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St. Roberts & Bayview Pre-IB Entrance Exam, Advice Needed!!


Will905

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Hi everyone,

I'm currently in 8th grade and I am planning on taking both the St. Robs and Bayview entrance exam into their ib programs.

Can someone please explain to me how the exam is broken down, what can I expect, and what are my chances for getting in? (roughly 700 students apply to each school every year, only around 250 get accepted). For Bayview, I have an average of around 88% from my grade 7 final term, and a solid teacher recommendation. How well do I have to perform on the test in order for me to get into the program?? St.Roberts only relies on the test scores, im pretty sure.

Also, is there any advice or helpful tips for studying for the tests?

Thanks for your time :)

 

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Hey,

im in grade 10 pre-ib at Bayview right now, and I also made st.robs. The system has changed greatly actually. You don’t actyally apply specifically to Bayview, you apply to the ib program for all 5 ib schools in York Region. Then, they sort you into different schools (but when you submit your application, you rank the schools you wish to get in, from most to least). However, due to bayview now large population of students, you must live within their boundaries for them to sort your into Bayview and not any of the other 4 ib schools. If you do live very close to Bayview, your chances of being sorted to come here is almost guarantee, but if not, it’s very low. St.robers does only look at test mark. You have a literacy test and math test, all multiple choice. St.robs usually accept 180 students a year and I had 600 applicants in my year. St.rob’s test is much easier than bayview’s. If you wish to practice, do some OSSLT for English and gauss (or pascal if you want a challenge) for math. If you need any other help, just reply to this post and I’ll try my best to help!

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4 minutes ago, Rebecca1223 said:

Hey,

im in grade 10 pre-ib at Bayview right now, and I also made st.robs. The system has changed greatly actually. You don’t actyally apply specifically to Bayview, you apply to the ib program for all 5 ib schools in York Region. Then, they sort you into different schools (but when you submit your application, you rank the schools you wish to get in, from most to least). However, due to bayview now large population of students, you must live within their boundaries for them to sort your into Bayview and not any of the other 4 ib schools. If you do live very close to Bayview, your chances of being sorted to come here is almost guarantee, but if not, it’s very low. St.robers does only look at test mark. You have a literacy test and math test, all multiple choice. St.robs usually accept 180 students a year and I had 600 applicants in my year. St.rob’s test is much easier than bayview’s. If you wish to practice, do some OSSLT for English and gauss (or pascal if you want a challenge) for math. If you need any other help, just reply to this post and I’ll try my best to help!

Hey! 

Thanks for replying to my post. Luckily for me, my home IB school is indeed Bayview. Thanks for clearing up the confusion. How difficult was Bayviews entrance exam? (I heard the french section is quite difficult for students that don't come from an immersion school)  What made you choose Bayview over St.Robs??

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2 hours ago, Will905 said:

Hey! 

Thanks for replying to my post. Luckily for me, my home IB school is indeed Bayview. Thanks for clearing up the confusion. How difficult was Bayviews entrance exam? (I heard the french section is quite difficult for students that don't come from an immersion school)  What made you choose Bayview over St.Robs??

I chose Bayview over st.robs because Bayview, you can have another elective. At Bayview, you get 2 electives, but at st.robs you only get 1 in grade 9 because religion takes up a course slot. Meaning, if you don’t do civics and careers as summer school, you have no electives in grade 10. Since you’re already not getting any electives in grade 11 and 12 due to everything locked in by ib courses, you might as well enjoy electives while you can since they’re a lot more fun.

I wouldn’t say the french test was that hard...but i did come from french immersion. However, my friends who came from a normal school said it wasn’t that bad. It’s usually just matching word and definition, eliminate the word that doesn’t belong, or matching a word to its definition, the vocab is nothing too advanced. I would say math was a greater challenge for most people as there was a lot of questions and limited time, so you have to allot your time well per question. English is different every year, but it’s usually simple read a piece of text and answer questions relating to the text and an essay (topic is different each year).

