Harris Westminster 2022

Hi! I'm in Year 11 and considering applying to Harris Westminster for next year. I was just wondering what the application process is like in terms of difficulty seeing as the exams are during a time when I will be stressing over mock exams. I'm thinking of studying Further Maths, Physics and Chemistry at A-Level, my exams would probably be on Maths and Physics and I'd most likely do a Maths interview. What are the exams/interviews like? Any advice on how to prepare for these?

Thanks so much - that basically answers almost all of my questions! So for the entrance exams I'll be fine as long as I'm comfortable with GCSE content - unfortunately in my school we don't finish learning the course until after February so I'm going to have to do some independent work :/

But what about the interviews? What kind of questions can i expect to be asked? Also sorry about all the questions - I'm just trying to figure out whether I'm up for it or not.

Thanks so much - that basically answers almost all of my questions! So for the entrance exams I'll be fine as long as I'm comfortable with GCSE content - unfortunately in my school we don't finish learning the course until after February so I'm going to have to do some independent work :/

But what about the interviews? What kind of questions can i expect to be asked? Also sorry about all the questions - I'm just trying to figure out whether I'm up for it or not.

For my interview, we were asked to pick an “interesting” topic that we liked about a certain subject (I talked about the golden rule for maths) and to explain it to the interviewer.
My entrance exams for physics and maths also were pretty difficult and nothing like GCSE at all - although to be honest I applied a long time ago when the sixth form was still new so my experiences are probably outdated.

Either way, this is all information that will be communicated to you after you apply so there’s no need to stress about it now. I did 0 prep for my exams, little prep for the interview and managed to get an offer.

oh gosh that's worrying
so for the interview i need to show evidence of having knowledge beyond the school curriculum?

oh gosh that's worrying
so for the interview i need to show evidence of having knowledge beyond the school curriculum?

They will tell you what they want from you nearer the time. From the response above, it seems that HW might have changed their approach in recent years or because of the pandemic. Seriously, there is zero need to worry about it right now. Your first priority is your GCSEs - without them, even the highest interview and exam score won’t help you.

It would make you stand out if you talk about a topic beyond the curriculum because it shows passion or what HWSF likes to call it "scholarly". If you have any questions just pm me

When I was looking through their website earlier I probably saw the word "scholarly" about 20 times lolll.
Thanks for the advice!

Edit: Apparently I'm not allowed to use private messages yet because I've only ever started 1 thread - so I guess I'm going to have to ask you more questions on here.
So when you did your entrance exams - what were it like? We're they similar to GCSE-style papers or were they completely different?

Well because of covid we did our exams online and they were all pretty much GCSE content, and I found it alright mainly because it was multiple choice questions for my year. You can find their past papers on their website. But don't worry about them too much, they'll be right after your GCSE mocks anyways so you wouldn't be unprepared, if you revise for your mocks.

Thanks a lot - the only unfortunate thing is that at my school, we don't finish learning the GCSE course until after February/March so I'll probably just do a little bit of extra work on top of my mock revision just to be safe. Also do you currently go to HWSF - and if so - how are you finding it? I hear a lot of people saying that the workload is excessive, and i'm just worried about whether i'll find it difficult to transition from a school which isn't as intense.

Yeah I am a current student, the transition is good tbh. The past few weeks we've just been brushing over GCSE content and slowly transitioning into A-Level. The a-level course starts after the baseline exams this week. I feel like all sixthforms give a lot of workload, and you will find it alright if you know how to manage your time.

But it terms of interviews in general, be confident, and they will ask you about the subjects you choose so you talk about how passionate you are for them. Typical questions include:

Why you want to study here? What is your hobbies and extra curricular activities and why you wanna study the subject.

I have a question, I needed 420 for thr cutoff point to get an interview, but I got 405 points. Is there any way of me getting a second chance, or is that the end?

Hey! I posted this on another thread, but I haven't gotten any replies yet. I did my philosophy interview on Friday and my interviewer was Mr. Handscombe (the principal)... just wondering if anyone else got that and if so what subject? Or was that just me? Kind of nervous ahaha