Of course, it’s all pure speculation as we can only go on what we have been told directly from the schools. My daughter is at a through school and doesn’t prepare girls for it’s own 11 plus but over half the class have privately prepared their children and 4 have grammar school Places and the others have had multiple interviews.

The head told us 290 too but the teacher we saw said 240. Guess it's somewhere in between.

Interestingly, at our interview at Habs I saw a fair few STAHS girls. It’s all speculation, I agree. A parent could drive themselves mad looking for stats, info & clues as to what is going to happen.

When my DS sat the exam for QE several years ago, We arrived at the exam to see thousands of boys lining the road to sit the exam. As I had been so taken in as to the impossibility of gaining a place at the school, I suggested to DS that we might be better off going for a nice breakfast and on to school. He said ‘If I don’t try, I’ll never know’. He’s had a great five years at the school so far. Lesson learnt for mum!

The hard reality is that only a few hundred of the thousands who sit for the grammar schools have any real chance of securing a place.

That is why HBS, Latymer and DAO have first rounds.

The real battle for the places happens in the second round, not the first.

I remain very impressed that QE have lasted this long without a second round.

How long before Habs boys and girls introduce an online first round test or are Habs boys already using their new online test as a first round?

I know students from all the North London preps who are sitting the 11 plus for other North London private schools.

It would be interesting to know if the number of preps staying at Habs has gone up now they are no longer being prepared for the 11 plus. DG

I am not entirely convinced. I was very surprised with some of the lower maths and English results at DAO. Once the top cohort had got through the VR mark, some of the maths and English marks are surprising low.

Because they are very challenging papers.

4 pages of A4 to read before even starting the questions in the English. Texts like the Pearl and the Mill on the Floss and Jane Eyre.

A Maths paper that was harder than any other Maths paper including Westminster, St Pauls etc in the opinion of students who sat many of these schools.

You are only saying that because you can see the scores from DAO whereas you can't at Latymer, HBS, or any private school.

Students who get low scores at DAO get straight into Habs, NLCS and MT and STAHS

It is likely that a score in the 60 percents in English and Maths gets you an interview at any of these schools. But you are not told the score so you can't really compare.

DG

You can also find the scores at Latymer and HBS on line as they there as requested under the freedom of information act. I know several children that sat the exams this year and are in the top cohort and DAO was harder than Latymer,
But all agreed that NLCS and CLSG were harder than the two grammars.

A bit of a digression. In 2018 QE had the first set of GCSE results from students who gained admission on the basis of just 1 round of multiple-choice Mathematics and English tests and I find it interesting to note the excellent results, particularly in English, with ~33% at Grade 9 and ~62% at Grade 9/8. If there are similar results this year then it's not clear that there would be any rational for even considering reinstating pre-2013 second round written papers.

I was alluding to the fact that DAO send applicants their scores and HBS and Latymer and private schools do not.

Yes you can see the total ranked scores but students are not told their own scores.

NLCS and CLSG could well have been harder than the English and Maths papers at Latymer
which were very straightforward, but certainly not the ones at DAO and HBS.

More data on the Habs preps.

Only around 8 girls sat any external exams at all. Very few actually embarked on the preparation required for grammars and other indies.

This will mean that most of the 50 will take the Habs secondary place leaving not as many places for the external applicants. Numbers taking the place could be as high as 45. DG

I am not surprised at all that QE results have been a lot stronger without the first round NVR and VR which reduced English to 25% of the final score rather than 50% as it is now.

I am not suggesting that QE should do a second round for subject format but only for the numbers issue.

How long can they manage to do it in one round?

All of these schools with thousands of applicants will have to bring in a first round soon or later.

Habs would do well to have a CEM pre test in the same way as St Pauls girls.

They really do not need to do 230 interviews for for 137 places. DG