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On 11/6/2018 at 3:37 PM, Will905 said:

Thank You So much!!! Is there anything I can do to practice for the French section? How pressed for time were you when you did both test?

There isn’t much you can do short term since the test is mostly on accumulated french vocab, but you can get some vocab exercise books and learn some frequently used words. Don’t worry too much though, it’s not as bad as you think it is and you’ll do great!

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Awesome, your help was much needed🙏🙏🙏. One last thing, compared to a grade 8 gauss test, how hard is the math on either of the exams? (Would u classify the questions as part a, part b, or part c?)

Once again, your insight has been tremendously helpful and I'm much more confident about the upcoming tests.

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12 minutes ago, Will905 said:

Awesome, your help was much needed🙏🙏🙏. One last thing, compared to a grade 8 gauss test, how hard is the math on either of the exams? (Would u classify the questions as part a, part b, or part c?)

Once again, your insight has been tremendously helpful and I'm much more confident about the upcoming tests.

They’re mostly part b, but it starts with maybe 1-2 part a and it ends with 1-2 part c

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  • 9 months later...

Hi, I’m also about to start grade 8, and was planning to take the pre-IB test in November. I had a more specific question about the math section of the test. So you said that it was mostly part b and some part a and c in the test, what I wanted to know is that was it multiple-choice, and if it wasn’t did you have to do the whole ‘justify your answer’ thing? I’m just so worried about not having enough time to finish the exam.

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  • 2 months later...

Hi everyone,

I was just wondering what is tested on the literacy part of the exam for St. Robert, because im not sure if i need to do some practice or not! Are there like vocabulary questions and passages?

Thank you so much for your time! :D

Btw im taking the exam next week and ngl im sorta nervous!

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  • 9 months later...
  • 1 month later...
  • 7 months later...
On 11/5/2018 at 7:37 PM, Rebecca1223 said:

Hey,

im in grade 10 pre-ib at Bayview right now, and I also made st.robs. The system has changed greatly actually. You don’t actyally apply specifically to Bayview, you apply to the ib program for all 5 ib schools in York Region. Then, they sort you into different schools (but when you submit your application, you rank the schools you wish to get in, from most to least). However, due to bayview now large population of students, you must live within their boundaries for them to sort your into Bayview and not any of the other 4 ib schools. If you do live very close to Bayview, your chances of being sorted to come here is almost guarantee, but if not, it’s very low. St.robers does only look at test mark. You have a literacy test and math test, all multiple choice. St.robs usually accept 180 students a year and I had 600 applicants in my year. St.rob’s test is much easier than bayview’s. If you wish to practice, do some OSSLT for English and gauss (or pascal if you want a challenge) for math. If you need any other help, just reply to this post and I’ll try my best to help!

Hey Rebecca, I am in grade 7 in Doncrest, switching to Christ the King in grade 8 as I want to get in IB St Robs in grade 9 since it will be easier as they are feeder schools. I was wondering if you could specifically breakdown how the St Roberts tests work, how many there are, and what it is about, with what I should work on to be successful on the test and what you used to help you, as I previously lived in Hong Kong being in a private international IB school. Other than what I should use to practice for the test, do you know if there are any mock exams or past papers on the internet I could use to see what the test is like or do you think you can give some examples of what they are like? If you have time please answer back but if you have already helped me a ton in these conversations :)

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  • 3 months later...
On 5/28/2021 at 1:00 AM, ZenithChan said:

Hey Rebecca, I am in grade 7 in Doncrest, switching to Christ the King in grade 8 as I want to get in IB St Robs in grade 9 since it will be easier as they are feeder schools. I was wondering if you could specifically breakdown how the St Roberts tests work, how many there are, and what it is about, with what I should work on to be successful on the test and what you used to help you, as I previously lived in Hong Kong being in a private international IB school. Other than what I should use to practice for the test, do you know if there are any mock exams or past papers on the internet I could use to see what the test is like or do you think you can give some examples of what they are like? If you have time please answer back but if you have already helped me a ton in these conversations :)

So I'm not Rebecca, but I am a Grade 9 pre-IB student at St.Robs. I did my test in November 2020 online. It was pretty easy. I was given an hour to do the math test and I finished in 25 minutes.

