Independent School Entrance Tests: What Parents Need to Know

By Annabel Dunstan

SUMMARY

Everyone’s application journey is different, but there is one challenge we will all have to face: the entrance test. If your child is going to secure a place at an independent school, they are going to need to sit an assessment. What will this look like? Why do schools require it? How can I make sure my child does well? These are some of the questions that are probably going through your mind as a parent – and they’re great questions to be asking, whether you’re all set on the schools you’re choosing, or you’re just considering where to look next. In this article, we talk to expert Alastair Montgomery (Director and Co-Founder of Academic Profiling Tests (APT)) to unpack what entrance exams are really all about – how they work, what they’re for, and why schools do them in this way. We also give you our top advice on how to prepare your child for these tests, so that you can stride into this critical stage of application confidently, knowing exactly what to expect and what you need to do.

What Are Independent School Entrance Tests Like?

Even the quickest Google search will reveal that there are lots of different private school entrance tests. They are known by different names, are sat at different times, are relevant to different people – and it can be easy to feel a bit overloaded when you try to find your way through all this information. This article exists to give you all the essential details, whatever the name of your school’s test, and whenever your child is taking it. Today, most children sit an entrance test at 11+, to join a school from Year 7. Other standard entry points include 13+ (to join a school in Year 9) and 16+ (to join a school for the sixth-form) – and it is of course perfectly normal for children to be sitting tests in between one of these points, for example if they have moved into the area. The good news is that whatever stage your child is currently at, the admissions testing process is the same.

Which Entrance Exams Do UK Private Schools Use?

That’s the ‘who’ and ‘when’ sorted (hooray!), but what about all these different names? If you’re a parent applying to independent schools for your child, you’re likely to come across some of the following: ISEB (Independent Schools Examinations Board) Pre-Test, CAT4, Quest Assessments, and UKiset. You may also find that the schools you’re looking at have curated their own personal tests – this is fairly common too. But it’s good news again: all of these examples (even the bespoke ones) are essentially the same. There is one special feature unique to UKiset: aimed at international applicants, UKiset has an additional English language element, testing your reading, listening and expository writing skills in English. Apart from this extra bit, all admissions tests are very similar.

Entrance tests typically examine English, Maths, Verbal Reasoning, and Non-Verbal Reasoning. Their questions include a variety of puzzles based around words, numbers, pictures and patterns, a bit like an IQ test. They’re sat online, with a set amount of time to complete the tests. But it’s not so much a race against the clock to finish every question – and that’s not just a roundabout way of saying take care, don’t rush. The tests are adaptive. This means that the algorithm chooses which question your child sees next, based on what they’ve got right or wrong so far. The questions get harder or easier depending on each individual’s strengths and difficulties, meaning that there is no set order or even total number of questions in some tests; the test is tailored to fit your child. When the results are calculated, your child’s scores are standardised: all this means is that the results seen at the end are not your child’s raw marks, but a score that has been mathematically scaled to ensure a fair comparison with other children taking the test. Final results are calculated against the UK average performance, and are adjusted according to your child’s age. How well have they done, for their age group, compared with their peers? Your child will be competing against people all across the UK, who could be older in the year group, and might well be sitting the exam later in the season – but with standardised scoring, you don’t need to worry about these circumstances becoming a disadvantage for your child, because everyone is levelled up.

One small thing to mention before we move on is a test called Common Entrance. This is the odd one out of entrance tests: its questions are based on the curriculum rather than cognitive reasoning, and it’s non-adaptive. Although Common Entrance is generally being phased out, there are still some schools that use it. If your child is going to take this exam, the content should be delivered by their prep school.

What Do Schools Look For in Admissions Tests?

So why do school admissions tests look like this? What are schools actually looking for? The most important thing to understand about these tests is that they are skills-based. Doing well in an entrance test has nothing to do with curriculum knowledge or fact recall: success is down to in-the-moment cognition. These are tests of reasoning, problem-solving, and working-out – skills that can be wielded across the whole curriculum, relevant to many particular subjects and critical for academic study in general. Schools are not looking to test how well your child’s prep school delivered their teaching, and they are not expecting your child to have memorised reams of stock answers: they are testing your child’s ability to deal with unfamiliar problems as they appear. Just like with standardised scoring, skills-based testing counteracts the biases of background and circumstances. Alastair Montgomery (Director and Co-Founder of the Academic Profiling Tests (APT)) elaborates:

"The benefit of skills-based tests - such as reasoning-type and literacy/numeracy assessments is that they are not dependent on any specific curriculum - the idea being that students from any background - state, independent, international curriculums - should, in theory, be able to be judged on a level playing field."

