Beths Grammar School 11 Plus (11+) Exam Guide

About Beths Grammar School

Beths Grammar School is a boys’ state grammar school on Hartford Road in Bexley, taking pupils from age 11 to 18, with a mixed sixth form. The proposed Published Admission Number for Year 7 in September 2027 is 192.

Entry into Year 7 is by the Bexley Selection Test, the shared test sat by all four grammar schools in the London Borough of Bexley. The test is sat in September of Year 6 and the papers are provided by Quest Assessments.

Key information for 2027 entry to Beths Grammar School at 11 Plus (11+)

• School type: boys’ state grammar school with a mixed sixth form
• Test provider: Bexley Selection Test, papers provided by Quest Assessments, administered by the London Borough of Bexley
• Registration opens: 1 March 2026
• Registration deadline: midnight on 31 March 2026, with no late entries
• Test dates: between 2 and 10 September 2026, depending on the test centre. Children sitting at one of the four grammar schools are tested between 7 and 10 September 2026
• Results date: early October 2026, with the exact date confirmed by the council each year
• Common Application Form deadline: 31 October 2026
• National Offer Day: 1 March 2027
• Grammar places across the four Bexley schools: 800 for September 2027
• Year 7 places available: 192 under the proposed 2027-28 arrangements
• Contact details: beths.bexley.sch.uk, [email protected]

Admissions information for 2027 entry to Beths Grammar School at 11 Plus (11+)

Boys become eligible for a place at Beths through the Bexley Selection Test, run by the London Borough of Bexley for all four of its grammar schools. Around 800 grammar places are available across the four schools for September 2027. Bexley does not publish a fixed pass mark: the council and the four schools agree the selective score each year, so there is no target number to aim at.

A boy who is deemed selective and has an Education, Health and Care plan naming Beths is admitted before any other criteria are applied. After that, when the school is oversubscribed, priority runs in this order: looked after and previously looked after children; the 180 highest-scoring boys who name Beths, who are given a guaranteed place; boys with a sibling already at the school; children of permanent members of staff; up to 12 places for boys eligible for the Pupil Premium or free school meals who are deemed selective, ranked by distance; and then distance from home to the school’s Hartford Road entrance. Where two distances are identical, the higher test score wins.

Beths also operates a route for boys who narrowly miss the Bexley standard but are deemed selective in Kent through the Dartford 11+, provided they are within five marks of the Bexley pass mark. Make sure you check the school’s current admission arrangements for the full ordered list, as they are reviewed each year and the 2027-28 policy was published for consultation.

How can I register my child for the 11 Plus (11+) exams at Beths Grammar School?

You do not register with Beths Grammar School for the Bexley Selection Test. Registration is completed with the London Borough of Bexley, which runs the test on behalf of all four grammar schools.

Registration opens on 1 March 2026 and closes at midnight on 31 March 2026. Bexley does not accept late registrations, so this is the single most important date in the process. Registering for the test and applying for a school place are two separate steps, and you need to do both.

Make sure you check the Bexley Council admissions pages for the current registration link and any change to the closing time, as these are confirmed each year.

The application process is:

• Register your son for the Bexley Selection Test with the London Borough of Bexley between 1 March and 31 March 2026
• Sit the test in September 2026, either at his own primary school if it is a designated test centre or at one of the four Bexley grammar schools
• Receive the test result in early October 2026
• Complete your Common Application Form, naming Beths Grammar School, by 31 October 2026
• Receive your offer on National Offer Day, 1 March 2027

What is the 11 Plus (11+) entrance exam format for Beths Grammar School?

The Bexley Selection Test is made up of two multiple-choice booklets, sat in a single session with a short break between them. The papers are provided by Quest Assessments, which took over from GL Assessment.

• Paper 1 and Paper 2 – around 50 minutes each, plus time at the start for instructions and practice questions
• Each paper is divided into separately timed sections, so your child is told when to move on
• Verbal ability and English comprehension – 50% of the marks
• Numerical reasoning – 25% of the marks
• Non-verbal reasoning – 25% of the marks

There is no writing paper in the Bexley Selection Test. Answers are marked on a machine-readable answer sheet, all working is done in the test booklet itself, and rough paper is not provided.

Allow around two and a half to three hours for the whole session, including the break. For more on how Quest tests work across the country, see our Quest Assessments guide.

A rough guide to topics covered:

• Verbal ability and English – reading comprehension, inference, vocabulary in context, synonyms and antonyms, spelling, punctuation and grammar
• Numerical reasoning – arithmetic, fractions, decimals and percentages, measurement and unit conversions, geometry, statistics and word problems
• Non-verbal reasoning – sequences, rotations, reflections, codes and odd-one-out questions with shapes

Beths Grammar School 11 Plus (11+) top tips for your child

• Read widely and keep a vocabulary notebook. Verbal ability and comprehension are worth half of all the marks in the Bexley test, so this is where your effort pays off most.
• Practise marking answers on a separate answer sheet. The papers are marked by machine, so a clear mark in the right box matters as much as knowing the answer!
• Get comfortable working without rough paper. All your working goes in the booklet, so practise setting out calculations neatly in a small space.
• Use the practice questions at the start of each section properly. They are there to show you exactly what to do, so ask if anything is unclear before the timed section begins.
• Watch the clock across sections, not just the whole paper. Each section is timed separately, so leaving a hard question and coming back later only works within that section.
• Don’t panic about one difficult question! Move on, keep a steady pace, and come back if you have time at the end.

How to prepare your child for the 11 Plus (11+) Beths Grammar School exam

Preparing for Beths Grammar School means preparing for the Bexley Selection Test, so the ground to cover is verbal ability and English comprehension, numerical reasoning and non-verbal reasoning. Verbal ability and comprehension carry half the marks, so reading widely and building vocabulary is the single highest-value thing your son can do over the year before the test.

The most useful way to prepare is to use practice tests that match this format, so your son gets used to multiple-choice questions across all three areas, to transferring answers accurately onto a separate answer sheet, and to working within tightly timed sections. That familiarity is what stops the format itself being a surprise on the day.

The same test is used by Bexley Grammar School, Chislehurst and Sidcup Grammar School and Townley Grammar School, so material bought for one of the four Bexley grammar schools works for all of them. You can compare the four schools side by side in our complete guide to the Bexley grammar schools.

For Beths Grammar School 11+ preparation, we recommend the following packs: