想申请英国高中的看过来（二）
这篇整理文包含了我去笔试面试的几所学校的详细过程，考试内容能回忆起的都写进去了（考试题目和老师友善度）。和上一篇一样，这周放假后我会把这篇文翻回中国。
Wycombe Abbey:
The exam is set quite early, the assessment is split into 3 sections: English Exam, Interview and Subject Exams.
English Exam and Interview are on the same day, if you pass these two section, you go back to the school another day for Subject Exam.
English Exam: it like a combination of GCSE English Language and English Literature, you should be able to find past paper of GCSE English to practice on. However, unless you are taking GCSE English in the UK, or you have been taking class on this, I really do NOT suggest you to apply for Wycombe Abbey.
Interview: I was asked to do a short self-intro, talk about my family, my
plan for the future and how come I want to apply for this school.
Subject Exam: Sadly, I didn’t make my way to that stage... so, sorry, I know nothing about it but how difficult it is.
Brighton College:
I only had the general exams, they are the most difficult and most terrifying paper I’ve ever seen in my life.
Paper 1: EAL(English as an Additional Language): 1 hour - grammar and vocab questions + write an essay(similar to IELTS)
Paper 2: Maths: 1 hour - really easy for most of the Chinese students.
Paper 3: General Paper: the hardest paper ever. 1 hour - 3 sections: Logic, Science, Debating (writing essay)
Downe House:
I don’t intend to go to their interview because I’ve already decided to go to CLC, and besides, Downe House is too far away from town centre, they don’t even have a Sainsburry’s near by...
I took their written exams in my boarding house cos the train ticket is too expensive and I’m too lazy.
The exams are set on 3 of the subjects I’m going to take for A-Level, which are Maths, Chemistry and Religious Study, Philosophy and Ethics:. There is a General English exams as well. They are not difficult, but they do include stuff I haven’t learned yet.
Hurtwood House:
I turned down their offer as well, and my advice is that: If you are not particularly interested in drama, this school is definitely not suitable for you. They have super outstanding achievements in drama, and have fairly nice exam results as well. However, it is not exactly an academic school, and it’s literally in the mountains, 40 minutes away from the nearest town and there is no public transport.
They only require your teacher’s reference and a simple interview. Therefore the quality of students is not necessarily to be good...
St Catherine’s School, Bramley:
I did the exams and interviews in the boarding house as well, because both St Cat and CLC’s assessment are on third of November. Another tip: If you are in such an awkward situation, just tell one of the school, they are generally really nice and they will allow changes in arrangement.
Written Exams are on 3 of the subjects I’m going to take as well, which are Maths and Further Maths, Chemistry and Religious Study, Philosophy and Ethics:. There is not General English Paper, but 6-6.5+ IELTS result is required.
Interview was on Skype (I do recommend you to download one because it’s really useful when it comes to interviews), I was asked to introduce myself and my family, talk about my choices for A-Level and my future plan etc.
St Swithun School:
It is one of my favourite school. Though they require a adult’s accompany for the assessment day. Their interview on the first day is divided into different subjects.
They only assess you on 3 of the subject you chose, so I was not examined on Religious Study, Philosophy and Ethics, which was my fourth choice.
Interview:
EAL: it’s like an IELTS speaking exams. Q: Talk about yourself. Talk about your experience in the UK. How is it different from your life in China? Which one do you prefer?
Classical Civilisation: Why do you want to take this subject? Which part of the subject interests you most? Roman religion and Greek religion, which one do you think is better?(I didn’t answer this one because I don’t know how to answer it, so I just asked the examiner, does Roman religion include Christianity? And she started to explain the time period they are going to cover in A-Level and forgot about the question I was suppose to answer.) How do you think of democracy in Ancient Greece? If someone said learning history of Rome and Greece is useless, how would you defence yourself?(This was actually one of the question in the exams on the following day)
Maths and Further maths: I only got interviewed on maths because I didn’t tell them I wanted to take further maths as well until the end of all the interviews. I was asked to do a few questions in front of the examiner and explain some of the solutions to him.
Chemistry: There were two teachers, they asked me what was my favourite part of chemistry, I said ‘the experiments’. Then they asked few questions about my chemistry class in my school and asked me to talk through one of the most recent experiment I’ve done in class. I talked about flame test of positive ions. They were expecting me to answer some of the extended questions on flame test like ‘why do they have different colours?’, this is an A-Level question. Therefore here is another tip: learn things in advance, because you never know if the examiners are going to ask you questions that you haven’t learnt in class yet.
Written Exams:
Maths and Further Maths: 1 hours and a half. There were 20 questions, first 10 was fairly easy, but the following ten were all Maths Challenge type of questions which makes them very difficult and normally you won’t get enough time to finish all of them.
Chemistry: 1 hour. Loads of questions on A-Level stuff that you can only answer using your imagination. They are looking for your ability to think logically and your passion through these questions.
EAL: 1 hour. Just normal EAL paper, some questions on grammar plus one essay.
Classical Civilisation: 1 hour: 2 essay questions, the one I picked was: “If someone says studying history of ancient Greece is useless, how would you respond?
(I was not assessed on Religious Study, cause they only examine you on the first three options)
Cheltenham Ladies’ College:
Surprisingly, I got an offer from CLC before my birth day and I was so excited that I decided to drop my fliptty gibbit phone down the toilet...
The exams and interviews are extremely complicated in CLC, it last two days...
Interview:
Leadership interview: Group interview, 8 people in total. You will be given an at least 5 pages long article about some recent news, and one different question each. You need to look through the article and answer the question in 20 minutes. After that, a teacher will go through all the questions with you, and there is discussion about the questions after each answer. (Tip: say what’s on you mind, don’t be afraid of being wrong)
Principal interview: As always, self introduction, why this school, some weird questions about you. It was more like a casual chat rather than interview. We were talking about my family members and their hometowns, I was explaining all these stuff to the head using a Chinese map on a cushion in her office. (Tip: Show off your ability and knowledge, but not too much)
Math interview: Group interview, we were given some questions on the topic we’ve done in school, and some extended questions. It was not hard, but you do need to think.
Chemistry interview: I was given a big block of NaCl, but I was not told that it is NaCl. The teacher just told me to evaluate this substance, and guess what it is and the reason. He also asked me about experiment I recently did and some extended questions on it. Finally, he gave graphs on atomic structures and a periodic table and asked few questions on them. (Tip: they want to see the progress of thinking and therefore see your logic, knowledge and passion.)
Religious Study, Philosophy and Ethics: I told the teacher that I am kind of doing RS with the reverend in my school, like philosophy the most but also interested in Ethics. So the teacher mainly asked me these questions: Why do we need to learn RS? Why is Ethics important in people’s life? Would you make choices by judging: Is it good or Is it legal? We also talked about my view on some recent news.
Written Exams:
Maths: It was just a simple GCSE type exam paper.
Chemistry: Most of the questions are covered in school, but there are quite a few super-hard questions that you really need to worry about because you haven’t learnt it yet.
Religious Study: Choose between two questions, the one I picked was: Someone claims that, the presence of natural disasters shows that there is no way for a All-loving God to exist. How would you evaluate this statement?
Art: Draw some fruits in one hour with pencil.
