Entrance exams into Westminster and other sixth forms in 2024

Hey I'm also applying for Kings and Westminster! For Westminster I'm going to take geography, english, philosophy, and then I'm stuck between economics and art history. For Kings I would take philosophy psychology politics and maybe geography. So I'm a bit more humanities based than you guys.

My extracurriculars aren't that impressive, they're mostly sports based which doesn't help much I'm guessing. I've done sports to a high level but regarding academics, it's mostly a few science and maths competitions which my entire year undertook since I go to a grammar school.

I'm quite worried about the TSA and general paper? Do you guys know much about that, I'm a bit confused.

Ooh a humanities person! Hi! I’m also wondering if I should just do maths/phil/history/econ which would be a bit more similar to your subject choices. Idk really but your extracurriculars seem like they have a breadth which is what westminster seems to want. And it shows dedication, I guess?

I read that their TSA is milder than the oxbridge one, but it might’ve changed since the comments I read were made. I’m not sure about the general one - I don’t think they do a general paper but a general interview? Their website says it’ll be 20 minutes this year like all their subject interviews.

maths people scare me honestly haha kudos to you i do take add. maths at gcse but hate it so much. regarding the general paper question, i think kings does that so i was asking but yeah westminster has a general interview.

i feel as though i should partake in more clubs than just sport, which is a bit worrying because i don't think i have the time tbh

what subjects would be your other choice? maths/econ definitely go together and so do philosophy/history i reckon, so it's good you have variety but if you're rlly into maths then it might be good to do physics or smth idk im clueless tbh.

i forgot to say i'm also a girl!!

Ooh I (will) take add maths too! But my school does this thing where we do normal maths first, take the test in oct/nov, and then add maths in june. I’m really excited but nervous at the same time.

Will you be an international student? I noticed you said add maths instead of further which is CIE I think? I’ll be one (will board), and also a girl.

idk if I’m actually very good at maths? I just really enjoy it. I read that Westminster allows you to switch subjects after you get accepted if you take your exams so I figured that if I don’t like either philosophy or econ I’ll ask to take further maths. I‘ve been walking around calling physics “wannabe maths” to anyone that’ll listen for years haha - people who take it are insanely cool though! I was also considering art history because I take art but I felt like it doesn’t fit in with the rest of my subject choices. In all honesty I want to take all of their subjects - it seems like such a good school!

what country are you coming from? i go to school in england, my school just calls it add maths so im not really sure, it's basically where we cover all the gcse topics in year 10 and then do alevel content in year 11. but i likely would board as well because i don't want to commute two hours every day and i think it would be a good experience

at the open day, the tour guide said it was completely fine to change your subjects after the entrance but then the westminster website said that you'll need to resit exams if you switch which is confusing me tbh

i would really like to do art history but i feel like it's regarded as a weaker alevel by universities so i don't know haha i probably would hate economics but it would be more useful

what country are you coming from? i go to school in england, my school just calls it add maths so im not really sure, it's basically where we cover all the gcse topics in year 10 and then do alevel content in year 11. but i likely would board as well because i don't want to commute two hours every day and i think it would be a good experience

at the open day, the tour guide said it was completely fine to change your subjects after the entrance but then the westminster website said that you'll need to resit exams if you switch which is confusing me tbh

i would really like to do art history but i feel like it's regarded as a weaker alevel by universities so i don't know haha i probably would hate economics but it would be more useful

I go to a school in Vietnam - we do cambridge igcse. I think schools have different ways of structuring maths/add maths. We'd both be boarders then! It would be really nice if we both got in and already made a friend!

I've heard some people say that it's fine to change your subjects after - apparently you take the exam and if you get a good grade in it you can switch and otherwise you keep the subject you got in for. And apparently someone swapped subjects 4 times before settling down at christmas.

Art history is insanely cool and if I was more interested in art I'd probably take it but I'm not really that big into art and I can't see myself doing anything related to art further down. I take global perspectives atm which is basically global politics/econ/presentations/research essays. And apparently weird names that "haven't been used in the last 100 years" according to a random baby name website I found. I really like gp so I think I'll like econ. It's also partially maths from what I've seen so yay for that! Stats, too, which is my favourite part about maths. I think it's also a lot of essay writing which basically means it's a direct path from the class I'm taking.

oh my gosh i love vietnam, i'm chinese so asian representation 👍👍 i don't do art at all but i'd like to do law and westminster doesn't have psychology or politics which is what i was going to take so i'm a bit stuck for options. art history is apparently for people who like english/phil/history so might suit me but still stuck between it and econ haha

igcse has cool options i would've loved to take global perspectives! for gcse i take triple science, maths, add maths, english lit&lang, french, rs, pe and geography

Also I forgot to ask!! What was the open day like? I wanted to go but my school only ends on the friday before that and I didn't want to hop on a plane right after school ended. I'm trying to recreate that this summer by visiting the abbey as a tourist but obviously it wouldn't be the same at all.

