The first time I came across Academic Scholarships was through the murmuring of my friends when we were in the younger year-groups of prep school, pointing out people that were “scholars” or “in the scholars class” in Year 8. They were the academic elite of our school, which gave them a bit of an aura. (My school, Hilden Grange, was very close to Tonbridge School, so the bulk of Year 8 students would be aiming for Tonbridge as their leaver destination.) I remember one student a few years above got the Ainsle (top scholarship) and was elevated to a “God-Tier” in the school folklore!
Based on how one is performing relative to the year group, one gets a feel for whether going for a scholarship may be on the cards (or not) but the topic only formally comes up after the Year 7 end of year exams where, based on performance in these (which were Common Entrance 13+ exams filtered for topics we had studied), the school wrote to me/my parents to say they thought I had a good shot and should consider it. 12-year-old me was a bit daunted by it due to us having to sit the exams at Tonbridge School (which was big and scary) rather than at my current school (which was small, familiar and friendly) but, after a chat with someone a couple of years older who went through the process, I decided to go for it!
Year 8 started and us scholars were grouped separately for all subjects, so for my whole of Year 8 I was in a class of 4 which led to a much more academically focused experience; it was great! What wasn’t great was how much harder all the material was! It hits you like a slap in the face; I think I went from getting high 70s % average in that end of Year 7 common entrance mock to something like 27% average in our first November Scholarship mocks! But the teachers told us not to worry as this was pretty normal as people recalibrate to the harder material and, lo and behold I managed to up this performance to get 65% average in the February mocks, which was reassuring progress compared the DEFCON 1 catastrophic trajectory I seemed to be on in November! It was the first time, really, that I had been stretched hard, academically. But the 4 of us were all in the same boat and we bonded very well that year, sharing the experience of attempting this huge academic challenge together with all the ups and downs it brings! By that point, also, being right at the top of the school, the teachers were treating us with much more respect, and we were the oldest students in the school so you felt good about your position in the micro-hierarchy of this prep school! With hindsight, Year 8 was without doubt one of the best years in my education journey!
At my school, the standard options everyone took were Maths II, Latin II and Divinity. I, however, had no interest in Divinity (ironic as I went on to study the subject at A-level!) and was good at French so I opted for French II instead. This led to a slightly awkward situation as my school had RS timetabled into the lesson schedule and, in doing French II, I needed to learn more content than was being taught in my French classes. The solution, as far as I remember, was my French teacher gave me some useful materials to work through which I think I did during scheduled Divinity classes, and we worked on it a bit more at home with my Mum. I had a few tuition classes with a native French speaker, too, for additional grammar practice.
Tonbridge scholarships come around earlier than the common entrance exams did (which may have changed now as the 13+ CE pathway is different to what it used to be). They take place over 3 days Wednesday to Friday right at the end of April. This meant that, whereas the Common Entrance lot were to primarily revise during May half term, the Easter Holidays was my revision period. I actually don’t think I revised that well over Easter; I think I just hadn’t worked out the right strategies back then for revising an ambitious quantity of work. I remember spending the first week reading through everything then on a trip to the local shops with my mum I panicked at how little I could recall from what I had done. So then we switched tactic to a more active “read, cover, recall” process which gave me more confidence. Something I have found with revision is that efficiency / effectiveness of the revision process is key. Someone can spend 5 hrs per day revising badly and learn far less than someone revising with good techniques 90 mins per day! And the only thing that matters is how well you can recall it; one could produce loads of revision notes/cards and feel satisfied at that visible output, but that is irrelevant if they can’t remember the information in the exams! During this revision period, the looming stress of the impending exams, which were perhaps T-minus 5-6 weeks away, was starting to build! The more essay-based exams were the ones I was dreading. I struggled with creative writing, too, so had come up with an ingenious strategy of planning out maybe 15 stories of diverse topics and memorising them, with the intention of being able to bend one of them or at least take bits from one of them to apply to my chosen prompt on the day (we were given about 5 prompts in the exam and we had to pick one). We’d have to wait and see if this would work.
