Eton pre exam - help!

[kingsgen]

You do not have to over prep your child to get into Eton. It is computer based exam that has to do more with intelligence than ability. It has to do with potential and reasoning. I do not think any child have ever finish or complete the computer based exam. Feedback from one of the pupils that passed it was "I have never come across most of the questions."
So give your child the opportunity. Let him know he has nothing to lose. I am writing from experience. It is the same with some top highly performed Grammar schools in the country. It has to do more with intelligence and potentials. You do not start prepare kids for these grammar school six months before the tests. They can only do familiarisation test at this time.
Stop condeming children going to Eton. State School children are now going there with Scholarships and bursaries. They are not many but at least it is better than none and few years time we will have more state school children attending these schools.

[LoveIsBeautiful]

Thank you very much everyone! I have to admit that I have only just found all these very wise answers - the notifications were going into my junk mail We are now about halfway through the run up to the Eton exam and I've kind of let go of the outcome. I guess it's a phase you have to go through - separating your own aspirations from your child! Anyway, if he gets in (and we are very much going for it but not tutoring - spending enough on a top prep school thank you very much!) then we can decide whether we actually want it. Seems like a very good school and actually loads of people from all kinds of backgrounds, but I suspect that in the end he and the schools will work out what's right for him. There's no point my over preparing him and then him not being able to cope when he gets there.

It's just so hard to know what your own child's level is. The school seem comfortable with him applying there, and also mentioned Westminster, so presumably they are confident of his ability. We shall see…

[rimi01]

Thank you very much everyone! I have to admit that I have only just found all these very wise answers - the notifications were going into my junk mail We are now about halfway through the run up to the Eton exam and I've kind of let go of the outcome. I guess it's a phase you have to go through - separating your own aspirations from your child! Anyway, if he gets in (and we are very much going for it but not tutoring - spending enough on a top prep school thank you very much!) then we can decide whether we actually want it. Seems like a very good school and actually loads of people from all kinds of backgrounds, but I suspect that in the end he and the schools will work out what's right for him. There's no point my over preparing him and then him not being able to cope when he gets there.

It's just so hard to know what your own child's level is. The school seem comfortable with him applying there, and also mentioned Westminster, so presumably they are confident of his ability. We shall see…

Just curious, how did your DS get on with the exam?

[LoveIsBeautiful]

He sits it in the summer. Hard to know how to prepare for it. We are doing GL papers to get him used to exam timing. He got 96% on verbal reasoning tonight, which is about 30% up on where he was when we originally tried these papers that you can't revise for. In the utter madness of North London eleven plus applications, applying for country boarding schools has definitely felt calmer and less pressurised. All credit to Eton and Winchester for testing boys who are young for their year later. Fingers crossed for Eton.

[bcareathe]

Honestly, I know it's nerve-racking, but it is pointless to prepare for this. DS got in; he had done the odd verbal and non-verbal paper because I lost my nerve when the Registrar, talking at a visit, appeared to assume that the children would of course have met these, and DS hadn't - but DS said afterwards that these had been irrelevant. He described the test as more like a computer game than a test. I asked him whether he thought playing any particular computer game would have helped, but he says not. Though possibly, insisting on an hour of compulsory Minecraft every day might have psychologically interesting effects...

Both for the test and for the interview, I have the impression that specific preparation is at best pointless and possibly counter-productive. Ignore it and focus on long term educational goals (like enjoying learning), and good luck!

[redpurse]

I agree that it is very hard to prepare specifically for the pre test. I think they really want to see what the boy is like and whether he would fit into a big, busy, full boarding school environment and whether he wants to go there (rather than the parents want him to go there....). 2 years ago DS didn't do any preparation - he turned up on the day, enjoyed the computer test - it is challenging, timed and changes depending on their answers, but he came out saying it was fun. He had one interview with a very nice teacher who put him at his ease and asked him a whole myriad of questions, none of which he can remember specifically (but I didn't really ask). He had a great day and left hoping he would get an offer as the experience of the pre test made him want go there. DS reads a lot and is good at maths and had done CAT style tests at school, but other than that no preparation. He got in!

Good luck.

[LoveIsBeautiful]

After all my worrying, in fact he sailed through the exam and has been invited to sit for the Kings Scholarship.

We didn't tutor in the end. What we did do is put the books away and went on holiday for some winter sun. It worked wonders. After that I made sure he worked steadily, doing the odd practice paper (GL, but in fact it bore no relation to what he had to do).

I know very little about what the exam comprised except that there was some information at the beginning that you had to read, and a question on it at the end. There was also a ticker tape of information that streamed across the screen and you had to read it while answering questions. He missed out a question because if you clicked twice on the next button it skipped a question. He was furious when he came out of the exam and declared that he had been 'lied to' as to its format. ! However, he must have done something right because he was in the top ten candidates and they told me at least 5 times that he had done 'extremely well' in the exam and must absolutely apply for a scholarship.

They asked him 'what are your bad points' in the interview. They also asked him what sports he would play at Eton - I think they were trying to find out whether he would make the most of the school.

The scholarship is rather blissful because if you sit it you are pretty much guaranteed a place (even if you don't pass, though I imagine if you fail spectacularly there might be problems) and it means you don't have to sit Common Entrance. So even if you don't need the 15% discount it's definitely a good road to go down.

It's been a really tough year and I wish all the schools would go back to Common Entrance. The pre exam system is horrible and I think it upsets the children too much. We didn't tutor, but I did spend every afternoon with him going through stuff so I guess that compensated for lack of tutoring. We also made sure he had a 'cv' - we focused on a favourite sport and he chose to read a rather more highbrow book than he would normally have chosen! We worked quite hard, but nothing like as hard as some of the stories you hear of people getting their children up at 6am to be tutored. As a parent you really have to protect your child from the pressure that they pick up on at school. My son was telling me that his life would be over if he didn't get into the right school. Madness.

Feeling quite sorry for Eton Admissions at the moment, as they apologise to the 300 or so boys that they accidentally offered places to. The tutor I spoke to had been phoning and emailing boys through the night. Awful for those who were offered places and then retracted. Weird to be applying to a school whose every move is covered by every newspaper. Still, I guess at least I'll know what he's up to!

[mama-de-dos]

Congrats to your ds, LoveIsBeautiful, well done!

I am wondering whether you ever found out who were the publishers of the CEM prep materials you mentioned in your original post:?:

Having gone through the 11+ already with ds1, I agree that natural talent and ability are the main components to getting in to these top indies, but I feel that the practice we did in preparation for the exams was crucial to ds1's confidence on exam days.

[saba.khan]

my son is enrolled to give his Eton pre test in Nov 2019, he currently goes to the local comp school, have prepared well for 11+, not sure if its enough for pre test exam, can some one who has given the exam and got in please help as in what books/ publishers i should make my son to practice at this point ???

any portal where he can practice the exam etc - Any help would be appreciated,

[V&J]

Eton pretest is the same as St paul's, Westminster, Harrow... The passing score is not higher than the others. I know a few students passed the pretest and got invited for the second round... In my opinion, the most difficult part is the interview.