Arnold House has a strong tradition of sending boys to many of the most selective schools in the country and has always kept up to speed with any changes to the system. We constantly strive to ensure an Arnold House boy is prepared for whatever comes his way. ISEB have often made the point that the Common Pre-Test is something that requires very little preparation; on the contrary, we have always felt that familiarisation can improve results and have always had this embedded in our curriculum throughout the different year groups. Many years ago we introduced online reasoning practice using both Baines Online Formative Assessment (BOFA) and Atom Learning. Both have their benefits in ensuring that a boy is comfortable doing online testing. While this is something that has filtered down to Year 3; it really goes up a level from Year 5. This is to supplement the important learning that happens in the classroom, particularly in Maths and English lessons.
The ISEB Common Pre-Test was originally set by GL Assessment; a company that provides the standardised assessments for our CAT4 tests and Progress tests from Year 3 all the way through to Year 8. We had always felt there were areas that could be improved and we were never hesitant in our efforts to feed our thoughts back to ISEB. It was therefore not a surprise to hear that in 2022, ISEB had made the decision to move away from GL Assessment and use a new platform provider, Century Education. From the beginning of this new direction, we were very much part of the conversation and were one of the few schools selected to pilot the new assessment platform as well as their online learning resources.
Century Education believed it can provide a test in all four areas that adopts a holistic approach of a pupil and allow a senior school to extract the key information that they require as part of their admissions process.
When our Y6 boys (and some Y7 boys) sit the ISEB Common Pre-Test, they do so in our IT suite at Loudoun Road. This is done over two days in week 10 and is integrated into the boys normal timetable. The timings of the test are Maths: 40 mins, English 40 mins, Verbal: 25 mins, Non-Verbal 30 mins. Boys can only sit the Pre-Test if their parents/guardians have registered them on the ISEB platform for a senior school that requires it (not all do). A prospective senior school can only access the results of a pupil if they have been registered in their process. The results of the Pre-Test are never shared with Arnold House or the parents of the pupil. Senior schools will use the data provided by the test in various ways, but it will help to inform them should they decide they want the pupil to make it through to the next stage of their process. For many of the schools this will then require further online or written testing as well as an interview with senior staff at that particular school. Some schools may do further group activities to see how pupils work with their peers, some ask boys to prepare a presentation or have various options of extra curricular lessons to join.
Interestingly, some schools are now interested to not only interview the boys but they also like to meet their parents. This is something Arnold House parents will be familiar with as it is part of the admissions process here. I don’t think any of us involved in the senior school transfer process are surprised by this move because as well as the right boy, schools are looking for the right family as well.
Each assessment for a senior school can prove quite daunting for a 10 / 11-year-old boy and there is an excellent team at Arnold House to prepare them for what they will see at each school. Each pupil will have a practice interview with the Headmaster, whilst Mr Matthews and Mr Cox will see the boy to go through what he can expect on his assessment day. This will include the pupil doing a Q and A session with a boy from the year above who experienced the process from the previous year.
The whole process can be very frustrating at times for prep schools, particularly for staff who are heavily involved. With that being said, it is good to see that senior schools and ISEB are listening to where things can improve. The key thing is to hopefully make the process as seamless as possible for the boys, parents and the school. I doubt we will ever get to the ideal process as senior schools will always want to do their own thing to identify talent, but the ISEB Pre-Test will I am sure be around for many years.
David Cox & Dayne Matthews