Cardiff sixth form college entrance exams inquiry

I'm planning on hopefully trying to apply doe a scholarship in 2026 but I am just wondering what the entrance exams + online exams are like.
I'm hopefully planning on taking english lit, physics, further maths and maths.
I would really appreciate to know what they briefly like and some tips for entrance!
(Also if u have been accepted for scholarship what were ur grades?)
Thank you!

This is my first post on this website, so my bad if I do something wrong but I thought I'd chip in since I got the news a few days ago that I managed to get the full scholarship.
A bit of context I am a local Welsh student and I have attended state schools my whole life.
Tldr at the end
The college makes the admissions process sound a lot scarier than it actually is! It was reiterated that they want to scare people off of applying. This reduces admin work for the college and ensures that only the most determined apply and have the chance to get the scholarship.
For the interview I would recommend spending some time researching the college and having a somewhat solid idea of your future plans but overall it was very laid back.
The online reasoning test is a fairly short test that is essentially just an IQ test. I have no idea how well I did in it and there is no real way to revise it, just go into it with confidence and it'll all be alright.
The entrance exams were also very fair in my opinion. You choose one subject of your four to as your scholarship exam, this test is a bit harder and is what determines whether or not you get shortlisted or not. If you take any piece of advice from this I want it to be to NOT do further maths as your scholarship paper. The college does not care that you took the harder subject as your scholarship paper, they only care if you got a good mark on the paper.
The only paper I can really give advice for would be the maths paper as I also sat that paper. I did not take it as my scholarship paper though. The whole paper was just past paper questions. And I can say the same thing for every single one of my exams. If you want to revise, revise as if you were revising for your GCSEs.
The structure of the day is very laid back, you sign in, go up to the exam room, you get 30 minutes to sit each exam with a five minute break between and you get lunch too which was a good time to chat to people.
One of the most essential parts of the application process that I think people disregard is the personal statement. I ended up with about five iterations of my statement after showing it to half the teachers in my school and ripping it apart with my English teacher. Your personal statement is the only time the college gets to see who you are as a person, and the only aspect of the application process that is not under timed conditions, so use that to your advantage.
On results day you send your grades through and the day after I got the news that I got in. They ask for 9 A*s for a good chance of getting in for scholarship students and I will shamefully admit I did not get that on results day. I genuinely thought I was done for when I opened my results but thankfully (and rightfully so I suppose) the college looked at my grades contextually compared to my school, town, and background. I come from quite a deprived area and my mother is unemployed and my father is a student himself. I doubt the college would ever tell me but I am almost certain these aspects aided in me getting the scholarship. If I went to a big school in Cardiff with two working parents I doubt I would've gotten in, so please carefully look at your current situation and assess what kind of minimum grades you need.
My final piece of advice would be to go to an open day! I went to the one in January and I got to speak to the teachers and students and they all gave me great advice for my application and it was a great motivation. They also gave me a dragon which is pretty cool.
I wish you all the best with your application and GCSEs over the next few months. I hope you'll be able to join me in the new campus in 2026!
TLDR
Interview - research the college, it's very laid back
Online reasoning test - an IQ test essentially, no real way to revise
Personal statement - use the unlimited time you get to write this to your advantage! Take your time with it
Entrance exams - do NOT choose further maths as your scholarship paper. Revise it as you would your GCSEs, it is all essentially past paper sort of questions
GCSE grades - look at yourself and your school contextually, formulate your own minimum grades
Overall - attend an open day! Very nice event with free stuff and a great opportunity to get even more advice (they are in October and January). Best of luck with your application and GCSEs and I hope to welcome you in the new campus in 2026!

