What is the 11 Plus (11+)? The complete parents’ guide

Where the 11+ exists

There are 163 state grammar schools in England, concentrated in a small number of areas. When most of the country abolished academic selection in the 1960s and 70s, some areas kept it, and the picture has barely changed since:

• Wholly or largely selective areas: Kent, Medway, Buckinghamshire, Lincolnshire, Trafford, Slough and the CSSE area of Essex around Chelmsford, Colchester and Southend. In these places grammar school is a mainstream option and thousands of children sit the test each year.
• Areas with a cluster of grammar schools: the West Midlands (including the King Edward VI schools), Gloucestershire, and London boroughs such as Bexley, Sutton, Kingston, Redbridge, Barnet and Bromley. These schools draw applicants from well beyond their own borough, so competition is high.
• The rest of the country: no state grammar schools at all, though independent school 11+ entry is available everywhere.

The reason nothing changes is legal: under the School Standards and Framework Act 1998, only schools that were already selecting in 1997-98 may select today, so no new grammar school has opened since. Existing ones can expand, which is how Weald of Kent opened its Sevenoaks site in 2017: it was approved as an expansion of an existing school.

What the exam tests, area by area

Four subjects supply nearly all 11+ questions: English, maths, verbal reasoning and non-verbal reasoning. But each area combines them into papers differently, and the combination decides what your child should practise:

• Kent puts English and maths in one booklet and the two reasoning subjects in another, then adds a 40 minute writing task. The writing isn’t scored with the rest; a headteacher panel can read it when a borderline case is reviewed.
• Buckinghamshire, Slough, Gloucestershire and Redbridge pair the subjects the other way round: one paper of English comprehension with verbal reasoning, and one of maths with non-verbal reasoning.
• Essex’s CSSE exam removed its reasoning questions from 2025 entry, so it now tests English and maths only, in papers that mix multiple choice with written answers, plus a creative writing task.
• Schools that set their own papers vary more still: a few test no reasoning, one or two test little else, and several use a first-round test to shortlist before the main exam.

Format matters as much as subject. Most grammar tests are multiple choice with a separate machine-marked answer sheet; independent schools mostly use written answers; CSSE uses both. Practice material should match the format as well as the subjects, and our exam information guides list what each school sets.

Who writes the papers in 2026

The test provider decides what the paper looks like, so it’s worth knowing which one your school uses. Four cover most of the market in 2026:

• GL Assessment writes the tests for most grammar school areas, including Kent, Buckinghamshire and the West Midlands partnership.
• Quest Assessments is a newer provider used by the Bexley grammar schools, Colyton Grammar and the first-round test at Tiffin School. Its papers are designed to change from year to year.
• FSCE (Future Stories Community Enterprise) is a not-for-profit provider that Gloucestershire and Trafford adopt for 2028 entry, at the same time as moving the test earlier, into the summer term of Year 5. It publishes no past papers and changes its content every year, deliberately: it says it wants testing to be accessible ‘regardless of background’ and to reduce the advantage bought by expensive tutoring.
• ISEB runs the Common Pre-Test used by many independent schools: an online, adaptive test, sat once, with the result shared with every participating school you apply to. Online testing is wider than ISEB, though: Quest runs the online assessment for the thirteen schools of the London 11+ Consortium, and Cambridge Select Insight is the computer-based first stage at schools such as City of London School for Girls.

CEM, for years GL’s main rival, has effectively left the paper-based market, and most areas that used it have moved to GL. Advice that divides the country into ‘GL areas and CEM areas’ is out of date.

The timeline and the paperwork

The administration runs on two separate tracks, and confusing them is the mistake we hear about most:

• Registering for the test. This goes directly to the grammar school, consortium or council, usually in the term before the exam, and some deadlines fall as early as June or July of Year 5. Miss it and your child cannot sit the test.
• Applying for the place. This goes on your council’s Common Application Form by 31 October of Year 6, whether or not results have arrived. Offers come on National Offer Day, 1 March or the next working day.

Most areas test in September of Year 6, early enough for scores to reach you before the October deadline. The score itself is standardised rather than raw: marks are adjusted for your child’s exact age in years and months, so summer-born children aren’t disadvantaged against classmates nearly a year older, and 100 is set at the average. The mechanics are in what is a standardised score, and the full sequence in how to apply for the 11+.

What a pass does and doesn’t guarantee

The most useful thing to know about results is which of two systems your school uses, because it changes what a score is worth:

• Qualifying-score areas (Kent, Buckinghamshire and most others) set a threshold. Reaching it makes your child eligible, and the school’s oversubscription criteria, usually distance and catchment, then decide who is offered a place. Above the threshold, extra marks make no difference; where you live matters more.
• Ranking schools (Tiffin, Queen Elizabeth’s Barnet, Henrietta Barnett and the other super-selectives) order every applicant by score and offer places from the top down. There’s no fixed pass mark, and the cut-off moves each year with the cohort. Tiffin School receives around four applicants per place, and the best-known girls’ schools receive thousands of applications for fewer than a hundred places.

A score that falls short doesn’t take your child out of the system: the council still offers a place from the other preferences on the form, exactly as it does for every applicant. Appeals exist for the near misses, and waiting lists for children who qualified without being offered a place; what to do if your child does not pass covers all of it.

Competition is high because grammar school results are consistently strong: in the 2025 GCSEs they recorded the highest share of top grades of any state school type, around 63 per cent at grade 7 or above. Preparation is widespread to match: the Sutton Trust found 23 per cent of grammar school pupils had been tutored, more than at any other school type, and that’s the advantage the newer providers say they’re trying to design out.

Top tips

• Find out which test your target schools use before buying anything or booking anyone. The admissions page always says.
• Put both deadlines in the diary as soon as you decide to enter: the test registration window and the 31 October application.
• Ask whether each school qualifies or ranks; it changes how safe your school list needs to be.
• If you’re in Gloucestershire or Trafford with a child in Year 4 or below, expect an earlier, different test from the one older siblings sat.
• Our guides on choosing schools and when to start preparing are the natural next reads.

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