Westminster School? Do I stand a good chance?

Reply 800

12

Hi,

I'm not certain that anyone else still visits this page, but I have been highly confused by an email sent to me (on request) about my situation. I was told that I remain on the waiting list as all of the offers were taken up. Of course, this couldn't be true unless nobody else on the waiting list was later offered a place...

P.S. Were those with offers of places given a deadline to accept or refuse it?

Reply 801

Mr Nonsense

13

rupertj

P.S. Were those with offers of places given a deadline to accept or refuse it?

it was two weeks from the day you got the letter last year

Reply 802

rupertj

12

Mr Nonsense

it was two weeks from the day you got the letter last year

Ah, but you see, only one week passed after our letters of notification arrived before the Christmas holidays began at Westminster and the staff and boarders went home.

Reply 803

Mr Nonsense

13

oh right! wasn't like that last year.... it was much earlier in the term. can't help then. sorry :biggrin:

Reply 804

saran35

Hey Rupertj, umm, have u applied to or got in to any other schools? and just to confirm, were you that guy that i spoke to on the day of the exam.
Thanks

Reply 805

rupertj

12

saran35

Hey Rupertj, umm, have u applied to or got in to any other schools? and just to confirm, were you that guy that i spoke to on the day of the exam.
Thanks

Hi,

Yes, I spoke to you on the exam day. I have an exam at CLSB on the 19th, where I think you will be next year.

Reply 806

saran35

so u got special permission to sit the exam late....well done. im not surprised since clsb are very liberal and don't have too strict a policy. they let me hold my offer till january/february even though i replied to them about two weeks after the deadline for replying to the offer. i'm applying to other schools so i need to wait a bit longer.

Reply 807

rupertj

12

saran35

so u got special permission to sit the exam late....well done. im not surprised since clsb are very liberal and don't have too strict a policy. they let me hold my offer till january/february even though i replied to them about two weeks after the deadline for replying to the offer. i'm applying to other schools so i need to wait a bit longer.

Actually, I didn't get any special permission. The school has two sittings - one in November and one in January.

Reply 808

uk-education-blog

okay... you clearly need to do thorough reasearch...

1. you CANNOT do 5 subjects. Maths and Further maths is one subject but with 2 grades. There will only be one exam for Further Maths which is also the same for single maths. So, you must choose 2 subjects out of economics, history and English.

2.The english exam consisted of an extract of a story with a question OR you could have chosen to do the poem question which asks you to analyse the techniques and the meaning of the poem.

3. EVERYONE who applies gets 'invited'. you can do the exam in your own country and you do not have to come here. Those who do well in the entrance exams, (around a third) will get invited to come to the interview. You must come to Westminster if you are invited.

How do I know all this?
hehe I got accepted but didnt go. to be honest, Westminster is an excellent school , no doubt, but it only does well because of its admissions system and their selection process. The teaching is actually similar to any other high performing schools but it is due to the students who attend it that makes it a 'top school'

think about it!

Reply 809

rupertj

12

Some of Westminster's teachers are ridiculously-well qualified though. Take their Head of Classics.

Reply 810

wilbsz

I dunno about the head of classics( all I know that is his dad won the nobel prize) . The head of maths in total genius though as are the maths department in general. But true all the westminster teachers are ridiculously qualified. The point is westminster due to its location in central london can't spend too much on sports facilities (due to expensive land) but instead spends it on teachers.

Reply 811

rupertj

12

Presumably quite a few of them have academic backgrounds? ('academic' as in scholarly.)

Reply 812

uk-education-blog

I wasn't intending to say that Westminster's teachers were bad. (of course their teaching would be excellent) However what I meant was that Westminster's admissions procudure only lets people in from a very small spectrum and combined with top teaching, these students excel and do very well. In my opinion, Westminster does not turn an 'average' student into a 'genius', it only nutures very talented students. And like you said, tbh Westminster isnt the place to go if sports is high up in your list of importance.

And this was one of the reasons for not going to Westminster. Although Westminster would have been much much closer than the school I decided to go to. The school I chose had a much evenly distributed areas of school such as sports, teaching, facilities....

All I can say is what is more important to you?

Reply 813

dinkymints

12

JHeroXHappy

but as stated on their website, 'Some do 3 A Levels and an AS Level and some exceptionally able pupils do more than 4 A Levels' ?

http://www.westminster.org.uk/entrylevels/16plus.asp

Only in certain combinations - usually double maths triple science, or with music or critical thinking or electronics. And not anyone can do them. Do you really expect them to be able to timetable whatever everyone just decides they want to do?

Reply 814

uk-education-blog

yh 4/3 A-levels is the norm and there is no prestige from universities if you did more than that. doing more than 4 will seriously be hard and it will take up a lot of time as you need more teaching hours, more work etc

Reply 815

dinkymints

12

wilbsz

I dunno about the head of classics( all I know that is his dad won the nobel prize) .

fellow of All Souls' I heard.... expertise is Indology... speaks a ridiculous number of languages... could have been a concert musician instead... not sure how much is true!

he was on sabbatical one of the two years I was there tho, but I'm pretty sure he interviewed me... good thing I didn't know all this before or I'd have been more scared...
*edit* just checked and he was a visiting fellow at All Soul's in that sabbatical year... still impressive tho!

Reply 816

saran35

wouldn't over-qualified be a better term to use

Reply 817

wilbsz

on the topic of no. of a levels if you do futher maths they would probably let you do a fifth a level of your choice. quiet a few people are this year

Reply 818

flyingkate

I heard that the economics entry exam is based on current affairs, how do they expect us to write a whole essay on a current affair for example, if we dont know the complete details?

Reply 819

Mr Nonsense

13

flyingkate

I heard that the economics entry exam is based on current affairs, how do they expect us to write a whole essay on a current affair for example, if we dont know the complete details?

.... they don't.... that's why the exam is not writing an essay on current affairs :rolleyes:

Westminster School? Do I stand a good chance?

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