[dinkymints]

Originally Posted by watermelon sugar

holy ****tt that school is expensive! how do people afford to go there?!

It varies. Some people's parents are super rich (heads of business empires, CEOs of major world banks etc - just take a glance at a Rich List and there'll be at least 4 or 5 Westminster families in the first 100), others aren't so rich but they'd rather spend their money on their kids' educations than on nice houses/cars/holidays/handbags etc; and then some couldn't afford it without a bursary - these can be very generous, and if you're good Westminster want you whether or not you can afford it, and will do everything they can to help out. I know people who paid nothing, or next to nothing, with a combination of scholarships and bursaries. I also know families with 3 or so kids all boarding there - now that is a ridiculous amount of money per year...

[saran35]

are u currently in westminster and describe the entry process from your point of view. what are the statistics on how many applicants apply and how many get in including how many males apply and get places.

[dinkymints]

Your questions are answered earlier on in the thread. Please read the whole thread before asking questions - it's really not that long.

[wilbsz]

Saran35 as you see from my previous post I got in this year. I actually think there is a bit of a quota on each subjects. Because I recently went to the induction day and we each received a sheet with the list of the new pupils and their subjects. And unless my maths has abandoned me each subject has roughly the same amount of people doing it. I think your combination of subjects is very popular at the entrance exams. Although it isn't possible to do 5 ASs. There is myth that at most 6 males are accepted. This is not the case. On the list there are 8 males while few other people knew males who got in but decided not to go. In terms of exam there is not much you can prepare for and they don't expect you to. For example in my physics exam they gave you the equations but the questions still required alot of thinking. The chemistry is very easy, it just requires understanding of the periodic table. 100 people get called for interview (this year there were 350 applicants). my interview was very relaxed however others had quiet tough ones. It depends on the teacher really.

[dinkymints]

wilbsz do you remember who interviewed you out of interest?

[hermaphrodite]

Originally Posted by saran35

Hey I'm in Year 10 and I'm interested in joining Westminster School at Sixth Form. I'm male and i want to know what kind of competition there is for subjects such as Maths Economics Biology Chemistry and History
Thanks
Saran

why do you wanna go to toff school for!

[dinkymints]

Originally Posted by hermaphrodite

why do you wanna go to toff school for!

er, how much do you actually know about the place?
and the answer to that (if you remove the toff bit) might be - the best teachers, the best results, the best opportunities, the best intellectual and personal development etc etc.

[wilbsz]

Well for the general interview it was Mr Hargreaves. For physics I had Mr Barot, for chemistry I had this middle aged/in his fifties man while for maths I had this teacher who looked so young that at first I just thought he was a pupil making sure that the interviewees were at the right place. But to be honest for physics, Mr Barot had planned on going through the paper but as I only got one question wrong. He couldn't think of much to ask me.

[dinkymints]

ah Barot! what a ledge. he taught me out-of-block physics. haha maths - light hair or dark hair and glasses? they're both 3 years out of cambridge or something haha. and greavsey taught me history. you're in gooood hands!

[wilbsz]

light hair. Is the head of maths the slightly fat teacher with white hair. tbh Mr Barot looks really young aswell but I hear that he's been at the school for many years. what house were you in?

[dinkymints]

i don't know the white-haired one... i did leave two years ago. i was in grant's - clearly the best house. we had the most amazing housemaster too but he's given up that role, still teaches there though.

[wilbsz]

I heard loads of weird rumours about Ashburnham. Why does every say that it's a *******ed up house.

[dinkymints]

no idea but it is a bit of a random house... quite anonymous really, it's a day house which doesn't really have a reputation for anything in particular.

[rupertj]

My reports and grades at an average independent school are generally in the top 10-15% in the year, but I never come in the top four or five. However, I perform better than that in the specific subjects I plan to take for AS. How much do you think this would affect my application to Westminster?

[dinkymints]

Originally Posted by rupertj

My reports and grades at an average independent school are generally in the top 10-15% in the year, but I never come in the top four or five. However, I perform better than that in the specific subjects I plan to take for AS. How much do you think this would affect my application to Westminster?

It's hard to explain but Westminster want people who can think for themselves, be open-minded and can work their way through whatever is thrown at them - spoonfed people will never make it through the exams and interviews coz you really can't prepare for them. So it doesn't matter if your record isn't stellar so long as you get a good reference from your school and have good GCSE predictions. And you have nothing to lose. What subjects, by the way?

[f_bragoli]

hey, i applied for Westminster last year and didnt get in. Quite frankly i think they expect too much from people...i had to do the entrance exams for french spanish economics and history. Spanish was easy...french was ridiulous...there were words that i didnt even know in english let alone how to translate it into french..history was ok and economics was just a complete NO seeing as i have never studied it before. There is no was you can prepare for the exams...if youre smart youre smart and you can get through...if not it probably isnt for you. They work you extremely hard and from what ive experienced the girls get badly treated. I was there for a day and the boys treated me terribly...i think its a 1:3 girl to boy ratio...not intirely sure...so just be aware of that... if none of that matters...GO FOR IT! good luck!

[dinkymints]

the boys really aren't that bad. they'll try on the know-it-all arrogant approach but once they realise they're plain wrong they will shut up. obviously for the boys in your year they haven't had girls there before so they show a lot of interest on exam day. i did the spanish and french exams myself and although there were difficult words in the french they didn't expect you to know them all, i guess many of them could be worked out from the context (in the french to english translation). Also the "pass" mark (although there isn't one, it's done on rankings) was fairly low - apparently the girls' average for the french paper in my year was around 50% although that's coming from one of the boys so not very reliable. History I found difficult because I did an unusual GCSE syllabus and none of the topics were very relevant to the questions on the paper but it seems I managed...

[saran35]

how were the exams for history and spanish and what were in them?

[wilbsz]

dinkymints is exactly. 4 boys in our year took the exam. The one who didn't get in will difinitely get straight a*s but only because he works hard. Westminster care more your choice subjects. In answer to your questions RupertJ my report was terrible.

[dinkymints]

Originally Posted by saran35

how were the exams for history and spanish and what were in them?

well it was a good few years now but spanish was the standard write a gcse-style essay and possibly some translation or something. history was strange, source questions where the last one was a mini-essay about rulers acting for the good of their subjects or something and then a choice of proper essay titles, can't remember what they were but they were fairly broad with "discuss with reference to a period you have studied" type things... westminster's history dept is amazing, btw, and i know no other school with such a range of periods to study at a-level.