Queen Mary’s Grammar School 11 Plus (11+) Exam Guide

About Queen Mary’s Grammar School

Queen Mary’s Grammar School is a boys’ state grammar school in Walsall, taking boys from age 11 to 18, with girls admitted to the sixth form. The headteacher is R J Langton. The Published Admission Number for Year 7 in September 2027 is 180. As a selective school, the governors are not obliged to admit to that number if too few boys reach the required standard.

Entry into Year 7 is by the entrance test shared across the West Midlands Grammar Schools Partnership, sat in September of Year 6 and set by GL Assessment.

Key information for 2027 entry to Queen Mary’s Grammar School at 11 Plus (11+)

• School type: boys’ state grammar school, with girls admitted to the sixth form
• Test provider: GL Assessment, for the test shared across the West Midlands Grammar Schools Partnership
• Registration: on the West Midlands Grammar Schools website, opening 5 May 2026 and closing at 4pm on 26 June 2026
• Test dates: within a window of 12 to 14 September 2026. Queen Mary’s Grammar School publishes 12 September 2026
• Results date: 16 October 2026
• Application deadline to your local authority: 31 October 2026
• National Offer Day: 1 March 2027
• Year 7 places available: 180
• Contact details: qmgs.walsall.sch.uk, 01922 720696

Admissions information for 2027 entry to Queen Mary’s Grammar School at 11 Plus (11+)

No pass mark is published in advance. The qualifying score is set each year after the papers have been marked and the order of merit is known, so there is no target number to aim at and no figure from a previous year that you should treat as the bar.

When the school is oversubscribed, priority runs in this order: looked after and previously looked after boys, in rank order of score; boys eligible for the Pupil Premium at the time of the test, capped at 30% of the intake, which is currently 54 places, and within that group boys attending a Walsall state primary school come first; and then all other qualifiers in rank order of standardised score.

If two boys are tied for the final place, the school compares the sum of their positions across the three skill areas, and if they are still tied a place is allocated at random with independent verification.

The school’s own timeline sets the qualifying score in early to mid November 2026, after scores are sent to parents in mid to late October. Make sure you check the school’s current admission arrangements for the full ordered list, as they are reviewed each year.

How can I register my child for the 11 Plus (11+) exams at Queen Mary’s Grammar School?

You do not register with Queen Mary’s Grammar School directly, and you do not register with the council either. Registration for the entrance test is done through the West Midlands Grammar Schools website, which covers every school in the partnership.

The registration portal opens on 5 May 2026 and closes at 4pm on 26 June 2026. Registering for the test and applying for a school place are two separate steps, and you need to do both: the application for a place goes to your home local authority on the Common Application Form.

At registration you choose which schools your child’s result is shared with, so it is worth deciding your list before you start. Make sure you check the partnership’s own pages for the current registration link and closing time, as these are confirmed each year.

The application process is:

• Register your son for the entrance test on the West Midlands Grammar Schools website between 5 May and 4pm on 26 June 2026, naming the schools you want the result shared with
• Sit the test in the testing window of 12 to 14 September 2026. The school’s own arrangements give 12 September 2026.
• Receive the result on 16 October 2026
• Apply to your home local authority for a school place, naming Queen Mary’s 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 Queen Mary’s Grammar School?

The entrance test is shared across the West Midlands Grammar Schools Partnership, a group of grammar schools spanning Birmingham, Shropshire, Walsall, Warwickshire and Wolverhampton. One test, one set of papers, one result. It is set by GL Assessment and is made up of two multiple-choice papers.

• Paper 1 and Paper 2 – around 50 to 60 minutes each, including time for instructions and practice questions
• Verbal ability, which includes reading comprehension, together with verbal reasoning – 50% of the marks
• Non-verbal and spatial reasoning – 25% of the marks
• Mathematics – 25% of the marks

It is important to note that the subjects are not split one per paper. Each paper mixes the three skill areas, so your child needs to be comfortable switching between question types inside a single paper. English is not a separate paper here: comprehension and vocabulary sit inside the verbal ability questions.

Answers are marked on a separate machine-read answer sheet rather than in the booklet, and are marked at least twice. Scores are standardised for age, so a summer-born child is not judged against the raw marks of older classmates. For more on this provider, see our GL Assessment guide.

A rough guide to topics covered:

• Verbal ability and verbal reasoning – reading comprehension, inference, vocabulary in context, synonyms and antonyms, word relationships, letter and number sequences, codes and logic puzzles
• Mathematics – arithmetic, fractions, decimals and percentages, measurement and unit conversions, algebra, geometry, statistics and word problems
• Non-verbal and spatial reasoning – sequences, rotations, reflections, nets and odd-one-out questions with shapes

Familiarisation material is published by GL Assessment and linked from the partnership’s own pages. Because one result covers every school in the partnership you consent to share it with, a single set of practice material serves all of your child’s applications.

Queen Mary’s Grammar School 11 Plus (11+) top tips for your child

• Practise switching between question types. Each paper mixes verbal, non-verbal and maths questions, so you need to change gear quickly rather than settle into one subject.
• Read widely and keep a vocabulary notebook. Verbal ability and verbal reasoning are worth half of all the marks, and comprehension sits inside them, 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!
• Learn the common non-verbal reasoning patterns. Rotations, reflections, nets and sequences come up again and again, and they get much quicker with practice.
• Keep your times tables and quick calculations sharp. Maths is a quarter of the marks and the questions are tightly timed.
• Remember you only sit the test once. The same result goes to every school you have chosen, so there is no need to panic about doing it again for each one.
• Don’t panic about one difficult question! Move on, keep a steady pace, and come back to anything you skipped if there is time left.

How to prepare your child for the 11 Plus (11+) Queen Mary’s Grammar School exam

Preparing for Queen Mary’s Grammar School means preparing for the shared West Midlands partnership test, so the ground to cover is verbal ability and verbal reasoning, mathematics, and non-verbal and spatial reasoning. Verbal work carries half the marks, and reading comprehension sits inside it rather than in a paper of its own, 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 skill areas, to moving between them inside one paper, to transferring answers accurately onto a separate answer sheet, and to keeping to time. That familiarity is what stops the format itself being a surprise on the day.

One test result covers every school in the partnership you choose to share it with, including Haberdashers’ Adams Grammar School, Newport Girls’ High School, Queen Mary’s High School and Wolverhampton Girls’ High School, so a single set of material serves all of your applications.

For Queen Mary’s Grammar School 11+ preparation, we recommend the following packs: