City of London Boys 11+ exam

[CPM1771]

That really is just guesswork, but I imagine most boys that are successful at City will have more than one offer and the school will need to take that into account. Even looking at this site it is clear that other people have different first choices. That said I really don't know and if anyone has better info then please post it.

[questions]

Thanks CPM. I wish the schools would just publish all the number crunching stuff like this, it really would make it easier to make informed decisions about where to apply and what the comparative chances are at different schools. Maybe we can try and compile them on this site...

[svg123]

Anyone got first hand experience of the interview today? My DS has interview on Monday.
Good luck to all

[CPM1771]

All of the boys seems to have slightly different formats. Some had a group comprehension exercise, others had a practical design task to deal with. There were some quiz papers for them to do, but don't think these were marked. All of the boys attending were called out to the front individually to be split into their groups.

Whilst on the subject of City was anyone told specifically that their child was being interviewed for scholarship. I am interested in the fee paying scholarship process rather than sponsored awards/bursaries which I appreciate are dealt with differently.

Thanks

[lara228]

Thanks CPM. I wish the schools would just publish all the number crunching stuff like this, it really would make it easier to make informed decisions about where to apply and what the comparative chances are at different schools. Maybe we can try and compile them on this site...

Merchant Taylors' school is open about this - they say they make 150 offers and in their experience around 50 are taken up. They also say that should there be a rogue year where more offers are taken up, they will make the necessary extra places available but it has never happened yet.

[Dad1729]

I'm not aware of any separate Scholarship process for City of London, just that the interview may be a bit tougher. I don't know if they would be told if it were a Scholarship interview - my son wasn't.

Generally regarding the number of offers made compared with the number of places available, I'm sure each school has its own rule of thumb to know how many are likely to be taken up. However, I wonder what might happen if there is some extraneous change which they may not be aware of (e.g. a rival school having more or fewer places (maybe because of a bigger prep intake coming through), or a change in a rival's scholarship policy) which causes the rule of thumb to break down?

[Daogroupie]

This happened at Habs Girls two years ago and they had to put on an extra class because they had far more acceptances than they expected. At City Girls after the 7/7 bombings they thought that parents would be reluctant to have their girls in the heart of the City so they over offered and ended up with lots more girls because 7/7 did not seemed to have put anyone off. So it does happen and I am sure each school has a plan for it. DG

[questions]

I'm really surprised by the 3 to 1 offers Lara228 - until I arrived on this site I had naiively assumed 1 place = 1 offer, and if people refused then that was what the waiting list was for!

Does anyone know more about the wating list for bursary places at City of London Boys? As they are going to have to fund the places, I'm hoping they can't really offer more than one or two over their actual places. I guess the flipside is that because of their generous bursary scheme, people hardly ever turn sponsored places down either though...

[CPM1771]

It must be the case that each of the schools know the % of offers that are generally accepted and can guage what they need to do in terms of offers to fill their quota. 3-1 is surprising, but I have also been told that Bancrofts for example offers around 2.5-1. Most children I know are sitting at least 3 exams, so if they are offered all 3 then at least 2 will be turned down. Whilst City is popular and has an excellent reputation there are many stories on this site of children turning their offers down in favour of the convenience of a local school for example or for Westminster, Colet or other central preps. It would not surprise me if City offers around 2-1. What is more confusing is how many assisted places they offer that reduce the number of general offers that can be made or how many fee paying scholarships are awarded. There is obviously more likelihood of these offers being accepted and that would clearly reduce the overall numbers of offers that can be made. City also mention on their website that they had a larger than normal 10+ intake last years which means at 11+ there are less places available. Very unfortunate for those boys who would normally get it.

[maddad]

I'm really surprised by the 3 to 1 offers Lara228 - until I arrived on this site I had naiively assumed 1 place = 1 offer, and if people refused then that was what the waiting list was for!

Me too, but if you think about it, it makes sense. Most people will apply to multiple schools and the bright kids will get offers from lots of schools. Therefore, there will always be a lot of offers which get rejected (last year, 18 children from a local prep school got an offer from MTS, of which only 7 accepted). Therefore, if schools only made 1 offer per place and got a 33% acceptance, they'd still have the majority of their places unfilled and it would require a large number of cycles of offering places to people on the waiting list and seeing which ones accepted/rejected. Therefore, they play a statistics game and over-offer.

Thanks CPM. I wish the schools would just publish all the number crunching stuff like this, it really would make it easier to make informed decisions about where to apply and what the comparative chances are at different schools. Maybe we can try and compile them on this site...

As lara228 said, I found MTS particularly transparent in this respect. They sent out an FAQ sheet to parents including all these figures (number taking exam, number called back for interview, places offered, expected acceptance). By comparison, when I specifically asked at another school about the number of offers they made, they avoided answering the question. What are they trying to protect?