I haven’t been very active on this blog recently, for two main reasons – one, the server host whatever thingy was down so I couldn’t have written on it even if I’d had the time, and two, I didn’t have the time because I was busy sitting academic scholarship exams at various independent schools. I sent a few speculative emails to these schools a little while back, thinking that perhaps by some miracle I might have a chance of getting into one. I never would have dreamed that two months and twelve exams later, I’d be trying to choose between fully funded scholarship offers from all three schools I applied to.
At two of the schools, I sat exams in English Literature, Philosophy and Latin, and at one I just did English Literature and Philosophy. I also had to sit standard level entrance exams in English and maths, and a CAT-4 test (bit like an IQ test). Each of the schools did the interview process slightly differently, but mostly I had one in each of my scholarship subjects and then a general one. I think I was more terrified of the interviews than I was of the exams, probably because you can revise for exams but you never know what sort of questions they’ll ask you in an interview. Plus, these were the first interviews I’ve ever done in my life.
In case you were wondering what was involved in the exams, I’ll give you a quick rundown! The Philosophy ones gave you around 8 questions to pick usually 3 from. They would be questions such as, ‘Is it irrational to believe in God?’ or ‘Evaluate the claim that you can have evil actions, but not evil people.’
The English Literature exams were each quite different. In one, I had to choose between a given poem and prose extract to analyse. I chose the poem, which was The Allegory of the Wolf Boy by Thom Gunn – my new favourite poem now! In another exam, I had to pick 2 out of 3 given poems to compare and contrast. And in the final English exam, I had to compare and contrast 2 poems and also write about some reading that I’ve done recently. Of course, with that final question there was no stopping me. I wrote almost 4 pages about Into the Whirlwind and Flowers for Algernon in fifty minutes, until I ran out of time mid-sentence.
The two Latin exams I did were quite different too. In one, I had to translate two Latin passages into English, and then write a short essay on how learning Latin has helped me to learn other languages. Seeing as I haven’t actually learnt any other languages, I wrote instead about how it has helped me with fully understanding and correctly using English. In the other Latin exam I sat, I had to translate a passage which was infinitely harder than those in the first exam. I annotated that thing half to death, so much so that I was worried the examiner wouldn’t be able to read it. The entire page was just frantic inky scribblings. Perhaps that made it look like I knew what I was doing?? I didn’t. Anyway, I then had to analyse this piece of Ovid, studying language placement, metaphor, etc. I found this hugely difficult as well. As you can imagine, I was very much surprised when I got into this school! 😅
So there you have it. It’s been a very stressful few weeks, but so immensely worth it! I am so lucky and grateful to have been given this amazing opportunity. It took a couple of weeks to make my decision, and it was certainly a very hard decision to make, but as of Saturday the emails are sent and I’ve taken up my offer at one of these very posh and prestigious private schools!
I will be starting my time there in September 2023, studying A Levels in English Literature, Politics, Philosophy, Latin and an AS Level in Maths. At this school they tend to all start with four A Levels and drop one after a few weeks, so I would probably be doing that with one of the first four in my list.
Of course, I’m quite nervous and a little intimidated by this vast institution where I will probably be the only person there who’s been home educated their whole life. That said, I am hugely excited and can’t wait to meet the teachers and other pupils next year. I am very passionate about the subjects listed above and am eager to start my A Levels in them in just over eight months. Moreover, these schools (rightly, in my opinion) believe extracurricular involvement to be just as important as academic work. Three afternoons a week are devoted to sport and fitness, and there are a host of electives and societies to go in the evenings. As a Scholar I will be part of a special society for Scholars and other high-performing students, where they do a number of challenging projects, including studying a topic of your choice and presenting it to the other society members. Sounds like just my cup of tea.
This has been quite a long post, but perhaps that just means it has adequately captured my sheer level of excitement as regards this school. I cannot wait to begin my journey there in September next year, and of course, to take all my blog-followers along with me!