A boy enters a Preparatory School at the age of eight or nine, and is there prepared, in general for entrance into one of the Great Public Schools, and in particular for one of the competitive examinations on the results of which the entrance scholarships of the Great Public Schools are awarded.

He enters one of the Great Public Schools at the age of thirteen or fourteen, and is there prepared, in general for admission to Oxford or Cambridge, and in particular for the scholarship examinations of the various Oxford and Cambridge Colleges.

He enters Oxford or Cambridge at the age of eighteen or nineteen, and is there prepared, directly for his degree examination--"Pass" or "Honours" as the case may be--and indirectly for the public examination which admits to the Indian and Colonial, and the higher grades of the Home, Civil Service.

This course of education lasts about fourteen years, and costs from L1,500 to L4,500.
What will it do for the boy who goes through it?
The education given in the Preparatory School is completely dominated by the scholarship and entrance examinations at the Great Public Schools.

The lines on which those examinations are conducted are the lines on which the Preparatory Schoolmaster must educate his pupils.