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which mocks are relevant to North London Girls Consortium

Posted: Sat Feb 15, 2014 5:10 pm
by SleepyHead
This website clearly specifies which mocks apply to the different grammar schools - however we would also be sitting the North London Girls Consortium exams in January 2015 and I was wondering which of these mocks (or indeed the sutton mocks) would be suitable practise for a school like St Helens, SHHS, Godolphin, ST Albans, City.


Would Moray House be suitable for Maths and VR element of St Albans?

Thanks
Sleepyhead.

Re: which mocks are relevant to North London Girls Consortiu

Posted: Sat Feb 15, 2014 10:39 pm
by Kingfisher
These mocks do not have enough in common with the Independent Consortium exams to be a good indicator. You would be better focusing on the skills required. Having said that, many children are intimidated by the environment on exam day and it is certainly worth experiencing this in advance if possible.

Re: which mocks are relevant to North London Girls Consortiu

Posted: Sun Feb 16, 2014 11:45 am
by wombat1
I know that SchoolSmart in south-west London runs mocks in October/November which are aimed at students applying to independent London day schools. I think they still run intensive English workshops during holidays for comprehension/creative writing too.

Re: which mocks are relevant to North London Girls Consortiu

Posted: Sun Feb 16, 2014 3:07 pm
by Daogroupie
In my opinion the Sutton Mocks will really help any dd in their prep for the Consortium. It will show you which areas you need to focus on in Maths and VR and Comprehension. It also ranks you with 2.5 thousand other students who are all focused and preparing hard and have parents who can plan ahead. One of the biggest problems in all 11 plus prep is parents having no real idea what level their dc needs to be at to win a place. I get lots of messages in October and Feb/March from parents who have realised too late that their student was not in the picture for one of the papers. Sutton Mocks will give you that information when you have enough time to do something about it. DG

Re: which mocks are relevant to North London Girls Consortiu

Posted: Sun Feb 16, 2014 7:24 pm
by wombat1
The problem with the Sutton mocks is that the English is multiple choice and the majority of independent London day school comprehension papers are not multiple choice. There is an art to writing a good (and correct) answers with supporting evidence. Also, most independent schools also require a piece of creative writing which is not tested at the Sutton mocks. It is very difficult for a parent to judge whether their child's writing is of a high enough standard and how it would compare with the work of other students.

Re: which mocks are relevant to North London Girls Consortiu

Posted: Sun Feb 16, 2014 9:11 pm
by Daogroupie
No exam that has thousands of applicants is able to test Creative Writing. That is why QE does not test Creative Writing and HBS has a first round to reduce the amount of Creative Writing papers that will need to be marked and DAO has a min pass mark in the VR paper and does not mark the English and Maths papers of those who do not reach it. Marking Creative Writing is very very time consuming as i know all too well;I do it seven days a week. Sutton Mocks is not a catch all and is not able to give parents a way of judging if their student's creative writing is of a high enough standard to compare with other students. But I know students who got 100% in Creative Writing and VR but did not get enough marks in the Maths so lost places at the schools of their choice so being fantastic at Creative Writing and comprehension will not get you a place at any selective school. Sutton Mocks will give you a good idea where you are in Maths and VR and that is 2/3 of the info needed. DG

Re: which mocks are relevant to North London Girls Consortiu

Posted: Sun Feb 16, 2014 9:21 pm
by SleepyHead
Curious to find out - What proportion of the english exam is comprehension and what proportion is vr?

Thanks

Re: which mocks are relevant to North London Girls Consortiu

Posted: Sun Feb 16, 2014 9:40 pm
by wombat1
The Consortium schools don't test reasoning, so it is unnecessary to sit a VR test if you are only doing the Consortium schools. When we did the mocks with SchoolSmart, they tested maths and comprehension and creative writing (marked by an English teacher with 20 years experience of marking entrance exams at a top London girls' school).

Re: which mocks are relevant to North London Girls Consortiu

Posted: Sun Feb 16, 2014 10:20 pm
by Daogroupie
Actually Wombat, some of them do. St Albans for one has a Moray House VR Test and there are probably others who do also. Also a very high percentage of girls sitting the North London Consortium Exams will also be sitting Habs girls which has a VR Test and HBS who also has a VR test.

How many students did the Schoolsmart mocks with you? Did you find the Creative Writing feedback helpful? DG

Re: which mocks are relevant to North London Girls Consortiu

Posted: Wed Feb 19, 2014 5:58 pm
by wombat1
Sorry DG. I stand corrected about St Albans.

I've looked up the mock results we got back to give you info.

There were about 30 students at the SchoolSmart mock - they run several though. The feedback was brilliant. The maths paper was corrected with correct answers and techniques. A detailed set of answers was given for the comprehension but specific comments were written on the paper and the creative writing was annotated with corrections and suggestions and had a breakdown of marks based on content, structure, vocabulary, punctuation etc. We were told that it was marked by a teacher with 30 years' experience at one of the London girls' schools. Hope this is useful.