A grammar school is a state secondary that selects by academic ability, and the grammar school test is the entrance exam standing in front of it. It is usually sat near the start of Year 6, it is organised locally rather than nationally, and the format changes from one area to the next.
What is a grammar school, exactly?
A grammar school is a state secondary school that chooses its intake by academic ability. It is funded by the state and free to attend, like the comprehensive down the road. The only structural difference is the entrance test in front of it, and the admissions rules that sit behind that test.
It is worth separating from the two things it is most often confused with. An independent school also selects, but it charges fees and sets its own papers on its own dates. A comprehensive takes children of all abilities from a defined area, which is what the large majority of state secondaries in England do.
Grammar schools are not spread evenly across the country. A few counties kept a fully selective system, so nearly every child in the year group is caught up in it one way or another. In many other places there are one or two selective schools among a majority of comprehensives, and a child can be the only one in their class sitting a test. Large parts of England have none within reach at all.
Almost all grammar schools are their own admissions authority. In practice that means the school, or a group of schools acting together, decides what its test contains and publishes its own admissions criteria, rather than the council doing it on their behalf. That is why the honest answer to most questions on this page ends by pointing you at what your own area publishes.
How does the test decide who gets a place?
The test is a filter, not an application. Two separate processes run through the autumn of Year 6, and the families who come unstuck usually do so on the paperwork rather than on the marks.
The test is a filter, not an application.
From "How does the test decide who gets a place?"
The first is selection. Your child sits the test used by the schools you are interested in, having been registered for it months earlier. Raw marks are converted into standardised scores, which adjust for a child’s age in months so that a summer-born child is not measured against someone almost a year older. Children are then ranked, and most areas set a qualifying standard somewhere in that order. If you want the mechanics of that in more detail, what the 11 plus is covers standardised scores and who sits them.
The second is the ordinary secondary school application, made through the local authority where you live and listing your preferences in order. A grammar school place cannot be offered to a child whose family did not name that school on the form, however well they did on the day.
Reaching the qualifying standard is also not the same as being offered a place. Among the children who qualify, the school’s published oversubscription criteria decide the order, and those usually include things like distance from the school, siblings already on roll, and whatever priority categories the school sets out in its own policy. Those criteria are republished every year, and they are the part most families read too late. Read them for each school you are considering.
Why does the test look different from one area to the next?
There is no national grammar school test. Each admissions authority chooses what its schools will use, and that one fact explains most of the confusion parents meet online, where two families describe completely different exams and both of them are telling the truth.
In some places the local authority coordinates a single test that all of its selective schools accept. In others a group of schools has formed a partnership with one registration, one sitting and one set of results shared between the members. Elsewhere a school runs its own paper on its own date, and a family applying to three such schools sits three tests.
What varies less than the arrangements is the paper itself. GL Assessment is the publisher behind a large share of the consortium papers used in England, including the shared West Midlands Grammar Schools entrance test, so families in different consortium areas often meet the same question style and the same answer-sheet mechanics under two different local timetables. Knowing who publishes the paper your child will sit tells you what to rehearse; the local arrangements tell you when and how to register.
Pathway Eleven is an independent service and is not affiliated with or endorsed by GL Assessment.
The differences are not cosmetic. Paper counts, timings, whether answers are written in the booklet or transferred to a separate sheet, whether there is a piece of extended writing, and how heavily each subject counts, all change from area to area. Practice material bought without checking the local arrangements can be the right content in the wrong shape, which shows up on the day as a child who runs out of time.
| Type of area | Who runs the test | What it means for a family |
|---|---|---|
| Wholly selective county | The local authority usually coordinates one test that every selective school in the county accepts. | One registration, one sitting, and a year group where most children are involved. Primary schools are used to it and will talk to you about it. |
| Partially selective area | A small number of selective schools among mostly non-selective ones, each setting or buying in its own arrangements. | Entry is firmly opt-in. Your child may be one of very few in the class sitting anything, and the school day will not be built around it. |
| Consortium of schools | Several schools share one test, one registration and one set of results between them. | You register once and choose afterwards which member schools to name on the application form. |
| A single school on its own | The school sets its own paper, its own date and its own registration process. | Each school applied to means another registration and another test day, and the formats may have nothing in common. |
Whichever of those describes you, the document to find is the admissions arrangements published by the school or the authority that runs the test used in your area. It is usually a PDF, it is usually dull, and it answers more questions than any forum thread will.
