th: 2 on 225
27th: ?? on 224
....
Last Thursday evening, I took a call from the doyenne of the Tiffin tutors who advised me that 5 of "her boys" will be declining the offer - scholarships. If anybody has any similar stories while we wait, they'll make very interesting reading.
Finally, I ought to add a "Past performance is not a guide to .... DYOR" etc !!
Good luck to all.
Dear Oesmugso, Thanks for always giving us so reliable imformation! I really appreciate your help for get this "special page" going. You know, i create this topic 10 mins later after i opened Tiffin letter. I want to cry, but no tears coming out . I just want somebody to share my feelings and i am sure you are the one of them. We seem to have been through the same "route" to get to the Tiffin's Waiting list. I personally took my son to a private tutor to practise VR and NVR near Kingston for a whole year. And my boy had been on the top in this class which made me believe 90% he would be in the first around. So, the waiting list news really drove me into despair. Here, i want tell any parents: whatever your son had been performanced in the private class and however the tutur praised your son don't gurantee a place at any grammar school like Tiffin. All you need to do is keep cool and work harder with your kids until you get the offering letter.
Dear Oesmugso, i want to tell you something encouraging news as well: From my tutor BB i have learned that at least 6-7 kids will say No to Tiffin because ------full scholarship in private schools. Ok, you see, all together 12 kids already. If our imformation is accurate, i am sure you will get the offer at the end of March or early April. Take care and good luck.
Tiffin boy waiting list 2008
I have been visiting this forum regularly- what an excellent source of information.
Thanks to all of you guys for giving background information on Tiffin waiting list.
My DS has got an offer in Slough and is on waiting list for Tiffin- number 45 at 222.
I hope he gets in to Tiffin.
Whilst we wait ...
xe - thanks very much for passing on the information at a time when your mind would understandably be elsewhere. If you ever find the time to explain your decision I would be one very interested reader. We ourselves would undoubtedy have seriously considered Wallington [we had 3 choices only & that's what the current qualification is for] except for the 2 EXTRA hours of travelling each day!! My wife was very much swayed by the impressive headmaster there and even our Tiffin tutor opined that it was the better school in many ways!
geling - your post is naturally music in my ears! I just hope we're not double counting. What exactly did you mean by tutor BB - bulletin board OR BB = initials of the tutor? I must stress that at the moment all I post is simply opinion and my own deductions using what I've read or been told - it's only an indicator at best, not gospel. It's only meant to provoke further discussion - agreeing or disagreeing. Wish I had caught up with board earlier today. Look forward to your reply.
Jbrs - thanks for your input. I'll update the results data with yours and xe's very soon. In due course I hope to have it all verified by the school itself and we'll only need to add the dates & numbers of any additional offers that may come. As you are no doubt aware, I fear that you may be in for the worst ride out of all of us and FWIW, you have my sympathy. When the range of scores is this tight between success and failure it can be diffcult to swallow. I would assert that if you re-run the test for those +/- 6 of the pass mark next week we'll have a very different set of successes and failures.
geling - your post is naturally music in my ears! I just hope we're not double counting. What exactly did you mean by tutor BB - bulletin board OR BB = initials of the tutor? I must stress that at the moment all I post is simply opinion and my own deductions using what I've read or been told - it's only an indicator at best, not gospel. It's only meant to provoke further discussion - agreeing or disagreeing. Wish I had caught up with board earlier today. Look forward to your reply.
Jbrs - thanks for your input. I'll update the results data with yours and xe's very soon. In due course I hope to have it all verified by the school itself and we'll only need to add the dates & numbers of any additional offers that may come. As you are no doubt aware, I fear that you may be in for the worst ride out of all of us and FWIW, you have my sympathy. When the range of scores is this tight between success and failure it can be diffcult to swallow. I would assert that if you re-run the test for those +/- 6 of the pass mark next week we'll have a very different set of successes and failures.
Oesmugso,
First, i will answer your qeustion: " opinion or gospel?" Our tutor BB (initials) told us the same story which your tutor "Doyenne" told you : 5 or 6 of "her boy" would decline Tiffin's offer because of , mmm-- private scholarship. Ok, at this early stage, i can only confirm one of theirs reply is true, because the mum is my best friend! ! So, it is fact or opinion? I think it is between the 2. Ok, accounding to all the sources we gathered , i still think you are going to get the offer at the end of March or early Apr. Pls note around Apr 4--Apr21 is Tiffin's Holiday, so i am told that no letters will be send our during this time.
Second, can we raise another issue to discuss? Grammar schools like Tiffin give children different extra scores due to age difference!! Or actually MONTH difference.
So, some kids like my boy may already get the offer if he were born in AUGUST!!! ( The rule is the younger one rewards extra points) 
Fair or not? 
First, i will answer your qeustion: " opinion or gospel?" Our tutor BB (initials) told us the same story which your tutor "Doyenne" told you : 5 or 6 of "her boy" would decline Tiffin's offer because of , mmm-- private scholarship. Ok, at this early stage, i can only confirm one of theirs reply is true, because the mum is my best friend! ! So, it is fact or opinion? I think it is between the 2. Ok, accounding to all the sources we gathered , i still think you are going to get the offer at the end of March or early Apr. Pls note around Apr 4--Apr21 is Tiffin's Holiday, so i am told that no letters will be send our during this time.
Second, can we raise another issue to discuss? Grammar schools like Tiffin give children different extra scores due to age difference!! Or actually MONTH difference.
So, some kids like my boy may already get the offer if he were born in AUGUST!!! ( The rule is the younger one rewards extra points) Fair or not? Jbrs,
Your son DS seems on the "breaking" point of Tiffin 's waiting list. I wish you the good luck!! If i were you, i would ring Tiffin before the summer holiday prividing still not get the offer by then . Take care, good luck. Visit our page constantly, i am sure you will know the latest news on the waiting list!
Your son DS seems on the "breaking" point of Tiffin 's waiting list. I wish you the good luck!! If i were you, i would ring Tiffin before the summer holiday prividing still not get the offer by then . Take care, good luck. Visit our page constantly, i am sure you will know the latest news on the waiting list!
Whilst we wait ...
geling - Thanks very much for clearing that up. BTW, you may have misunderstood - when I spoke of opinions & gospel I was referring to my own meanderings!!
The last issue you raised is a BIG can of worms as far as I'm concerned. My son, being a September born child, would have been docked the maximum points. I did read somewhere that the total marks lost this way could be up to 4, but it must have been some other school - certainly, it is now stated categorically that they do not disclose this. My personal view is that it may be fair and it may be unfair. It is because I can see both the pros and the cons of this policy. Nothing like sitting on the fence!! Of course you could argue that (1) Irrespective of the month of birth they would have had the same time of exposure/opportunity to an education as the older ones (2) The brain development is not a linear function of time, individuals vary, suppose they were 7 month pregnancies (3) Perhaps anyone who had tutors at all - for longer than others - could afford the more expensive ones. Back to where I started, geling - can of worms! There are many people who study this type of thing but to a layman/cynic like me it is very similar to Economics - start off with a number of postulates (which could be challenged) and then build from there using sophisticated maths to make it look rigorous.
I did note also that the letter goes on to say that the scores are "not linear". What does this mean? I guess here: When I looked at my son's respective scores for the NVR & VR I was first amused to see how close they were (112,115 respectively). In practice, I know he admitted difficulty with possibly a total of 12-15 questions in total in NVR whilst only admitting to problems with 2-3 in VR. Some of his classmates who scored over 240 also reported similarly. My thinking is that if VR was marked out of say 100, then NVR was probably "standardised" to 130 say. I think they've possibly juggled further with the scores to eliminate/smooth out the risk of having good guessers & bad guessers - so that lower marks carry a bigger penalty on a non-linear basis. In the late sixties, I remember hearing of multiple choice questioning for the first time and how it was suggested that every wrong answer should result in a negative mark as opposed to scoring zero! All of this helps to add granularity to the scores otherwise we would have bigger clusters of boys under each score with some scores not being attainable - a waiting list admin nightmare.
The last issue you raised is a BIG can of worms as far as I'm concerned. My son, being a September born child, would have been docked the maximum points. I did read somewhere that the total marks lost this way could be up to 4, but it must have been some other school - certainly, it is now stated categorically that they do not disclose this. My personal view is that it may be fair and it may be unfair. It is because I can see both the pros and the cons of this policy. Nothing like sitting on the fence!! Of course you could argue that (1) Irrespective of the month of birth they would have had the same time of exposure/opportunity to an education as the older ones (2) The brain development is not a linear function of time, individuals vary, suppose they were 7 month pregnancies (3) Perhaps anyone who had tutors at all - for longer than others - could afford the more expensive ones. Back to where I started, geling - can of worms! There are many people who study this type of thing but to a layman/cynic like me it is very similar to Economics - start off with a number of postulates (which could be challenged) and then build from there using sophisticated maths to make it look rigorous.
I did note also that the letter goes on to say that the scores are "not linear". What does this mean? I guess here: When I looked at my son's respective scores for the NVR & VR I was first amused to see how close they were (112,115 respectively). In practice, I know he admitted difficulty with possibly a total of 12-15 questions in total in NVR whilst only admitting to problems with 2-3 in VR. Some of his classmates who scored over 240 also reported similarly. My thinking is that if VR was marked out of say 100, then NVR was probably "standardised" to 130 say. I think they've possibly juggled further with the scores to eliminate/smooth out the risk of having good guessers & bad guessers - so that lower marks carry a bigger penalty on a non-linear basis. In the late sixties, I remember hearing of multiple choice questioning for the first time and how it was suggested that every wrong answer should result in a negative mark as opposed to scoring zero! All of this helps to add granularity to the scores otherwise we would have bigger clusters of boys under each score with some scores not being attainable - a waiting list admin nightmare.
Oesmugso,
Oh, my God, "a September born boy", "poor luck." As far as i know, "the mysterious Month difference caculation method" applied on both VR & NON VR, so the older boys' loss were double! I am very happy if someone told me the otherwise. Tell you a joke: one of my best friend decide to delay her pregnate time from now on till next Jan. because she want to have a August boy in order to max her second kid's chance for Grammar sch. Her first on is also a Sep. boy which will get zero point extra in this highly intensive compotition. Oh, this is a joke. May i say to all the parents: forget the birth date, working harder with your boys is the only sensible way to win.
Oh, my God, "a September born boy", "poor luck." As far as i know, "the mysterious Month difference caculation method" applied on both VR & NON VR, so the older boys' loss were double! I am very happy if someone told me the otherwise. Tell you a joke: one of my best friend decide to delay her pregnate time from now on till next Jan. because she want to have a August boy in order to max her second kid's chance for Grammar sch. Her first on is also a Sep. boy which will get zero point extra in this highly intensive compotition. Oh, this is a joke. May i say to all the parents: forget the birth date, working harder with your boys is the only sensible way to win.
