Habs Interview

[coldpatch]

An interesting question arose at the Habs interview. My DS was asked whether he was applying for QE Boys - and what his score was.
I believe this has been touched upon in previous years, but I was surprised that the question was asked. I assume Habs are attempting to work out the boys most likely to accept an offer, as against the boys almost certain to accept the QE place....?

[FAC51]

Yes, they seem to delight in asking that question - when the boys are in the group interview!

I think they also want to see how boys react to it in front of their peers.

[Helpneeded]

My DS got his score wrong (-10 points) and said all the others had scores of 260/270 etc...oh dear.

[Daogroupie]

Habs does this every year because they want to take the boys with the top scores away from QE.

If they take some of the high ranking boys then their places will be taken at QE by lower ranking boys who perhaps will not do so well at GCSEs and A levels.

QE has become a major threat to Habs as it is so geographically very close and is also very successful.

Boys with scores in the 270s are of great interest to Habs, firstly to nobble QE and secondly to have those boys getting great results for Habs not QE.

I know a parent with a ds with 275 who was called in and asked "What would it take to get your son to join Habs?"

However the major flaw is of course that Habs has no way of knowing if the boy is telling the truth or not.

They have absolutely no right to ask the question and boys can choose not to answer it, especially in a group interview.

I wonder how many they do manage to lure away from QE every year. DG

[branmoment]

All schools will try to get a measure of the candidates' options - it makes sense, if boys/parents are using an application simply as a back up for the grammars then they are potentially denying a place to other candidates whose first choice is that school. Therefore a school has an obligation to assess the intentions of their applicants - how they do it is another matter....

[Helpneeded]

Suppressing the desire to ring up and tell them my DS got 10 more points than he said (still only got 218 though!). 11+ induced madness...

[Bing21]

"

My DS got his score wrong (-10 points) and said all the others had scores of 260/270 etc...oh dear

"

Helpneeded, I wouldn't worry about it too much. Since only about 2% would have got over 260 in the QE exam (around 60 if 3000 sat it), even assuming all of them applied to Habs, that's still only 25% of the boys that Habs interviewed. It's unlikely that 3 of them happened to be sitting with your son in the group interview. So it's not impossible, but it's unlikely that all of those scores were accurate. Habs will have a pretty good idea of the ball park that the boys scored at QE, based on their own tests results, whatever the boys reported.

[mad?]

"

My DS got his score wrong (-10 points) and said all the others had scores of 260/270 etc...oh dear

"
. It's unlikely that 3 of them happened to be sitting with your son in the group interview. So it's not impossible, but it's unlikely that all of those scores were accurate.

Indeed, perhaps it is a way of weeding out the over prepped or the disingenuous. Don't over think it (easy for me to say I know). Good luck

[Helpneeded]

Good point Bing21.
Thanks mad?
So easy to go a bit loopy. But it will all be easier next time with DS2. May not bother with formal education for DS3.

[ToadMum]

So it rather depends on whether, as a result of what he said, the school would a) revise downwards their opinion of how clever your DS is (bad), or b) immediately move him to the top of the list, since he's not going to get QE with that score, even if he seems pretty bright to them, so you'll bite their hands off for a HABS place (good)?