Once you know the shape of your own test, the remaining question is what your child does each day. Start a free week of Pathway Eleven and the Starting Assessment sets the level for you.
What do the papers actually sample?
Most selective tests draw on four areas: English, mathematics, verbal reasoning and non-verbal reasoning. Very few give all four equal weight, and some use only two, so the mix matters as much as the list.
- EnglishComprehension of an unseen passage, plus vocabulary, spelling, punctuation and grammar. The passages tend to be longer and older in style than anything met in class, and some tests add a piece of writing.
- MathematicsPrimary curriculum content, asked faster and wrapped inside multi-step word problems where the working is hidden in the wording rather than laid out for you. Our maths topic checklist lists what turns up.
- Verbal reasoningWord puzzles: codes, letter sequences, analogies, hidden words, odd ones out. The vocabulary behind them is taught at primary school; the question formats almost never are.
- Non-verbal reasoningShape and pattern puzzles: rotations, reflections, sequences, matrices, nets. Most children meet these for the first time in practice material.
The two reasoning papers are where confident children are most often caught out, and it is a familiarity problem rather than an ability one. A child who has never seen a letter-code question does not know what is being asked, which looks like weakness and is not. A fortnight of exposure usually settles it. Our guides to verbal reasoning question types and non-verbal reasoning take the formats one at a time.
What does the year actually look like?
The calendar surprises families more than the papers do, because the busiest administrative moment arrives a year before the result does.
Registration. You register your child with whoever runs the test, and in many areas that window opens and closes during the summer term of Year 5, months ahead of the test itself. No amount of preparation repairs a missed registration deadline. It is the one date worth chasing down the week you decide you are interested.
The test. Usually near the start of Year 6, and in many areas in September, deliberately early enough that results can reach families before secondary preferences are due.
The application. A separate form, submitted to the local authority where you live in the autumn of Year 6, on the national timetable that applies to every child in England. Selective and non-selective preferences go on the same form, in your order.
The offer. Test results arrive in the autumn. The school place itself is offered on national offer day the following March, alongside everyone else’s.
The date to find first: registration, not the test. Everything else in the year has some give in it. A closed registration window is simply closed, and in most areas it shuts before the summer holidays of Year 5.
How do families prepare without it taking over the house?
The preparation that works looks unglamorous from outside: short sessions on most days across a long stretch, weighted towards whichever area is weakest, with timed papers brought in only once the content is reliable without a clock.
Start by finding out where your child actually stands rather than assuming. A school report describes progress against the national curriculum and says almost nothing about reasoning formats no primary school teaches, so it is a poor guide to how a selective paper will go.
Then keep the volume low enough to be sustainable. Families who decide to go hard in the spring of Year 6 arrive at the test in September with a tired child, which costs more marks than the extra work buys. Preparation in Year 5 sets out a workable rhythm, and the full preparation guide covers the whole span.
Use mock papers as rehearsal rather than as a verdict, and sit the first one early enough that there is still time to act on what it shows. Most of what unsettles children on the day is the shape of it, not the questions.
And say early, more than once, that the outcome is arithmetic about the number of desks rather than a judgement about your child. In most areas more children sit a selective test than there are places. A child who has heard that in June has somewhere to put a letter in October.
