Hi all,

I wondered whether anyone else noticed more boys than usual getting through stage 1 of Tiffin this year. About 6-8 boys from each of the local boys made it through from two of our local primaries, including my son.

Weirdly, and to mine and his tutor's surprise, he didn't make it through SET - by about 3 points.

I was under the impression that SET was easier than Tiffin this year, so just wondered whether anyone had any thoughts or experiences of this.

TIA

Hi Wimbles,
I cannot say much about if more kids are being taken through to second round this year.
But same happened with my son last year==> he didn't make it through SET but passed Tiffin's first round.
for my DS I attributed it to a couple of things
1) The performance on the day. He had a afternoon slot....Boys concentration is very much diminished later in the day.
Also maybe by some co-incident he passed all exams he did in the morning but not the one in the afternoons.
He may have also been overconfidence given it was his first 11+ exam....anyways ......The disappointed from that saw him sit up tight for the Tiffins.
2) accuracy: I know mine was not accurate and often careless, so when the exam was easier he scored lower, whilst he takes his time when the questions are more involve. i personally believe that in the Tiffins exams, the question are not weighted equally...i.e getting the fiercely difficult questions correct does not give the same mark as the easy ones at the beginning.

My advice will be to work on his accuracy, which matters for the second round cohort which is obviously much more competitive.

Probably a bit late for that.

My son thought that the SET was easier than the Tiffin exam too. Ultimately it doesn't matter, the same number will go through to the next stage. However, if the exam is easier then 1 or 2 questions can separate 100's of students - for that reason during my son's preparation I kept reminding him that we really must ensure all the easier questions are correct. Any small error can have a big consequence.

I agree - it feels like a higher number (both boys and girls) got through stage 1 this year. Did they take more kids through to the 2nd stage this year?

Thank you all for your responses. Really appreciate them. We assumed he'd be more likely to pass SET tbh. As you know Tiffin came before SET this year (unusually) and yes he went into it with a really positive can do attitude, and yes it was in the morning, whereas SET was afternoon for us.

SET was very late this year - he was ready to sit the exam in September/October - his enthusiasm for the whole thing has definitely been waning!

I think also Tiffin had less m/c questions this year, wondered whether that had worked in his favour.

Also, probably overconfident as passed two ten plus exams earlier in the year!

It's difficult to tell who got through but seems to be more than usual - we were joking that stage 2 day (last Saturday) felt busier than stage 1 day!

I wondered whether it was because we are relatively local that so many got through. Interested in knowing experience of those who live further away.

I wondered whether it was because they had to go quite far down their waiting list last few years? Of the 'brightest' boys we know many seem to prefer Wilsons to Tiffin

Anyway, I'll keep my fingers crossed for results day - he is a good writer so hoping that stood him in good stead!

For girls its only one session I felt by seeing the kids present that day it was nearly the same number that is selected last year which is around 420.

Yes, I think you're right - I don't think there was an afternoon session for the boys either.