But to prepare, I did the SSAT's math prep book and it did help. A lot of the questions in the test were simillar to those in the book. For language... It is seriously the most easiest thing I have ever completed. I can't recall all the questions but one was name the header of a certain website, with an image provided. There were some grammar questions but they were straight forward. 

FYI: Switching to a YCDSB school is a really good idea. I came from a YCDSB elementary school and I am pretty sure I was given some what of an advantage. Or that just happened to be the only test I did really good on- 

Good Luck!

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  • 1 month later...
On 9/23/2021 at 9:21 PM, Idontevenknow123 said:

So I'm not Rebecca, but I am a Grade 9 pre-IB student at St.Robs. I did my test in November 2020 online. It was pretty easy. I was given an hour to do the math test and I finished in 25 minutes.

But to prepare, I did the SSAT's math prep book and it did help. A lot of the questions in the test were simillar to those in the book. For language... It is seriously the most easiest thing I have ever completed. I can't recall all the questions but one was name the header of a certain website, with an image provided. There were some grammar questions but they were straight forward. 

FYI: Switching to a YCDSB school is a really good idea. I came from a YCDSB elementary school and I am pretty sure I was given some what of an advantage. Or that just happened to be the only test I did really good on- 

Good Luck!

Hi thanks so much for your info. Can you please share which  level of SSAT math prep did u do to prepare your self ? Was it the upper level? And could you also share the name of the book. Thanks again

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4 hours ago, monicanaha said:

Hi thanks so much for your info. Can you please share which  level of SSAT math prep did u do to prepare your self ? Was it the upper level? And could you also share the name of the book. Thanks again

Hi! To answer your question, I did use the upper level SSAT Math Prep book. I used the SSAT Math Prep for dummies. Here is a link for the book. https://www.chapters.indigo.ca/en-ca/books/product/9781118115558-item.html. But, personally I think any SSAT Math Prep book, higher level is just fine. Good Luck on your test!

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On 9/23/2021 at 9:21 PM, Idontevenknow123 said:

So I'm not Rebecca, but I am a Grade 9 pre-IB student at St.Robs. I did my test in November 2020 online. It was pretty easy. I was given an hour to do the math test and I finished in 25 minutes.

But to prepare, I did the SSAT's math prep book and it did help. A lot of the questions in the test were simillar to those in the book. For language... It is seriously the most easiest thing I have ever completed. I can't recall all the questions but one was name the header of a certain website, with an image provided. There were some grammar questions but they were straight forward. 

FYI: Switching to a YCDSB school is a really good idea. I came from a YCDSB elementary school and I am pretty sure I was given some what of an advantage. Or that just happened to be the only test I did really good on- 

Good Luck!

Thanks for all the information

Personally, I am more stressed in english than math because I am stronger at math, do you recall if the reading comprehension answers to the questions are direct and obvious?

Thank you again anyways

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46 minutes ago, ZenithChan said:

Thanks for all the information

Personally, I am more stressed in english than math because I am stronger at math, do you recall if the reading comprehension answers to the questions are direct and obvious?

Thank you again anyways

I am the same as you. My math is way stronger than my english. From what I can recall, the questions were direct and obvious. Since they use CAT, it would be direct and obvious, and all you would have to do is look back at the passage if you didn't know an answer. If you really are still concerned, there are practice CAT tests for every grade level. I believe that St.Roberts admission tests are at the Grade 8 level. I attatched a CAT practice test at the Grade 8 level if you want to do it. 

Good Luck!

https://floassets.blob.core.windows.net/files/CAT5 Grade 8 Practice Test.pdf

 

Edited by Idontevenknow123
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