Hey guys, current (about to graduate) sixth former here. I got into King's (Cantebury I'm assuming), Brighton, Wellington (although I ended up going to a different sixth form) and I think this advice depends differently between international and home applicants.

International applicants will undoubtedly require significantly higher stats/entry requirements.
If you're applying for entry at sixth form, be expected to have high iGCSEs (if you come from say GSIS or any international iGCSE school) or it's equivalents (such as IB pred 7s, high AP scores etc), having good extracurriculars (for internationals this usually is music, it certainly was for me, e.g. DipABRSM / ARSM in piano/violin/flute etc.), if you are good at Rugby/cricket (if you're from an international school that is possible), any competitions for music/poetry/sport that you've won.

If you're applying for entry at novi/year 9, be expected to have decent report cards and MYP scores, or again any iGCSE predicted equivalents. Sport and music are important here, even more so particularly. All the above advice on sports/extracurriculars is still applicable here. You will have a higher chance if you are particularly skilled in one area, e.g. maths. With the interviews, I would say that dress to impress. Try to come off as more mature, try to be more cheerful. Cheerful and mature can go together. This is something that will definitely help.

Best of luck to all applying!

ty for the advice!

My teachers only predicts grades after y11 mocks, but from what I've observed I'm predicted mostly A*s and As, and maybe a B or two. Do you think that teacher comments matter? My comments are mostly alright but I think my french teacher hates me and basically complained that I was an awful student in her class and said I was "late to class" which I'd never been. My only proper extracurricular is being editor of the school newspaper - would that be a good extracurricular? I'm not big into sports and we don't really have a big music department (or any, for that matter). I play in my class band? but it's more of a marketing thing than an igcse/gcse thing.

I think that the hardest bits will be the exams and the few teacher comments because I'm usually pretty good with teachers and I'm always cheerful anyways. Is there a thing as being "too knowledgable" in certain areas about the school (policies, old TSR threads etc)? I like to do research but I certainly don't want to come off as stalker-ish. TIA!

what part of the application requires teacher comments? i thought the school would write to your head and then they'll give you a recommendation, is it different for international application? i definitely need to read up on the entry process haha

ty for the advice!

My teachers only predicts grades after y11 mocks, but from what I've observed I'm predicted mostly A*s and As, and maybe a B or two. Do you think that teacher comments matter? My comments are mostly alright but I think my french teacher hates me and basically complained that I was an awful student in her class and said I was "late to class" which I'd never been. My only proper extracurricular is being editor of the school newspaper - would that be a good extracurricular? I'm not big into sports and we don't really have a big music department (or any, for that matter). I play in my class band? but it's more of a marketing thing than an igcse/gcse thing.

I think that the hardest bits will be the exams and the few teacher comments because I'm usually pretty good with teachers and I'm always cheerful anyways. Is there a thing as being "too knowledgable" in certain areas about the school (policies, old TSR threads etc)? I like to do research but I certainly don't want to come off as stalker-ish. TIA!

So I think in term of "reports" or teachers comment's, this kind of change. In my school we have a term report, which basically details my grades and my performance for all subjects, so that's what I handed in. If your French teacher hates you then... err.. do a little brown nosing lol or just straight up tell her that you're applying for another school... you could also bring it up with the head of your year or any person with a little bit more authority to see how that happens. I had a teacher who liked me write me a letter of recommendation, but I feel this kind of changes between different schools. Being editor is great! That will definitely help, but overall I thing you would need quite a significant no. of achievements, ie 4 or more to really be more competitive. Personally I was from a mostly American international school, so we were working with lots of charities etc. since we started and that probably made my CV a little bit better. If you are good at music though, or good at one specific thing, that could be writing or poetry or recital etc. that could help. I got invited to a performance thing where I played for multiple admissions officers and got accepted for multiple scholarships. If you have a superb piece of writing, or a journalistic article I would highly suggest you hand it in because it a) makes an impression, and b) shows prowess that indicates you could continue this in the future and c) could land you a scholarship

I don't think it hurts per se to be knowledgable, but I don't think it matters. When I came in for the interviews, I didn't much about the schools I was applying to.. obviously little details on new facilities etc but not so much... heck even to this day I can't remember when it was founded lol. I would say know enough, but not to the point where you know teachers' names (aside from your interviewer) or specific things. Hope this helps!