This is my first post on this website, so my bad if I do something wrong but I thought I'd chip in since I got the news a few days ago that I managed to get the full scholarship.
A bit of context I am a local Welsh student and I have attended state schools my whole life.
Tldr at the end
The college makes the admissions process sound a lot scarier than it actually is! It was reiterated that they want to scare people off of applying. This reduces admin work for the college and ensures that only the most determined apply and have the chance to get the scholarship.
For the interview I would recommend spending some time researching the college and having a somewhat solid idea of your future plans but overall it was very laid back.
The online reasoning test is a fairly short test that is essentially just an IQ test. I have no idea how well I did in it and there is no real way to revise it, just go into it with confidence and it'll all be alright.
The entrance exams were also very fair in my opinion. You choose one subject of your four to as your scholarship exam, this test is a bit harder and is what determines whether or not you get shortlisted or not. If you take any piece of advice from this I want it to be to NOT do further maths as your scholarship paper. The college does not care that you took the harder subject as your scholarship paper, they only care if you got a good mark on the paper.
The only paper I can really give advice for would be the maths paper as I also sat that paper. I did not take it as my scholarship paper though. The whole paper was just past paper questions. And I can say the same thing for every single one of my exams. If you want to revise, revise as if you were revising for your GCSEs.
The structure of the day is very laid back, you sign in, go up to the exam room, you get 30 minutes to sit each exam with a five minute break between and you get lunch too which was a good time to chat to people.
One of the most essential parts of the application process that I think people disregard is the personal statement. I ended up with about five iterations of my statement after showing it to half the teachers in my school and ripping it apart with my English teacher. Your personal statement is the only time the college gets to see who you are as a person, and the only aspect of the application process that is not under timed conditions, so use that to your advantage.
On results day you send your grades through and the day after I got the news that I got in. They ask for 9 A*s for a good chance of getting in for scholarship students and I will shamefully admit I did not get that on results day. I genuinely thought I was done for when I opened my results but thankfully (and rightfully so I suppose) the college looked at my grades contextually compared to my school, town, and background. I come from quite a deprived area and my mother is unemployed and my father is a student himself. I doubt the college would ever tell me but I am almost certain these aspects aided in me getting the scholarship. If I went to a big school in Cardiff with two working parents I doubt I would've gotten in, so please carefully look at your current situation and assess what kind of minimum grades you need.
My final piece of advice would be to go to an open day! I went to the one in January and I got to speak to the teachers and students and they all gave me great advice for my application and it was a great motivation. They also gave me a dragon which is pretty cool.
I wish you all the best with your application and GCSEs over the next few months. I hope you'll be able to join me in the new campus in 2026!
TLDR
Interview - research the college, it's very laid back
Online reasoning test - an IQ test essentially, no real way to revise
Personal statement - use the unlimited time you get to write this to your advantage! Take your time with it
Entrance exams - do NOT choose further maths as your scholarship paper. Revise it as you would your GCSEs, it is all essentially past paper sort of questions
GCSE grades - look at yourself and your school contextually, formulate your own minimum grades
Overall - attend an open day! Very nice event with free stuff and a great opportunity to get even more advice (they are in October and January). Best of luck with your application and GCSEs and I hope to welcome you in the new campus in 2026!

sorry my other question is, i currently take 14 subjects. If i were to get 11 A*s but do poorly in the other three subjects (i think i might only get a C/B or in music and welsh) would this put me at a disadvantage?

im planning on doing further maths scholarship (im applying for cambridge campus), is it harder and is it like the rest of the exams which just cover gcse content, or is it like harder, covers as/a level content and maths olympiad-styled?

i sat my entrance exams with around 50 other people, around 10 of which took fm as scholarship. only one got the scholarship. not because the others werent good at maths, they were great, but they chose fm scholarship to 'look smarter' but they just couldnt keep up with the exam. the one boy that did get the scholarship did all of the as and a2 maths exams in year 11 alongside his gcses and got an a*. so if thats you then absolutely go for it but there is absolutely no shame in doing scholarship maths or another subject instead. i couldnt tell you what is on the scholarship fm paper but i know on the regular fm paper it is just all level 2 additional maths content

