11 plus (11+) exam types and formats: a complete guide

GL Assessment

GL Assessment (formerly Granada Learning) sets the most widely used grammar-school format, though ‘a GL paper’ doesn’t mean one fixed layout. Three shapes are common:

• Two ‘skills’ papers: English paired with verbal reasoning in one, non-verbal reasoning paired with maths in the other. School groups including Buckinghamshire and the Slough consortium use this shape.
• Kent pairs subjects the other way round: English and maths share one booklet, verbal and non-verbal reasoning the other, plus a 40-minute writing task.
• An all-subjects format, used by the West Midlands and Trafford, mixes English, maths, verbal and non-verbal reasoning into both papers rather than splitting them.

GL papers are typically multiple choice and machine-marked, usually sat in an exam hall in one sitting.

Quest Assessments, and what happened to CEM

Quest Assessments, a newer computer-based provider, now sets some grammar-school exams, including the boys’ Stage One test at Tiffin School. The school says the test is built fresh with Quest each year and changes annually, so there’s no fixed section breakdown to prepare against; general reasoning under time pressure counts for more than memorising a past layout.

CEM (the Centre for Evaluation and Monitoring) has largely left the grammar-school market: it moved to an online format, and the areas that used it have mostly gone over to GL or to their own tests since. One exception worth knowing: The Blue Coat School in Liverpool runs a two-phase online CEM test starting in July of Year 5. If your target school is among the small number still using CEM, check with the school directly.

Providers change between cohorts more widely, too. Gloucestershire and Trafford are both moving from GL to a newer curriculum-based test called FSCE from 2028 entry, built around Key Stage 2 English and maths rather than reasoning. Check your target school’s official admissions page for the current arrangement rather than relying on what an older sibling sat.

ISEB, Quest and school-set tests

Independent schools don’t share a single format the way an area consortium does. Four routes cover most of them, and a school can use one for a first round and its own paper for a second.

• The ISEB Common Pre-Test. Adaptive and computer-based, set centrally by the Independent Schools Examinations Board and shared with each school as part of its own admissions process. Our guide to which schools use the ISEB Pre-Tests lists who takes it.
• Quest Assessments. An online, adaptive test. The London 11+ Consortium of girls’ schools uses it for its shared first-round assessment, and it has spread beyond the independent sector: Bexley’s grammar schools moved to Quest for 2027 entry, and Tiffin School uses it for Stage One.
• Cambridge Select Insight. Another online assessment, used by a number of independent schools as a first sift before interviews or a written paper.
• The school’s own written papers. Plenty of independents set their own English and maths papers in standard written format, often with an extended writing task and an interview, and no reasoning at all.

Preparation for the online routes is a different exercise from working through a paper; read preparing for an online test before you start.

Some grammar schools and consortiums also write their own tests rather than buying a board format. Essex and Southend’s CSSE exam is two papers, English and maths, with a mix of multiple choice and written answers. Sutton’s own SET tests English and maths only, with no reasoning section. Henrietta Barnett, the Latymer School and Queen Elizabeth’s School, Barnet each run their own admissions test rather than joining an area consortium, so none of the general descriptions above applies to them directly.

Top tips

• Find your target school or area’s current admissions page first, since providers change: Bexley’s grammar schools moved to Quest Assessments for 2027 entry, and Gloucestershire and Trafford move to FSCE from 2028 entry.
• Don’t assume every school in your area sets the same test. Several, including Henrietta Barnett and the Latymer School, write their own.
• If your target school runs a two-stage process, as Tiffin, Sutton and Henrietta Barnett do, find out what changes between the stages; the material worth practising differs for each.
• Where a test is described as bespoke or changing annually, as Tiffin’s Stage One is, don’t build the preparation on a fixed section breakdown; work on general reasoning and comprehension under time pressure instead.
• Check the answer style (options or written answers) before choosing practice material.
• Confirm the arrangement for your child’s own cohort every year; what an older sibling or friend sat may no longer be current.

How to prepare

One of the most effective ways to prepare for an 11+ entrance exam is to use practice tests written by experts. We publish a full range of 11+ revision resources: area and school-specific practice tests, subject-specific packs, spelling and vocabulary resources, and reading books.

Each of our practice tests:

• is available as a PDF download or in physical format
• familiarises your child with the types of questions they will face in the real exam
• includes answers to every question, with detailed, step-by-step explanations for the maths and reasoning questions
• builds your child’s confidence before the actual exam.

Use the finder below to jump straight to the papers for your child’s school or area.

Find papers for your school or area

Grammar schools and area tests

• Bexley
• Bishop Wordsworth’s
• Buckinghamshire
• CSSE
• Ermysted’s
• Gloucestershire
• Henrietta Barnett
• Kent
• QE Boys
• Redbridge
• Slough Consortium
• St Olave’s
• Sutton
• The Latymer School
• Tiffin School & Tiffin Girls’ School
• Trafford
• West Midlands

Independent schools

• City of London School for Girls
• Hampton
• Latymer Upper
• Merchant Taylors’
• St Paul’s Girls’ School
• St Paul’s Juniors