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Free ISEB-Style Pre-Test Practice Questions with Answers
Original questions across all four sections, instant marking, plus a free printable PDF
Free ISEB-Style Practice Questions
49 original questions in the style of the ISEB Common Pre-Tests — English (13), Maths (15), Verbal Reasoning (12) and Non-Verbal Reasoning (9) — Maths capped at the end-of-Year-5 curriculum ISEB specifies, with English broadly at the same level. Pick an answer, check it, and read the working. No sign-up, no time limit: this page is for learning the formats, not for predicting a score.
Download the free printable PDF
All 49 questions with a full answer key and explanations — useful for a paper first pass before rehearsing on screen.
Then try ISEB’s free official walkthrough
The exam board’s own familiarisation tool shows the real test player, its accessibility settings and the style of question. Do it once before any full rehearsal.
📖 English
The section pairs reading comprehension on passages of roughly 300–500 words with spelling, punctuation and grammar in the formats reported on the current platform — cloze (missing word), shuffled sentences (our version adds an extra word to find) and spot-the-mistake.
Reading comprehension: “The Night the Lamp Went Out”
Read the passage, then answer the questions. In the real test the passage stays on screen beside every question.
Marin had lived in the lighthouse for all eleven years of her life, and in that time the great lamp had never once failed. Every evening at dusk her father climbed the one hundred and twelve iron steps, wound the clockwork that turned the lens, and lit the wick. Every evening the beam swept out across the bay, steady as a heartbeat, warning the fishing boats away from the Serpent Rocks.
So when Marin woke in the small hours to darkness — real darkness, not the soft flicker she was used to — she knew at once that something was wrong.
She pulled a coat over her nightdress and ran. The wind on the stairs tugged at her like a rude child. At the top, she found her father slumped against the wall, his face grey, one hand pressed to his chest. The lamp beside him was cold.
“Winter,” he whispered, meaning the fishing boat, the Winter Rose, that had gone out that afternoon. “She’ll be coming back in.”
Marin did not stop to think. She had watched her father a thousand times; her hands seemed to know the work without her. She trimmed the wick, struck a match on the third attempt because her fingers were shaking, and turned the heavy crank until the clockwork caught with a click and a groan. Slowly, unwillingly, the lens began to turn.
Out on the black water a small light was moving, straight towards the rocks. Marin held her breath. The beam swung round, dazzling, and found it. For a long moment nothing happened. Then, sluggishly, the little light swung away to the north — towards the harbour, and safety.
Only then did Marin sit down beside her father and let herself cry. He squeezed her hand, very weakly. “One hundred and twelve steps,” he said. “I counted you up every one.”
How many steps lead to the top of the lighthouse?
How did Marin know at once that something was wrong when she woke?
“The wind on the stairs tugged at her like a rude child.” Which technique is the writer using?
In the passage, what does “sluggishly” most nearly mean?
Why did it take Marin three attempts to strike the match?
Which statement best summarises the whole passage?
Spelling, punctuation and grammar
Choose the word that best completes the sentence: The explorers were ___ by the size of the cave; none of them had seen anything like it.
Choose the words that best complete the sentence: Although it was raining, ___ decided to walk to school.
Choose the word that best completes the sentence: The recipe says to add the flour ___, a spoonful at a time, so that no lumps form.
The words of a sentence have been shuffled and one extra word added. Which word does NOT belong? — children the carefully on skated the was frozen river
The words of a sentence have been shuffled and one extra word added. Which word does NOT belong? — before homework finished her Priya dinner under
Which part of the sentence contains a mistake? [A] The childrens’ coats [B] were hanging [C] on the pegs [D] by the door.
Which part of the sentence contains a mistake? [A] We visited the museum [B] on Saturday and [C] then we eat [D] fish and chips by the sea.
🔢 Mathematics
Drawn from the domains in ISEB’s framework — number and place value, the four operations, fractions, decimals and percentages, measurement and geometry — anchored to the end of Year 5, with no calculator. Rough paper is allowed in the real test, so use it here.
What is the value of the digit 7 in the number 472,915?
Calculate 348 × 27.
Eggs are packed in boxes of 24. A farm has 1,000 eggs. How many full boxes can be packed, and how many eggs are left over?
Which fraction is equivalent to 3/4?
