Lessons
Structured lessons & exercises — free samples
Fun Lessons
Interactive & engaging lessons
Vocabulary
Build your word power
Creative Writing
Prompts, techniques & games
Comprehension
Passages, skills & mock papers
Flash Cards
Quick revision cards
Knowledge Nuggets
Bite-sized learning tips
11+ Syllabus Hub
Every topic & question type explained
11+ Subjects
Explore all subjects
Grammar Schools
School guides & information
Find Schools Near You
Nearest grammar schools by postcode
11+ Key Dates
Registration, test & apply-by dates
11+ Pass Marks
Qualifying scores by county
Readiness Quiz
Is your child ready? 2-min check
11+ Prep Guide
Complete preparation guide
FSCE Hub
Complete FSCE syllabus, schools & practice
FSCE Exam Guide
Exam preparation guide
ISEB Pre-Test Hub
Format, scoring, sections & preparation
ISEB Exam Guide
The Pre-Test explained for parents
ISEB Schools
Which schools use the Pre-Test — verified
Blog
Articles & expert tips
Contact Us
Get in touch with us
Join WhatsApp
Join our community group
ISEB Pre-Test Guide: The Common Pre-Tests on One Page
Four online, adaptive, multiple-choice sections — English, Mathematics, Verbal Reasoning and Non-Verbal Reasoning — sat once per academic year in Year 6 or Year 7, and shared with every senior school a family applies to. This page is the whole picture in one scroll; each part links through to the full guide in our ISEB Hub.
The six facts to know first
Most of what surprises families about the Pre-Tests comes down to these six things — the format, the single sitting, and who actually sees the score.
Adaptive and on-screen
Four online, multiple-choice sections where each question is chosen to match the child’s ability. No paper version exists.
One sitting, every school
Parents register once for a free Applicant ID; a single sitting is shared with every senior school the child applies to.
Once per academic year
The Pre-Tests can only be sat once by a pupil in any academic year — which is what makes the single sitting feel high-stakes.
Rebuilt with CENTURY in 2022
Since September 2022 the tests are built and delivered with CENTURY Tech. They no longer behave like the old GL-run papers.
No skipping, no going back
There is no skip or back button; every answer is final. The format rewards calm, steady accuracy over rushing.
Scores go to schools, not parents
Results are Standardised Age Scores (mean 100) with stanines and percentiles — and it is widely reported that only schools see them.
Format & timings at a glance
Four on-screen, multiple-choice sections totalling 2 hours 15 minutes (about 2 hours 49 with 25% extra time). Because the test is item-adaptive, there are no fixed question counts — different children answer different numbers of questions by design.
| Section | Time | With 25% extra time | Questions | What's tested |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| English | 40 min | 50 min | Variable (adaptive) | Comprehension on short passages of 300–500 words, plus spelling, punctuation and grammar — reportedly in cloze, shuffled-sentence and error-spotting formats |
| Mathematics | 40 min | 50 min | Variable (adaptive) | National curriculum to the end of Year 5: number, four operations, fractions/decimals/percentages, measurement, geometry, statistics. No calculator |
| Verbal Reasoning | 25 min | 31¼ min | Variable (adaptive) | Letter, word and language items: vocabulary, analogies, compound words, hidden words, letter sequences and codes. The highest-tempo section |
| Non-Verbal Reasoning | 30 min | 37½ min | Variable (adaptive) | 2D patterns, codes, odd-one-out, analogies and matrices, plus 3D/spatial visualisation items |
| Total | 2 h 15 | ~2 h 49 | Variable | All multiple-choice, on screen; sections may be split across days |
How the adaptive test behaves
After each answer, the next question is chosen to best match the child’s ability — question sequences are effectively unique to each pupil.
There is no skip button and no back button: every answer is final, and previous answers cannot be changed.
Early wobbles are recoverable — nerves-driven mistakes are gradually overwritten by the algorithm if later performance is strong.
It is not a race: different children answer different numbers of questions, and scoring weights difficulty and consistency of accuracy, not volume.
Sittings & logistics
The four sections can be taken together or split over separate days — the school or invigilation centre decides, within each senior school’s deadline.
Each individual section must be finished in one go once started: if the browser closes, the timer keeps running.
Venues: the child’s own junior/prep school, a senior school being applied to, or an approved invigilation centre anywhere in the world.
The 2026–27 testing window runs from 1 September 2026 to late May 2027 — but the most selective schools’ deadlines cluster in October–November of Year 6.
What each section actually tests
The four papers in the order the format table lists them, with the topics and question types each one draws on. ISEB publishes the content domains but not an official question-type list, so the reasoning types below are the best available map, reported consistently for the current platform. Every card links to the section's full guide, including preparation checklists.
