The realities of the City 7+ Assessment.

 Our boys did so well in their City Round 1 7+ assessment. We are so incredibly proud of all of them. They all put in the work and were consistent in showing up to their lessons each week and completing the home learning set for them each week. They were dedicated and committed and so were our clients and each week it was a delight to see the progress that they each were making and continue to make. So why did some children pass and some children not pass the 7+ assessment at City?

I will be publishing our results once we have the results of the second round.

As with any assessment, you will always have children who pass and you will always have children who do not. It is a competition and it is a percentage game. I have always said this. In order to pass the first round, your son will have had to have scored the percentage threshold set by City which I believe to be around 80-85%.

If your child did not pass, it is because they did not achieve this percentage threshold.

That is the only reason for your child not passing.

So, if you have City coming up in the future for your child’s 7+ assessment, here is some advice for you (if you’d like to listen to someone who has been preparing boys for City for nearly 2 decades and has seen what works and what does not).

1.        Start early. 2 years before. When your child has just started Reception. Can children be successful with less prep time than this? Yes, but it really will depend on their child and their capacity to pick up new concepts quickly. All children are different and some take longer to grasp new concepts than others.

2.        Prepare them to be exceptional at reading. Expose them to hundreds of texts and all of the question types. Do this repeatedly and consistently over the course of the 2 years preparation time that you will need in order to successfully prepare your child for City. Have a reading list that you choose books from and read, read and read some more. Your child must be reading chapter books before the City 7+ assessment and have a broad and vast vocabulary.

3.        Prepare them to be exceptional at maths. Have an excellent maths programme that you will use. Don’t over think this. Just choose one and stick to it. Cover all of the Year 1 (mastery level), Year 2 (mastery level )and Year 3 curriculums (expected level) and some of the year 4 curriculum (expected level). If you don’t know which curriculum you should cover, work with someone who does and who can support you. Cover all areas of the maths curriculum. All of them.

4.        Prepare your child to be exceptional at writing. Your child should have written at least 10 stories before going to their City 7+ assessment. These stories should be at the standard expected at City. If you don’t know the standard expected, work with someone who does.

5. Prepare for round 2 as you prepare for round 1 and do not just wait to see if your child has been successful before preparing for round 2. You will not have enough time.

Passing the first round does not mean that your child will pass the second round. So be sure to prepare them thoroughly.

Join our City Round 2 7+ Success Programme launching next Monday to have the highest possible chances for success. We have prepared hundreds of boys for this 7+ assessment over the last 20 years and we know exactly what to expect and how to prepare our boys to know exactly how to show up and show their truest potentials.