Lola’s story

Family aspirations

Lola was happily settled at one of the best junior schools in South London. However, her parents suspected that she was extremely gifted and wondered if she could pass the 11 Plus for St Paul’s Girls’ School. They felt their scholastic daughter would thrive in an environment of academic excellence.  Lola’s parents knew she had a place in her current school all the way through to eighteen, but they wanted to test the water at St Paul’s. 

Academic diagnosis

Lola sat the CEM (Incas) test with us so that we could understand both her current attainment and her academic potential. As her parents had suspected, Lola scored extremely highly on her academic assessment.  Her Verbal and Non Verbal Reasoning modules, which are sometimes used to signpost academic potential and hence, future schools, placed her as exceptional at both numeracy and literacy. This text is a very good proxy for the St Paul’s first stage exam as this is also a CEM test. 

How we helped

We found a tutor for Lola who knew the St Paul’s Girls’ School assessments particularly well and we made sure that Lola was well versed in the style of the Stage One and Stage Two St Paul’s Girls’ School exam. Her tutor also ensured that Lola was working quickly enough to get through these very tough papers in the time allotted.  Finally, as Lola was a quiet and shy girl, we conducted six practice interviews for her, helping her present herself more confidently and speak more fluently on the day of her interview.

Lola’s success

Lola was delighted to be offered a place at St Paul’s Girls’ School and enjoyed lessons with her Maths tutor so much, she decided to carry on with her lessons just for fun. Lola has overcome her shyness at secondary school and is now a valued member of the Debate Team. 

‘Finnian was just exceptional.  We can’t thank him enough and will be recommending him to all our friends in the year below’.