St. Paul's Boys admission - our experience
Posted: Sat Mar 03, 2018 7:27 pm
Writing this because we found this website extremely helpful when preparing our son for the exams - and wanted to pay it forward. Information about independent schools was relatively less than for the grammar schools we thought.
St. Paul's has a preliminary computerised test with maths, verbal reasoning, non verbal reasoning and English comprehension. The maths was relatively easier than the grammar school exam he sat for according to our son, the VR and the NVR harder than the Bond books. Comprehension passage was from a boook by one of the Bronte sisters he says and from his description it seems to be from the first chapter of Wuthering Heights. (and no- he had not read the Bronte sisters books, though he's a voracious reader, I thought the Brontes can wait till early teens at least - obviously I was wrong )
Once you passed this - they sent the results within 10 days or so, there was a second examination end of January with 150-200 or so boys. Mathematics - three sections of 10 questions each - first section quite basic questions - second one slightly harder with multiple sub-questions but still arithmetic based. The third section was harder - more maths olympiad type questions - one question he mentioned was "Marie-Claude's library has between 500-550 books. A ninth of them are novels, 20% are poetry and the rest non-fiction. How many books does Marie-Claude have?" 30-seconds question if you had encountered this type of question before - but we didn't see this type of question in any of the Bond books etc. English test included comprehension and composition. Comprehension passage was from 'Three men in a boat (to say nothing of a dog)' by Jerome K Jerome. Questions required detailed answers. Composition topic was: "You are a small animal (insect, rodent etc) in a kitchen. Suddenly, the lights are switched on and someone comes in. What happens next?" So more of a creative writing bent - this was the case in both top independent school exams he sat for.
When you pass the second exam - it's the time for interviews - one ten-minute one with the head mistress of the junior school and one longer interview with a form master. (The university interview process and the process to get an investment banking job were less complicated than this eleven plus admission process!!!) The head mistress had a general interview plus puzzles – he was given a number of puzzles, asked to solve them and explain the process of arriving at the answer. The form master’s interview was mostly academic – a comprehension passage with questions on vocabulary and grammar (alliterations – figure of speech etc in his case). He was then given a sheet of mathematics questions – some he had to answer, others already had answers and he had to prove why the answers were right or wrong. He was also asked more general questions, hobbies - what's the book you are currently reading etc. He mentioned a book about a rather obscure twentieth century figure - fortunately he had just been reading it because he was asked many in-depth questions about it - in the lines of 'Give me examples of situations when the hero displayed this specific characteristic.'
The parents also have an interview with the head-teacher. It’s termed as an opportunity for the parents to ask questions but FWIW, we felt it was more of an opportunity for the school to assess the family.
Here’s hoping this will help someone else in the process of independent school examinations. Good Luck!
St. Paul's has a preliminary computerised test with maths, verbal reasoning, non verbal reasoning and English comprehension. The maths was relatively easier than the grammar school exam he sat for according to our son, the VR and the NVR harder than the Bond books. Comprehension passage was from a boook by one of the Bronte sisters he says and from his description it seems to be from the first chapter of Wuthering Heights. (and no- he had not read the Bronte sisters books, though he's a voracious reader, I thought the Brontes can wait till early teens at least - obviously I was wrong )
Once you passed this - they sent the results within 10 days or so, there was a second examination end of January with 150-200 or so boys. Mathematics - three sections of 10 questions each - first section quite basic questions - second one slightly harder with multiple sub-questions but still arithmetic based. The third section was harder - more maths olympiad type questions - one question he mentioned was "Marie-Claude's library has between 500-550 books. A ninth of them are novels, 20% are poetry and the rest non-fiction. How many books does Marie-Claude have?" 30-seconds question if you had encountered this type of question before - but we didn't see this type of question in any of the Bond books etc. English test included comprehension and composition. Comprehension passage was from 'Three men in a boat (to say nothing of a dog)' by Jerome K Jerome. Questions required detailed answers. Composition topic was: "You are a small animal (insect, rodent etc) in a kitchen. Suddenly, the lights are switched on and someone comes in. What happens next?" So more of a creative writing bent - this was the case in both top independent school exams he sat for.
When you pass the second exam - it's the time for interviews - one ten-minute one with the head mistress of the junior school and one longer interview with a form master. (The university interview process and the process to get an investment banking job were less complicated than this eleven plus admission process!!!) The head mistress had a general interview plus puzzles – he was given a number of puzzles, asked to solve them and explain the process of arriving at the answer. The form master’s interview was mostly academic – a comprehension passage with questions on vocabulary and grammar (alliterations – figure of speech etc in his case). He was then given a sheet of mathematics questions – some he had to answer, others already had answers and he had to prove why the answers were right or wrong. He was also asked more general questions, hobbies - what's the book you are currently reading etc. He mentioned a book about a rather obscure twentieth century figure - fortunately he had just been reading it because he was asked many in-depth questions about it - in the lines of 'Give me examples of situations when the hero displayed this specific characteristic.'
The parents also have an interview with the head-teacher. It’s termed as an opportunity for the parents to ask questions but FWIW, we felt it was more of an opportunity for the school to assess the family.
Here’s hoping this will help someone else in the process of independent school examinations. Good Luck!