Grammar schools in the West Midlands
The West Midlands is one of the consortium areas described above. A partnership of grammar schools across Birmingham, Shropshire, Walsall, Wolverhampton and Warwickshire shares a single entrance test, with one registration during Year 5, two multiple-choice papers sat in September of Year 6, and results used by every school in the group. Families there register once and then decide which of the partnership schools to name on the application form. Our guide to the West Midlands 11 plus entrance test lists the schools that take part, sets out what the two papers contain and walks through the year in local detail.
Where Pathway Eleven fits
Pathway Eleven is an online 11 plus preparation service that gives each child a personalised daily plan of revision, guided teaching, timed practice and full mock papers, with every question reviewed and approved by a qualified teacher. A Starting Assessment finds the level first, so the plan begins from what your child can already do rather than from a generic year group syllabus, and a PIN-protected parent area keeps every completed session for you to read.
One monthly price covers every subject, with no per-subject upgrade and no long contract, and the first week is free. What it cannot do is tell you the rules where you live. That still comes from the admissions page published by your local authority or by the school itself, and it is worth an evening of your time before you spend anything.
Common questions about grammar school entry
What is the difference between a grammar school and a private school?+
Both select by ability, but a grammar school is funded by the state and free to attend, while an independent school charges fees. They also select differently: grammar school entry runs through whoever administers selection locally, and independent schools set their own papers on their own dates.
Is the grammar school test the same everywhere?+
No. There is no single national paper. Each admissions authority decides what its schools use, so the number of papers, the timings, the subjects covered and the way answers are recorded all differ. The arrangements published for your own area are the only reliable source.
Who sets the grammar school test?+
There is no national exam board for it. The arrangements are local, so the paper is chosen by a local authority, by a consortium of schools, or by a single school. GL Assessment is the publisher many consortium areas use, including the West Midlands Grammar Schools Partnership. The published admissions arrangements for your target school or authority are the document that decides which of those applies to you.
When do children sit the grammar school test?+
Usually near the start of Year 6, and in many areas in September, early enough that results reach families before secondary preferences are due. Registration closes much earlier, in many places during the summer term of Year 5. Check the timetable your own area publishes.
Do we still have to apply for a secondary school place?+
Yes, and this is the step families miss. Registering for the test enters your child for selection, not for a school place. The application itself goes to the local authority where you live, in the autumn of Year 6, and it lists selective and non-selective preferences together.
Is there a pass mark for the grammar school test?+
Not a fixed one that holds from year to year. Most areas set a qualifying standard and then rank the children who reach it, so the score that secures an offer moves with the size and strength of that year’s entry. Last year’s figure is history rather than a target.
How early should we start preparing?+
Families start anywhere from Year 3 to the spring of Year 5, and there is no single right answer. What matters more than the start date is the shape of the work: short sessions on most days over a long stretch, with timed papers introduced late, beats a heavy final term.
Which grammar schools use the West Midlands test?
Nineteen state grammar schools in the West Midlands admit through one shared entrance test. Each page below explains what that school is like and how its own admission route works.
Shropshire, Wolverhampton and Walsall
Birmingham
- Bishop Vesey's Grammar School
- King Edward VI Aston School
- King Edward VI Camp Hill School for Boys
- King Edward VI Camp Hill School for Girls
- King Edward VI Five Ways School
- King Edward VI Handsworth Grammar School for Boys
- King Edward VI Handsworth School for Girls
- Sutton Coldfield Grammar School for Girls
The West Midlands 11 plus entrance test page explains the papers themselves, and links every school in one place.
Where to go next
- How to prepare for the 11 plus, the full parents' guide to timing, routine and the four skill areas.
- What is the 11 plus?, standardised scores, who sits it, and what the result decides.
- The West Midlands 11 plus entrance test, the partnership, the papers and the local timetable.
- Tutor or online course?, an honest comparison of what each one is good at.
- All 11 plus guides, the whole library in one place.
- What Pathway Eleven costs, one plan, one price, everything included.
- GL Assessment or CEM, which test the West Midlands uses, and how the two differ.
A Starting Assessment, then a daily plan built around the skills it finds weakest.