A misleading headline (of course!) - it will be a slimmed down version with "untutorable" verbal reasoning.

Quote of the week, possibly?

"You can't sit a child down at £70-an-hour and endlessly do verbal reasoning tests".

Does the poor woman not get out much?

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Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read.Groucho Marx

Well well!

A slimmed down VR test of 45 mins to an hour which is tutor proof.

Would that be CEM by any chance? The most responsive to tutoring test out there.

I shall miss my annual fix of two more English Consortium papers.

I think their papers are excellent and well able to identify the dd that can think outside the box rather than be told what to write.

But they clearly don't think so so hold onto your hats, another big change which will make a big impact on HBS and DAO if it is indeed CEM they are moving to.

I can't think of any other VR test that has called itself tutorproof.

Now the prep schools will have to grasp the nettle of CEM and this will make it harder for co-ed preps as the prep for the boys schools will now be different to the girls school and girls will still have to prep for Habs, City, St Albans and NLCS

Their new focus on interviews rather than comprehension, composition and maths will start a whole new industry in interview technique.

Perhaps they should have looked at Latymer's experience of CEM and an entrance test containing no Creative Writing before they launched on this.

I look forward to seeing a sample paper. Will they do the whole CEM of NVR, VR and Maths or will they do the HBS or DAO/SWHerts cut down version? DG

I'm sorry....£70 an hour??????? No wonder there are so many dodgy tutors out there if that is what they are charging! That is outrageous!

I have heard of North London tutors charging £100 an hour.

I think the "special interview technique sessions for North London Private schools" will come in at a hefty sum.

The most amazing thing is that parents pay these huge sums but don't actually ask the tutors if they have ever actually got a student into the schools that they want???

It will be very interesting to see how quickly the preps respond. DG

Interesting reading. Shame they're not doing it in 2018, I'm running out of daughters to sit the exams

I wonder if any of the schools will withdraw from the consortium now? Presumably they all had to agree with this new exam.

On a related note, I was at Habs Open Day on Saturday where the Head urged parents not to get their child tutored for their entrance exam. I've heard this talk a few times over the years, she says the same thing and of course parents completely ignore it! Or can you get into Habs or similar schools without any tutoring or preparation whatsoever?

The cynic in me feels it is less to do with the 'stress' and more to do with the economic climate

Could it be that some private schools are finding it increasingly difficult to fill all their spaces and thus, instead of competing with each other and, the increasingly better state offerings on an academic level, they are now thinking of using their considerable resources to take on sporty/artsy children who may not be as academic but still win awards at other levels? This would then allow these 'top' indies to show how utterly brilliant they are! Just saying....

I am always amazed at how many privately educated children are tutored throughout GCSE's & A-levels....where does it all stop? At what point are these darlings made to research, learn and think for themselves without having a tutor on hand?

....rant over!

That may well be...it still doesn't make £70 an hour right!

Very interesting.
I think they are all just lining up with FHS and Channing who have always interviewed everyone. It's a big leap to assume they'll use CEM, though. I'm surprised that SHHS and G&L have agreed to this.
I highly doubt there is pressure from state offerings. Since 2009, the problem has been parents opting out of expensive boarding options in favour of day schools. Big spike in numbers sitting since then. The boys schools have also lost a lot of places at CE in favour of a bigger 11+ intake.
Haps, and now NLCS and CLSG, must be delighted that they are well clear of this.