We have now reached the part of the 11+ process when exams are done and the final hurdle looms – interviews. If you have reached this stage, congratulations! Getting to the interview stage is often the hardest part. While I will of course share interview advice as the title suggests, I must add that in my experience, parents worry about interviews far too much.
How important is the interview stage?
Many prep heads privately agree that interviews account for 10% of the final decision at best, if not less. At least that is the case for academically selective London Day Schools, with very few exceptions. Boarding schools are a different story. It is important for parents to know that the final decision is not based on interview performance. This may seem obvious, but I have often encountered parents who said their child “failed the interview” or “must have done badly” because they did not receive an 11+ offer after being interviewed.
In my experience, this is a misunderstanding of how the process works, and I have received the same feedback from numerous prep Heads. It is fairly common for children who likely aced the exam but were convinced they had a terrible interview to receive numerous offers, while other children who might be weaker academically but come across well in interviews were waitlisted or rejected. I can think of a girl interviewing at a highly academic girls’ school (no prizes for guessing which one) whose parents were extremely worried about the interview because she was shy and monosyllabic in her answers. She had no problem getting an offer. At the same time, a confident and eloquent boy whose interview went so well that the interviewer confided “I hope you did well in the exam because I can tell you this interview went very well!” ended up with a rejection at another school.
What percentage of interviewees receive an 11+ offer?
It is very rare for schools to provide this information, and many of them will deny the following numbers if asked outright. Based on years of tracking hundreds of candidates and offers, I am fairly confident about the following information. The percentage of interviewees who receive an offer is at least 55% for a small number of highly selective schools (or schools that interview all candidates). For the majority of schools, it is 75% – 80% with most of the remainder ending up on the waiting list rather than being rejected (exceptions are schools that interview all/most candidates and a few highly selective schools that do reject some interviewees). The main selection therefore happens at the exam stage, where as many as half or even three quarters of candidates are eliminated from the process.
How to prepare for independent school interviews
Most people think of preparing for the questions that are likely to be asked and I will get to that later. A less obvious way to prepare is to leave direct preparation aside for a week -especially after the drawn-out process of exams – and take your child out to enriching activities, such as a play, a daytrip to a national park, ice skating or trampolining. Very common questions to expect are actually
– “what do you like doing on weekends?” or
– “did you do anything special during the holidays?”,
and sadly, many 11+ candidates can remember nothing but studying and tutoring in the final weeks. One Head put it bluntly during an open day: “The saddest answer is unfortunately also the most common answer; almost every candidate says they used to do swimming / cycling / martial arts on weekends but had to stop because of the 11+.” Make sure your child has something more exciting to talk about than tutoring and workbooks. While preparation is important in Year 5 and the autumn term of Year 6, any additional preparation in spring term is often counterproductive.
Another important part of preparation is to spend time browsing the school’s website, reading up on areas such as clubs and activities, trips, the curriculum (make a note of languages offered) and sports. It can get your child excited about attending, and it ensures they can demonstrate interest and knowledge of the school. They are often asked what sort of clubs they might want to do or what hobbies they have, and it is great if they can link that to an activity offered at the school. They are also likely going to be asked if they have any questions, and doing a bit of research beforehand will help your child to ask more interesting questions about aspects that are not covered on the website.
Questions to expect in 11+ interviews
Keystone Tutors have put together a very helpful overview of typical 11+ interview questions here, so I will not repeat them and recommend you read the article. In addition, it is important to practice how to convey negative information gracefully and diplomatically. For example, along with the common “what is your favourite subject?”, candidates are often asked “what is your least favourite subject and why?”. It is wise to answer along the lines of “My least favourite subject is French because I find it very difficult, although I am working hard to improve.” rather than “I don’t like English because I hate writing,” or “I don’t like science because it is very boring.”
Beyond the common questions about hobbies, books and favourite subjects, some schools like to challenge their candidates with unexpected open-ended questions, such as:
• What would you do if you entered your bathroom and found a penguin inside?
• What does it mean to be a good person?
• Is it always wrong to steal?
• If you were offered a pill that would guarantee that you are always happy, would you take it?
There are no right answers, but teachers will always value maturity, thoughtfulness and creativity. It is a good idea to take some time to reflect on the question before answering and to elaborate on the answer or to tackle it from several points of view.
It is important to remember that schools also use interviews to promote themselves to candidates and to show that they are welcoming and inspiring places to learn. As a result, I hope your child has a positive experience and will be spoilt for choice in February!