English
Comprehension on short passages of 300–500 words, plus spelling, punctuation and grammar — reportedly in cloze, shuffled-sentence and error-spotting formats
Mathematics
National curriculum to the end of Year 5: number, four operations, fractions/decimals/percentages, measurement, geometry, statistics. No calculator
Verbal Reasoning
Letter, word and language items: vocabulary, analogies, compound words, hidden words, letter sequences and codes. The highest-tempo section
Non-Verbal Reasoning
2D patterns, codes, odd-one-out, analogies and matrices, plus 3D/spatial visualisation items
How scoring works — and why you only get estimates
Results are Standardised Age Scores (SAS) based on the accuracy and consistency of answers, age-adjusted against a standardisation sample from the independent-schools sector, plus a stanine and percentile for each section.
From sitting to offer
1 · The sitting
Four adaptive sections, on screen, sat once per academic year at an approved venue.
2 · Standardisation
Accuracy and consistency are converted to a Standardised Age Score (SAS), age-adjusted against a standardisation sample from the independent-schools sector. The mean is 100; the ceiling is reported to be around 142.
3 · Results to schools
Results are available to registered senior schools immediately after completion — as an SAS plus a stanine (1–9 band) and percentile, reportedly alongside the time taken per section.
4 · Each school decides
There is no universal pass mark. Every school sets its own benchmarks, and uses the scores alongside the current school’s reference.
5 · Stage 2
Long-listed candidates go on to interviews, assessment days or the school’s own tests; 13+ offers are typically conditional on later performance.
Making sense of the numbers
SAS mean is 100 — an average performer for their age scores around 100.
The maximum SAS is reported to be around 142; roughly two-thirds of pupils are reported to fall between 85 and 115, with fewer than 5% above 130.
Scores are age-standardised: younger children in the year group are compared fairly against older ones.
Stanines band the distribution into nine groups (5 is average); percentiles show the share of the sample scored above.
For the most academically selective schools, tutoring sources report that an SAS of around 120 or above is often expected — no school publishes an official cut-off.
Why every practice score is an estimate
It is widely reported that parents are not sent the official scores — results go to the senior schools only.
That means every practice platform’s “SAS” — ours included — is an estimate, built from its own question bank and norms, not from ISEB’s.
Access arrangements & test-day practicalities
The platform was designed with accessibility built in, and formal arrangements are approved through ISEB's Guardian Portal with evidence — each senior school sets its own requirements, so start the paperwork early.
25% extra time
English and Maths become 50 minutes, VR 31¼ and NVR 37½. Granted with evidence (an assessor’s report and SENCO letter, per each senior school’s requirements) uploaded via the Guardian Portal before the sitting.
Font sizes
The test player offers adjustable font sizes, so children who read more comfortably at larger sizes can set that up from the start.
Coloured overlays
On-screen coloured tints are available for children who use overlays for reading — worth practising with beforehand so the choice is familiar.
Hidden timers
The on-screen timer can be hidden for children who find a counting-down clock stressful. The section still ends on time — pacing practice matters either way.
EAL: bilingual dictionary
Children with English as an additional language may use a standard bilingual paper dictionary — but no extra time is given for EAL.
The official walkthrough
ISEB’s free Test Walkthrough lets children explore the player and its accessibility options before the real sitting — do this early, not the night before.
A calm preparation plan
ISEB's own guidance is worth taking at face value: the Pre-Tests are based on the national curriculum, additional preparation is not a requirement, and pupil wellbeing should sit at the heart of assessment. Familiarisation, not cramming.
Year 5, autumn & spring · Secure the foundations
The Pre-Tests are anchored to the curriculum, so the best preparation is mastering Year 5 as it is taught: fluent arithmetic, daily reading (fiction, non-fiction and some poetry), and a growing word bank. No test-format work needed yet.
Year 5, summer term · Gentle familiarisation
Introduce the question formats little and often: cloze and shuffled sentences, letter codes, cube counting. Keep sessions short (15–20 minutes) and end on a win. Most selective-school deadlines fall in Oct–Nov of Year 6, so this summer is the consolidation window.
Early autumn, Year 6 · Rehearse the real experience
Do ISEB’s free official walkthrough so the player feels familiar. Practise on-screen, forward-only sittings under time so “no going back” becomes normal rather than alarming. One or two full-length rehearsals a week is plenty.
The final week · Taper
Light review only — a few minutes of vocabulary and mental arithmetic a day. Sort logistics: venue, arrival time, glasses. Early nights. A calm child recovers from early wobbles; the adaptive algorithm is designed to allow exactly that.
Test day
Good breakfast, arrive early, and remind them: harder questions usually mean they are doing well, nobody answers everything, and one shaky answer never decides the result. Answer, commit, move on.
Afterwards · Stage 2
Results go to schools immediately, and long-listed candidates are invited to interviews or assessment days. Keep reading together and talking about ideas — that is the best interview preparation there is.
