Hi,

Does anyone have an idea of the format of the 2nd stage tests, I know the English will consist of a writing task but what else can be expected?
Will the Math test be harder than the 1st stage? Anyone with any experience willing to share?

Thanks

The girls and boys have separate second stage tests. However, as far as I know, both girls and boys have a piece of writing for English and a free format maths paper. No idea whether the maths is harder or easier in the second stage - by all accounts the first stage maths paper was quite hard so hopefully not. The main difference is the absence of multiple choice.

The content of the English paper could be anything - a list of titles (allowing both a fiction or a non-fiction response), or a response to some material provided (in my DS's year one of the tests was a response to a newspaper article on funding for young people), or it could be two pieces or it could be a very specific direction about what to cover, eg continue this story or write an argument in favour of X. Basically it could be anything. The only advice I can give is to tell your child to expect anything, not to rely on pre-written pieces, and to remember that all the children are sitting the same test so all will be finding it equally tough.

Fingers crossed that we need to worry about the second stage.

Thanks, that is really useful and yes let's hope we do have to think about it - I hate this week, waiting in limbo.

From previous years my ds and dd found the maths a bit tricky. Make sure they show their working out. It was tight on time.

Ask your child to read the question two or three times regarding the English, before rushing into it.

Good luck

My DD did this exam last year. IIRC, the English paper only had a creative writing topic (no comprehension). It may not be the same this year though.

Yes, I don't think there have been comprehension elements to the second-stage English papers generally, they have usually been one long piece of writing (or possibly two). It is not always creative writing - might be persuasive argument instead, or there might be a choice.

Please can someone explain the maths part for me? (for Wallington and Nonsuch)

I understand that its not multiple choice. Are they expected to show workings out? To what extent?

How tight is the time?

The second stage for maths is problem solving with parts to it. My dd sat it last year, show your working out as to how you got your answer. My dd did finish the paper but was really tight on time and for memory found the last couple of questions hard but please tell your dd not to worry if they don’t finish the paper.

Good luck

Thank you. Is rough working out acceptable? Or does it have to be neatly presented?

In case it helps, my son sat the second stage last year, and here is some text I wrote to a friend of mine who was planning for this year:

This is NOT multiple choice, and there is a maths paper, and an English paper. The English paper wasn’t a comprehension and SPAG type paper, but had a long passage that the boys were then asked to rewrite in a personalised diary format rather than the third person account I think. The maths my son said was VERY hard; 14 multi part questions and he didn’t finish the final two parts of Q14. Others who took it also commented that the maths was very hard too.

SGS consider both stage tests when assigning a final mark with a weighting of 2:2:3:3 of 1st stage maths:1st stage eng:2nd stage maths:2nd stage Eng, so in effect the first stage test is worth 40% of the final mark, the second stage 60% (Wilsons mark 1:1:4:4 so more heavily weight stage 2)


If it helps, my son passed stage 2 and was offered a place, so you can see that the maths was hard even for those candidates that were ultimately successful.

Hope that helps.