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School Interview Tips

School entrance exams and interviews put pressure on children and parents to secure places. Most schools use a two-stage process of a written exam to assess academics and an interview to assess potential. Parents can help with practice but should be careful not to over-prepare children, as selective schools look for raw talent rather than rehearsed answers. Interviews vary in format but schools look for curiosity, passion for learning, and a willingness to be challenged rather than pat answers.

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89 views

School Interview Tips

School entrance exams and interviews put pressure on children and parents to secure places. Most schools use a two-stage process of a written exam to assess academics and an interview to assess potential. Parents can help with practice but should be careful not to over-prepare children, as selective schools look for raw talent rather than rehearsed answers. Interviews vary in format but schools look for curiosity, passion for learning, and a willingness to be challenged rather than pat answers.

Uploaded by

iscribe808
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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12

Entrance Exams & Interviews


I
ts summer, so it must be that time of entrance examinations, interviews
and all the pressures on children that interfere with enjoying the good
weather! Its no joke for children or their parents to secure their place
at the independent school of their choice, whatever the age at which theyre
transferring.
In truth, its misleading nowadays to suggest that there is one particular
season for school admissions processes. Only the autumn, perhaps, is free of
them, at least in the secondary phase. Senior schools which admit at 11-plus
will mostly have completed their selection process in January and February.
Common Entrance is in full swing for 13-plus entry during the summer
months. Tose sixteen year-olds hoping to change school to a new sixth form
may well have been through all their interviews and will be sitting on oers
of places for September contingent on the GCSE grades they gain in the
summer. So this article is perhaps best viewed as food for thought for 2009.
Most schools have a two-stage process of selection; a formal written exam,
to allow the school to make an assessment of applicants academic achievement
to date; and an interview to allow the school to see how candidates compare
in the esh to the impression they gave of themselves on paper and to make a
judgement of potential for the future.
Some schools may use only one of these processes. Others may combine
them, particularly at the younger end, so that children attend an assessment
day at the school during which they meet the teachers, join in activities and
have an enjoyable time, unaware of the extent to which they are being assessed
along the way.
When it comes to written tests, candidates obviously need to be well
prepared: it is the job of their current school to do that. Parents sometimes
become anxious that the school is not pushing their child suciently, or not
preparing him/her specically enough, for a forthcoming entrance exam.
Tere is quite a lot that mum or dad can do in terms of helping with revision,
practising questions and checking understanding just as they do with
homework.
Sometimes parents engage private tutors. Tis can be helpful, though it
makes me uncomfortable: I always feel that parents are already paying plenty
in school fees and that additional private tutorial help should not be necessary.
Besides, are the parents asking too much of their child if they feel that extra
help is necessary? Is the entry standard of the chosen school unrealistically
high for that child? Te question has to be asked and answered, if possible,
with complete honesty by even the most ambitious parent.
Most secondary schools with entry at age 11 set an entrance exam
based on the old formula of English, maths and verbal reasoning/non-
verbal reasoning/IQ test. Its easy enough for parents to help their children
to practise these: WH Smith and similar stores seem to have an endless
supply of books of these tests, and it is probably advantageous to children
to have for the format before the day. A word of warning, though: the most
selective schools are often on the lookout for children who they feel have been
over-prepared. Tey pride themselves on spotting raw talent, rather than
candidates who have been hot-housed.
Interviews come in all shapes and sizes. Tere may be just a chat with the
head. Tey might involve some gruelling mental arithmetic or language tests.
If the interview is connected with an application for a scholarship, particularly
one for music, sport or all-round talent, it might involve an audition, a trial or
opportunity for candidates to demonstrate their particular gifts.
We can presume that a child trying for a music scholarship will be well
rehearsed, playing the chosen pieces to a high standard; that the sports
candidate is t and in practice; that the applicant for an art scholarship brings
a portfolio. Similarly for a general interview, it is worth parents practising
some mental arithmetic or reading out loud with their child. Tose are
the predictable parts of the process. What is harder to prepare for is the
unpredictable. Musicians will be asked to play or sing something at sight:
athletes or artists may be asked to try a technique, sport or medium that is
new to them. It is on how they cope with the unfamiliar, with things that they
are unprepared for, that the crucial judgements will be made.
Schools are looking for potential more than previous achievement. Tus,
in general academic terms they are looking for interest and curiosity, not pat
answers. So when theyre talking about books, as they inevitably will, they
want to hear children talking about their reading habits, and in depth about
books that have really caught their imagination not the one they read at
school because they were told to! Tey dont want to hear, as I have too often,
a boy professing earnestly that his favourite reading is the Encyclopaedia
Britannica. Frankly, I dont believe it. Nor am I am impressed to be told: I
used to play the violin, but I hadnt got time for it with my homework.
Its the same with hobbies. If a girl tells me she is interested in ornithology,
Ill be deeply impressed if she speaks knowledgeably about where she goes
birdwatching, the birds she can identify, any rarities she has come across and
what reference books she uses. If I quickly nd out that the interest goes no
further than watching the odd nature programme on the television, I lose
interest. And she loses out.
What schools are looking for is a spark, a lively interest, an enquiring
mind, a passion for learning, a readiness to be challenged and a willingness
to stick at things. Tose are the winning ingredients. Rehearsed answers and
false claims are doomed to failure. Its harsh, perhaps: but its true.
Dr Bernard Traord is Head of Wolverhampton Grammar School and
Chairman of the Headmasters and Headmistresses Conference (HMC).
Te views expressed are his own.
T
ips for En
tran
ce Exam
s &
In
terview
s
by Dr Bernard Traord

The most selective schools


pride themselves on spotting raw talent,
rather than candidates who have
been hot-housed

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