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Concord College Entrance Exam Questions

Hello all,

I have some questions regarding the 6th form entrance exams at Concord College, specifically within the subjects of Maths, Physics, Economics, and the compulsory "Critical Thinking" subject.

As I understand it, they're all MCQs, but I had some more specific questions for those who are familiar/have undertaken them in the past few years:

1. How did you find the questions? Did they test your depth, or moreso your breadth of knowledge? Did the questions drill down on a specific subject/topic, or were they mostly many well-rounded questions that tested a few skills at a time? Additionally, were they varied in their difficulty, or were all the questions of a uniform sort of difficulty?

2. How did you find the time pressure? I'm unsure as to the duration of the exams, so I was hoping that anyone was aware of this, and could inform me. Additionally, are the subjects' exams done separately to one another (time wise), or are they moreso one-after-the-other (or are you even just given a set amount of time, and given all the exams at once)?

3. How was the initial introductions/conditions? As I understand it, it's supervised, however, is this a case of joining a meeting with the examiner, making some smalltalk, then getting on with the exams, or is it a more cut-and-dry "Join, turn on your camera, and you'll start on the exams when they're provided" sort of situation?

Thank you all in advance.

Best regards,
Y

Reply 1

Original post
by JustFeyn
Hello all,
I have some questions regarding the 6th form entrance exams at Concord College, specifically within the subjects of Maths, Physics, Economics, and the compulsory "Critical Thinking" subject.
As I understand it, they're all MCQs, but I had some more specific questions for those who are familiar/have undertaken them in the past few years:
1. How did you find the questions? Did they test your depth, or moreso your breadth of knowledge? Did the questions drill down on a specific subject/topic, or were they mostly many well-rounded questions that tested a few skills at a time? Additionally, were they varied in their difficulty, or were all the questions of a uniform sort of difficulty?
2. How did you find the time pressure? I'm unsure as to the duration of the exams, so I was hoping that anyone was aware of this, and could inform me. Additionally, are the subjects' exams done separately to one another (time wise), or are they moreso one-after-the-other (or are you even just given a set amount of time, and given all the exams at once)?
3. How was the initial introductions/conditions? As I understand it, it's supervised, however, is this a case of joining a meeting with the examiner, making some smalltalk, then getting on with the exams, or is it a more cut-and-dry "Join, turn on your camera, and you'll start on the exams when they're provided" sort of situation?
Thank you all in advance.
Best regards,
Y

1. If you know your stuff to a good GCSE level, then you'll be fine. You could probably expect a few high level GCSE questions, the sort of thing you might see at AS level, but nothing much further.
2. Kinda links to 1. - if you know your stuff, you'll be able to answer them quickly and will leave time to check your work. If you take your time over the Qs, then you'll struggle to finish.
3. That would depend on who you do the testing with, some agents may spend the time making sure you're ready, others may just greet you and start. My daughter did her testing at Concord and they spent as much time settling her as she needed, that said, she was the only one that day as she applied late.

Reply 2

Original post
by Pigster
1. If you know your stuff to a good GCSE level, then you'll be fine. You could probably expect a few high level GCSE questions, the sort of thing you might see at AS level, but nothing much further.
2. Kinda links to 1. - if you know your stuff, you'll be able to answer them quickly and will leave time to check your work. If you take your time over the Qs, then you'll struggle to finish.
3. That would depend on who you do the testing with, some agents may spend the time making sure you're ready, others may just greet you and start. My daughter did her testing at Concord and they spent as much time settling her as she needed, that said, she was the only one that day as she applied late.

Thank you for your response!
I really appreciate the info; since Concord tends to keep their entrance exam under wraps (so to speak), the lack of information surrounding it was making me slightly skittish prep-wise, but you've helped to put those concerns to rest (Especially concerning your answer to me third question: since I'm in a similar situation, it's good to have an idea of the procedure).
I do have some additional questions, but these are a little bit more specific, so if you're unable to answer them, that's obviously completely fine:
4. Do you have ideas on what the "Critical Thinking" section will entail?
I assume it's likely a test of your ability to reason with modelling/wordy style maths questions, but I have a nagging feeling it's possible that it could also be something akin to traditional brain teasers/logic puzzles

5. Do you know what the timeframe/time-split is between the papers? First off, I'm still in the dark regarding the total length of the exam, and further, I am unsure how the each subject will be examined: are they done one after the other, or is it all done through a single paper/exam? If you could shine any light on this, it'd be greatly appreciated.
Thank you for your time!
Best regards,
Y

Reply 3

Original post
by JustFeyn
Thank you for your response!
I really appreciate the info; since Concord tends to keep their entrance exam under wraps (so to speak), the lack of information surrounding it was making me slightly skittish prep-wise, but you've helped to put those concerns to rest (Especially concerning your answer to me third question: since I'm in a similar situation, it's good to have an idea of the procedure).
I do have some additional questions, but these are a little bit more specific, so if you're unable to answer them, that's obviously completely fine:
4. Do you have ideas on what the "Critical Thinking" section will entail?
I assume it's likely a test of your ability to reason with modelling/wordy style maths questions, but I have a nagging feeling it's possible that it could also be something akin to traditional brain teasers/logic puzzles
5. Do you know what the timeframe/time-split is between the papers? First off, I'm still in the dark regarding the total length of the exam, and further, I am unsure how the each subject will be examined: are they done one after the other, or is it all done through a single paper/exam? If you could shine any light on this, it'd be greatly appreciated.
Thank you for your time!
Best regards,
Y

They deliberately keep the critical thinking part of the testing vague, so that applicants can't prepare for it. I don't know whether or how often it changes or whether it is different for upper and lower school applicants, but when my daughter did it, it was an essay, rather than brain teasers.

She applied to enter lower school, so did maths and English + critical thinking. Her separate test papers all were taken one morning: so around 1 hr each. I don't know, but I'd expect upper school applicants to have a similar experience.

Reply 4

Original post
by Pigster
They deliberately keep the critical thinking part of the testing vague, so that applicants can't prepare for it. I don't know whether or how often it changes or whether it is different for upper and lower school applicants, but when my daughter did it, it was an essay, rather than brain teasers.
She applied to enter lower school, so did maths and English + critical thinking. Her separate test papers all were taken one morning: so around 1 hr each. I don't know, but I'd expect upper school applicants to have a similar experience.

Thank you for all of the information, it's been incredibly useful.
I'll just try to make sure I'm all around up-to-scratch.
Truly, thank you!

Have a nice week!

Reply 5

Original post
by JustFeyn
Thank you for all of the information, it's been incredibly useful.
I'll just try to make sure I'm all around up-to-scratch.
Truly, thank you!
Have a nice week!

Out of interest, why Concord?

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