Im applying to cambridge campus so all my entrance tests are scholarship tests lol (im doing three sciences, maths and fm)

heyy sorry for just seeing this i forget to check notifications for this hope this isnt too late!
you will take four entrance exams, one in each of your chosen subjects, and for scholarships you will choose one that will be a bit more difficult but will be your scholarship exam. you will sit all four exams in one day but you do get a lot of breaks and lunch too which is nice
all of the entrance exams are looked at individually (and marked by the respective teachers). my friend for example for a scholarship (chose physics to be her scholarship exam), but failed further maths so when she came to the school she was on a full scholarship but had to choose another subject to sit the entrance exams for since she didnt get into fm. dont know if that makes sense sorry but they dont look at all of your exams overall, they are individual
it purely depends on which subjects you do tbh, if you wanted to do an mfl but only got a b in welsh then yeah you would be at a disadvantage but if you wanted to (for example) do all stem then the school couldnt care less about your welsh/music grades
hope this helps)

i sat my entrance exams with around 50 other people, around 10 of which took fm as scholarship. only one got the scholarship. not because the others werent good at maths, they were great, but they chose fm scholarship to 'look smarter' but they just couldnt keep up with the exam. the one boy that did get the scholarship did all of the as and a2 maths exams in year 11 alongside his gcses and got an a*. so if thats you then absolutely go for it but there is absolutely no shame in doing scholarship maths or another subject instead. i couldnt tell you what is on the scholarship fm paper but i know on the regular fm paper it is just all level 2 additional maths content

hey thank you so much. I've just been worried about my welsh and music grades, there's definitely no way i'd pick those for a levels anyway (i dont think cardiff have them even if i wanted to). I plan on taking further maths and maths so could i just pick maths as my scholarship paper? Or does that just make me less competitve. I want to take further maths but I'm not sure if the scholarship paper will be my best. (I am taking additional maths wjec level 2 for reference).
I have another question is, when I'm applying it says you have to kind of write like a personal statement i guess you could say? To why you think you are worthy of the scholarship, I have no idea what to write, it would really be helpful if u could give me some advice. (ie. should i get teacher references or is that not necessary?)
And also, in regards to the CAT4 how did you prepare? I absolutely suck at those type of tests and Im wondering how much they affect whether or not you get a scholarship.
Any general advice would be appreciated, thanks so much.

This is my first post on this website, so my bad if I do something wrong but I thought I'd chip in since I got the news a few days ago that I managed to get the full scholarship.
A bit of context I am a local Welsh student and I have attended state schools my whole life.
Tldr at the end
The college makes the admissions process sound a lot scarier than it actually is! It was reiterated that they want to scare people off of applying. This reduces admin work for the college and ensures that only the most determined apply and have the chance to get the scholarship.
For the interview I would recommend spending some time researching the college and having a somewhat solid idea of your future plans but overall it was very laid back.
The online reasoning test is a fairly short test that is essentially just an IQ test. I have no idea how well I did in it and there is no real way to revise it, just go into it with confidence and it'll all be alright.
The entrance exams were also very fair in my opinion. You choose one subject of your four to as your scholarship exam, this test is a bit harder and is what determines whether or not you get shortlisted or not. If you take any piece of advice from this I want it to be to NOT do further maths as your scholarship paper. The college does not care that you took the harder subject as your scholarship paper, they only care if you got a good mark on the paper.
The only paper I can really give advice for would be the maths paper as I also sat that paper. I did not take it as my scholarship paper though. The whole paper was just past paper questions. And I can say the same thing for every single one of my exams. If you want to revise, revise as if you were revising for your GCSEs.
The structure of the day is very laid back, you sign in, go up to the exam room, you get 30 minutes to sit each exam with a five minute break between and you get lunch too which was a good time to chat to people.
One of the most essential parts of the application process that I think people disregard is the personal statement. I ended up with about five iterations of my statement after showing it to half the teachers in my school and ripping it apart with my English teacher. Your personal statement is the only time the college gets to see who you are as a person, and the only aspect of the application process that is not under timed conditions, so use that to your advantage.
On results day you send your grades through and the day after I got the news that I got in. They ask for 9 A*s for a good chance of getting in for scholarship students and I will shamefully admit I did not get that on results day. I genuinely thought I was done for when I opened my results but thankfully (and rightfully so I suppose) the college looked at my grades contextually compared to my school, town, and background. I come from quite a deprived area and my mother is unemployed and my father is a student himself. I doubt the college would ever tell me but I am almost certain these aspects aided in me getting the scholarship. If I went to a big school in Cardiff with two working parents I doubt I would've gotten in, so please carefully look at your current situation and assess what kind of minimum grades you need.
My final piece of advice would be to go to an open day! I went to the one in January and I got to speak to the teachers and students and they all gave me great advice for my application and it was a great motivation. They also gave me a dragon which is pretty cool.
I wish you all the best with your application and GCSEs over the next few months. I hope you'll be able to join me in the new campus in 2026!
TLDR
Interview - research the college, it's very laid back
Online reasoning test - an IQ test essentially, no real way to revise
Personal statement - use the unlimited time you get to write this to your advantage! Take your time with it
Entrance exams - do NOT choose further maths as your scholarship paper. Revise it as you would your GCSEs, it is all essentially past paper sort of questions
GCSE grades - look at yourself and your school contextually, formulate your own minimum grades
Overall - attend an open day! Very nice event with free stuff and a great opportunity to get even more advice (they are in October and January). Best of luck with your application and GCSEs and I hope to welcome you in the new campus in 2026!

