The 11+ is not a single national examination. It is a label for a range of selective admission tests administered by different providers, different local authorities, and individual schools — and the test your child will sit is determined entirely by the specific school or consortium you are applying to.
The main providers
GL Assessment
GL Assessment describes itself as the provider behind the 11+ tests used by the majority of grammar schools in the UK, including areas such as Kent, Buckinghamshire, and Birmingham. Its own guidance is clear that “11+ tests vary from area to area” — the exact subjects, timings and number of questions are set locally, not by GL itself. Verbal Reasoning, Non-Verbal Reasoning, English and Maths are the components GL describes most consistently; spatial-reasoning question types (shape completion, rotation, hidden shapes) typically sit within the non-verbal content rather than forming a separate subject — Buckinghamshire’s council, for example, describes the second paper of its Secondary Transfer Test as testing “mathematics and non-verbal skills including spatial reasoning”. Not every school tests every combination, which is why checking your specific area’s format matters more than a general list of subjects.
Some areas run the GL papers under their own county branding. The Kent Test, for example, is administered by GL Assessment and follows a fixed two-paper format set at county level; it is not a bespoke test in the sense of being written by the schools themselves, but it does have its own specific structure that preparation should reflect.
CEM / Cambridge Insight — what happened and where things stand
CEM (Centre for Evaluation and Monitoring) moved its 11+ assessment to an online-only format in 2022–23. Most state grammar schools lacked the computer resources to run it at that scale, and the large majority of the grammar schools that had used CEM switched to GL Assessment.
In April 2025, Cambridge University Press & Assessment renamed CEM to Cambridge Insight, and the selective-schools exam previously known as CEM Select is now called Cambridge Select Insight. The “CEM” name will likely linger in conversation for a while, but the provider now trades under its new name. Cambridge Select Insight is aimed primarily at independent schools rather than state grammar schools. If your child is applying to a state grammar school that previously used CEM, the test has almost certainly changed to GL Assessment — confirm this on the school or local authority’s admissions page rather than assuming.
Bespoke and consortium tests
Some groups of schools set their own entrance papers entirely independently of GL or CEM. Several London consortia fall into this category. These tests vary in structure and are not tied to any external provider’s syllabus, which makes checking directly with the school especially important.
ISEB Common Pre-Test (independent schools)
Selective independent schools follow a different path. Many use the ISEB Common Pre-Test — an online, adaptive assessment covering English, Maths, Verbal Reasoning, and Non-Verbal Reasoning — as a first-round filter before setting their own written entrance papers. ISEB’s own guidance describes the testing window as running from the autumn term through to spring, with individual schools setting their own deadlines within that window, so “when” varies by school even though the test itself is standard. Many leading independent schools use ISEB. If an independent school is on your shortlist, check whether they require the ISEB Pre-Test and when registration opens on the Guardian Portal (it opens in June the year before entry).
The one thing that matters most
The surest way to know which test your child will sit is to go directly to the admissions page of your target school or local authority and check. Providers change (as the CEM withdrawal showed), consortia evolve their formats, and a guide written today may not reflect next year’s arrangements. No amount of general preparation replaces that one concrete check.
Once you know the provider and format, a good 11+ tutor will tailor preparation to the specific papers your child will face — not a generic syllabus. Tell us which area you are in and which schools you are targeting, and we will match you with a trusted, Enhanced DBS-checked tutor who knows that test.