Do
Use ISEB’s free official walkthrough and parent toolkit — the genuine familiarisation materials
Prioritise curriculum depth and vocabulary over question-cramming
Practise on-screen and forward-only, so the format holds no surprises
Keep sessions short, regular and calm — accuracy and consistency are what the scoring rewards
Anchor your timeline to your target schools’ deadlines (often Oct–Nov of Year 6)
Avoid
Cramming — ISEB itself says additional preparation is not a requirement, and that pupil wellbeing should be at the heart of assessment
Drilling number-based VR types — reportedly removed from the Pre-Tests in 2022
Fixed “36-question paper” practice habits — question counts vary by design on the adaptive platform
Teaching a “skip it and come back” strategy — there is no back button in this test
Treating any practice score (ours included) as an official ISEB result — it is always an estimate
Practising the format honestly
The real Pre-Test is adaptive, forward-only and on screen, so paper-style fixed tests leave the most important habits untrained. Prep4All's ISEB-style mocks are difficulty-ramping, variable-length practice sittings built to rehearse that experience — unlimited in every plan, with a free walkthrough for every student.
Difficulty-ramping sections
Questions step up as your child answers well — variable-length sittings in the spirit of the adaptive test, not fixed 36-question papers.
Forward-only, like the real thing
No skip, no back button. Children learn to commit to an answer and move on — the single habit that most reduces test-day nerves.
All four sections
English (with passage-based comprehension), Maths anchored to Year 5, letter/word Verbal Reasoning and 2D + 3D Non-Verbal Reasoning.
Practice examples before sections
Each section opens with untimed examples, so the question types are familiar before the timed items begin — the same familiarisation job ISEB’s own walkthrough does.
SAS-style score estimates
After each sitting you see a standardised score estimate (mean 100) with section breakdowns — clearly labelled as Prep4All estimates, because only schools see official ISEB scores.
Unlimited, in every plan
ISEB-style mocks are included in every Prep4All plan with unlimited sittings — and the walkthrough test is free for every student.
What we don't claim — on purpose
We are independent of ISEB: not affiliated with, or endorsed by, the Independent Schools Examinations Board.
Bond Online Premium Plus is the only practice platform endorsed by ISEB. Our questions are original Prep4All content written in ISEB style.
Our difficulty ramp is our own — we do not claim to replicate ISEB’s algorithm, and no third party can.
Scores are estimates from our own question bank and norms, shown to guide preparation — never presented as official results.
The questions parents ask most
Six straight answers here; the hub's FAQ section carries the full list, along with every primary and secondary source this guide was built from.
They are four online, adaptive, multiple-choice assessments — English, Mathematics, Verbal Reasoning and Non-Verbal Reasoning — run by the Independent Schools Examinations Board (ISEB) and used by many of the UK’s leading independent senior schools as their shared first-stage entrance test. Children sit them in Year 6 or Year 7, for entry into Year 7 (11+) or deferred entry into Year 9 (13+). Since September 2022 the tests have been built and delivered with CENTURY Tech, replacing the earlier GL Assessment-run version.
Once per academic year. One sitting is shared, via the child’s Applicant ID, with every senior school they apply to — there is no sitting the test separately for each school. A child applying again in a later year (for example a Year 6 sitting, then a Year 7 sitting for a different school’s 13+ timeline) sits it afresh that year.
There isn’t one. Results are Standardised Age Scores (mean 100, with a reported ceiling of around 142) plus stanines and percentiles, and each school sets its own benchmarks. Tutoring sources report that the most academically selective schools often look for an SAS of around 120 or above, but no school publishes an official cut-off.
It is consistently reported that parents are not sent the scores — results are available to the registered senior schools immediately after completion, and schools decide what (if anything) to share. That is why any score a practice platform shows you, including ours, is an estimate rather than an official figure.
No. The Pre-Tests are adaptive and on-screen, so traditional past papers don’t exist. ISEB provides a free official Test Walkthrough (at iseb.eva.tech) plus free preparation guides for parents, and endorses one commercial platform — Bond Online Premium Plus. Everything else on the market, Prep4All included, is independent “ISEB-style” practice.
No — and we say so prominently. Bond Online Premium Plus (built by Bond/Oxford University Press with CENTURY Tech) is the only practice platform endorsed by ISEB. Prep4All offers independent, original ISEB-style practice: we mirror the experience honestly — on-screen, forward-only, difficulty-ramping, variable-length — without claiming ISEB’s questions or algorithm.
Go deeper: the 11 Plus ISEB Hub
Each part of this guide has a full section in the hub — syllabus detail, checklists you can tick off, and the sources behind every fact.
Accuracy & independence notice
This guide is for information only. Facts are drawn from ISEB's own published materials, the CENTURY Tech partnership announcement and school admissions pages, corroborated where necessary by prep-sector sources — claims that rest only on those secondary sources are phrased as “reported”. “ISEB” and “Common Pre-Tests” are names associated with the Independent Schools Examinations Board; all school names belong to their institutions. Prep4All is independent: we offer ISEB-style practice, and any standardised score we show is a Prep4All estimate, never an official ISEB result.
Last updated: 31 August 2026 · facts last verified: 18 August 2026. Spotted something out of date? Tell us and we will correct it.
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.