I just want to say: thank you so so so much for this perspective. I created an account right now purely because this was so helpful 😭
(I'm year 11 right now)
I'm considering applying for year 12 entrance 2026 for a scholarship - would you say it's too late to start revising? I'm doing 12 subjects, 11 gcses + add maths, and i've got an A* in the maths gcse in year 10 (99% raw mark), as well as full UMS for the triple sciences.
Is this realistic expectation for applying for a scholarship? All of my subjects are predicted A* from exams etc. but I'm still quite convinced the content will be difficult, and that it's fairly normal to have all these stellar grades ... i feel like the year 10 GCSE knowledge has left my brain
Also, would the exams be more or less GCSE level, as in, unit 1 and 2 science stuff combined (that's year 11 though, we haven't done it yet 😭) ? Though actually, that's a pretty detailed question, so maybe don't answer it if it's not allowed. (i'm not altogether too sure about the limitations on these exam stuff)
Thank you so much anyways for your answers !

I just want to say: thank you so so so much for this perspective. I created an account right now purely because this was so helpful 😭
(I'm year 11 right now)
I'm considering applying for year 12 entrance 2026 for a scholarship - would you say it's too late to start revising? I'm doing 12 subjects, 11 gcses + add maths,
I sat one of these subjects in year 10 already - maths gcse A* (99% raw mark), as well as full UMS in the unit 1s of triple sciences (the usual).
Is this a realistic expectation for applying for a scholarship? All of my subjects are predicted A* from exams etc. but I'm still quite convinced the content will be difficult, and that it's fairly normal to have all these stellar grades ... i feel like the year 10 GCSE knowledge has left my brain
Also, would the exams be more or less GCSE level, as in, unit 1 and 2 science stuff combined (that's year 11 though, we haven't done it yet 😭) ? Though actually, that's a pretty detailed question, so maybe don't answer it if it's not allowed. (i'm not altogether too sure about the limitations on these exam stuff)
Thank you so much anyways for your answers !

actually, thinking about it... i don't even know when these entrance exams take place in the year. hopefully in a few months?

Lol oops just saw this one but the entrance exams are sat in the Easter half term

Sorry for just seeing this but I sat primarily humanity subjects + maths so I cant speak for science but it covered pretty much everything you will cover in your GCSEs. They're not designed to trip you up theyre designed to essentially have a script of your GCSEs which is why the exams are sat so close to the real exams because you would already be revising.
The school will also send an email to you and/or your parent/guardian about what to revise, so keep ahold of that when you get it!
Also, yes, that is absolutely realistic for applying for a scholarship. I know people who have gotten a rull scholarship and had Bs, so really dont worry!
And im very glad to help, I wish you all the best in your application!