What is 3/8 of 96?
Which of these numbers is the largest?
A coat costs £180. In a sale it is reduced by 25%. What is the sale price?
How many metres are there in 2.35 kilometres?
A rectangle is 12 cm long and has a perimeter of 38 cm. What is its area?
Two angles lie side by side on a straight line. One measures 37°. What is the other?
A train leaves at 09:47 and arrives at 11:23. How long is the journey?
Sam buys 3 notebooks at £1.85 each and one pen. He pays with a £10 note and receives £2.05 change. How much does the pen cost?
At 6 am the temperature was −4 °C. By noon it had risen by 9 degrees, and by midnight it had fallen by 12 degrees from its noon value. What was the temperature at midnight?
Which of these numbers is a prime number?
What number is written as MCMXCIV?
🔤 Verbal Reasoning
Letter, word and language items — synonyms, antonyms, analogies, compound and hidden words, letter sequences and codes, and the two-answers-from-six format reported on the current platform. ISEB’s framework describes VR as letter, word and language-based, so no number-based types appear here.
Which word is closest in meaning to RELUCTANT?
Which word is closest in meaning to ABUNDANT?
Which word is most OPPOSITE in meaning to GENEROUS?
Glove is to hand as sock is to ___
Author is to book as composer is to ___
Which word can be placed in front of all three to make three new words? ___light ___flower ___burn
A four-letter word is hidden across the end of one word and the start of the next. Find it: “We ate our lunch early.”
What comes next in the sequence? AZ BY CX DW ?
If BOAT is written in code as CPBU, how is SHIP written in the same code?
Move one letter from the first word to the second word so that both still make real words: BRIDGE OWN. Which letter moves?
Choose one word from each group so that the two words are closest in meaning.
Choose one word from each group so that the two words are most OPPOSITE in meaning.
🔷 Non-Verbal Reasoning
2D pattern items (series, odd one out, matrices, analogies, reflections) and the 3D/spatial strand in ISEB’s framework — including cube counting, a reported format that paper 11+ practice often covers only lightly.
Which figure comes next in the series?
→
Which figure comes next in the series?
→
Four of these figures follow the same rule. Which one is the odd one out?
Four of these figures follow the same rule. Which one is the odd one out?
Which figure completes the grid so that each row and each column follows the same rule?
The first figure changes into the second in a certain way. Which option changes the third figure in the same way?
is to
as
is to
Which option shows the figure reflected in a vertical mirror line?
How many cubes are needed to build this solid? (Every column is solid from the floor up, with no hidden gaps.)
How many cubes are needed to build this solid? (Every column is solid from the floor up, with no hidden gaps.)
Are there ISEB Pre-Test past papers?
No — and anyone selling “ISEB past papers” is selling something else. The Common Pre-Tests are adaptive and on screen: every child sees a different sequence of questions chosen by the algorithm, so there is no fixed paper to publish. What exists is:
ISEB’s free official walkthrough. The real test player with example question styles — the official way to see ISEB’s own test interface before the day.
ISEB’s free preparation guides. Parent and pupil guides in the families hub on iseb.co.uk, including the Test Framework that lists every content domain.
One endorsed platform. Bond Online Premium Plus (Bond/OUP with CENTURY Tech) is the only practice platform ISEB endorses.
Independent ISEB-style practice. Everything else — this page, our adaptive mocks, and every other provider — is written in the style of the test. Useful for the formats and the on-screen habit; never a copy of the real thing.
How to use these questions
1 · Formats first
Work through one section at a time and read every explanation, right or wrong. The aim is that no question type is a surprise on the day.
2 · Then on screen, forward-only
The skill the real test adds is committing to an answer and moving on. Rehearse it with adaptive, no-back sittings rather than more paper.
3 · Fix the gaps in the curriculum
A wrong Maths or SPaG answer usually points at a Year 5 topic, not a “test technique” — go and learn the topic, then come back.
Ready for the real experience? ISEB-style adaptive mocks
Forward-only, difficulty-ramping sittings across all four sections with SAS-style estimates — a free walkthrough sitting, then unlimited in every plan.
Rehearse the Pre-Test Experience Calmly
Forward-only, difficulty-ramping ISEB-style mocks with a free walkthrough — unlimited sittings in every plan, with a 7-day free trial.