On the day of the exam itself, I did buckle a bit under the pressure. I remember it being the most nervous I had ever been and I had to ask my mum to drive past the entrance initially as I couldn’t face going in. Once I saw my friends in the waiting area, the stress dissipated somewhat. Maybe there were about 60ish students in total, all in different school uniforms. We were sat in Old Big School (a room which has since been modernised to an art gallery I think) but at the time, it was a dark, big hall with a black floor, dark walls and high up big windows. Below the windows, surrounding the hall there were painted portraits of previous headmasters wearing gowns looking aloof and austere (in the way that 17th, 18th and 19th century schoolmasters often did!). Very old school! With hindsight, I actually quite like an element of that traditionalism, but it did make it more difficult for 13-year-old me! The teachers were lovely and friendly, though, and I remember finding it somewhat baffling the juxtaposition between the friendly and casual way each department head introduced their exam and how I had built up that exam in my mind to be this hugely important, unfriendly and “un-casual” trial of academic fortitude! History was the first paper, followed by English I; two essay papers I wasn’t looking forward to. During the start of the second exam, I ended up going to the medical room as I felt unwell (but with hindsight, this was just my body’s reaction to the intense nerves, I just hadn’t experienced it before). Fortunately, with much encouragement from the pastoral care person (at the behest of my mum, it later transpired) I was convinced to go back into what was French I and Latin I that afternoon. The Friday (back then) was the day for the optional exams, so this meant that I could sit the English I paper I had missed at a time when an option I wasn’t taking was being assessed.
I remember feeling numb at the end of the exams; I was expecting this big sense of elation in proportion to the trepidation I had felt going into and building up to the exams, only it never came. I just grabbed my bag and commented to my friend that “wow it was over” who my Dad then dropped home as he lived near to me and he otherwise would have had to walk. I think the sense of satisfaction and accomplishment was a slow-build rather than an all-at-once flurry. Maybe I’m even still experiencing it all these years later writing this blog post!
As the scholarship exams finished on the Wednesday, we had Thursday and Friday off school which was great. On the Thursday we walked back into school and felt like royalty with the teachers coming out of classes to see how it had gone. There was a nice bit of pathetic fallacy with the weather being a lovely sunny day (or maybe I just remember it as such due to how I was feeling!) On the Friday, the 4 of us were at one of our houses to play and, when being picked up by my Mum, clearly the results had come out as I remember noticing my mum secretly signalling a thumbs up to my friend’s mum who signalled a thumbs up back, and so I found out then / in the car home that I had managed to get an Academic Scholarship. I got (I think) 7As, 3Bs and 2Cs. I think the Cs were in History and Maths I and the Bs in Geography, English I and one of the Latin papers (which meant that my creative writing strategy had worked as I got an A in English II!) This meant my name went on a plaque on the wall in my prep school, which may even still be there, who knows! Now there are A* grades given out, but when I took the exams, A was the highest, and unofficial “A* grades were communicated to the schools if anyone got one but not written on the official results document. Our headmaster told us he thinks one of us got an A* but he forgot who; lol, helpful!
Joining Tonbridge School as a scholar didn’t actually have that much impact. It determined how we were setted at first (but this was quickly adjusted following November mocks). There was a compulsory society called The Athena Society, which scholars had to attend, however this was quickly made optional as the content was extremely dry and I think there was some pushback (I remember the first meeting was an evening lecture on St Francis of Assisi; hardly something a 14 year old looks forward to when his friends are at home playing Call of Duty or playing sports!)
I think, if one is told they are in the ballpark for going for a scholarship, they definitely should do so! It is tough but far more of an adventure and so many good, memorable experiences that you are proud of with hindsight are difficult and/or nerve-wracking when you are doing them; that’s why they are an achievement and why you are proud! Also, doing hard things makes one more resilient. I took the exams in 2009 and I still smile at the experience today.
Toby (OH 09-14)