It seems rather obvious to point out that the aim when sitting the tests is to get as many questions right as possible (anyone could have figured that one out…). But actually, it is a point worth raising, because admissions is not quite so black and white as you might imagine. Of course, all children sitting admissions tests should try their best, and of course, everyone should aim to correctly complete as many questions as they can within the time. That’s absolutely the right approach. But at the same time, we should keep in our minds that the main purpose of admissions testing is to find the best fit. The ultimate aim is for your child to end up in a school that suits them – where the learning environment can nurture their strengths and support their needs – so it’s important that their performance in the entrance test is a genuine, accurate reflection of their normal ability. You’ll naturally want your child to ace the test, and there’s no shame in that: as parents, we all want success for our children. But if it’s a real grind to attain this (they’re working their socks off for months in advance, they’re spending every afternoon with a private tutor, and they’ll still need a fair wind on the day), consider the kind of working pattern your child is being set up for. How hard will they have to work to maintain this standard? You don’t want them to scrape it in to the super-selective school only to struggle to stay afloat later. Better to approach to entrance test as a matchmaking opportunity: the results enable your child to get into the best school, for them.

Why Fit Matters More Than Just Test Scores

Fit is especially important because admissions test results are rarely single-use: most schools hold onto their students’ scores and utilise them further down the line. Admissions marks help schools to generate target grades, set classes, and keep track of your child’s progress – so it will benefit your child to have a score that reflects what they can achieve and what they are comfortable achieving. As Alastair Montgomery notes:

"Schools are much more data-driven than ever before and these types of assessments dovetail into their internal measures of academic performance and value-added."

You might now be thinking: what if my child has a bad day on the day of the test? They’re under the weather, they have a mind blank, they make mistakes they’ve never made before – these are all plausible reasons for a one-off underperformance. What happens in these scenarios? Well, it's important to remember that whilst the entrance test can seem like the be-all-and-end-all of admissions, it is never the only component. School applications are holistic, with multiple elements taken into consideration, from the interview to the prep-Head’s written reference. Your child will have many opportunities to show their worth – and although test results are important, they are not totally defining. There’s no pass-mark, no strict boundary of acceptance: schools are looking for the best-fitting candidates overall, and they want to get to know your child. Alastair Montgomery concurs that

"[the test] is rarely the only measure schools will be looking at - they'll also want to get a sense of soft skills, critical thinking, social acuity and other metrics that interviews and assessment days are designed to look at."

How to Prepare Your Child for Private School Entrance Exams

So we’ve explained what admissions tests are like and how schools are using them. Now we come to the eternal question: how should we prepare our children to sit entrance tests? To begin with, there is some essential behind-the-scenes work that you as a parent must do. It is the parent’s responsibility to enter their child for the right test(s), so you’ll need to find out which tests your child needs to take, and when they’ll take them. Then you’ll need to formally enter them for each exam. It’s important that you nail these logistics and meet the application deadlines, otherwise the journey will be over before it’s begun! Read the information from your chosen schools carefully. Our advice when you reach this test-entering stage is to consider the toll on your child before you hit ‘confirm’: are the dates and deadlines manageable? Will your child be overloaded with exams on consecutive days? Are they taking more tests than necessary? Don’t set them up for a burnout.

Should You Hire a Tutor for Entrance Test Prep?

Once the tests are in the calendar, it’s time to start readying your child. Space out your preparation to build them up to the deadline – the old cliché that it’s a marathon, not a sprint is cheesy but true! At this stage of preparation, many parents wonder whether it’s worth getting a tutor – and there are arguments on both sides. Since schools are looking for best fit, many places prefer to measure children’s natural ability with no interference. Avoiding tutoring can be a good way of ensuring your child’s results are befitting and reflective, suitable for finding a school that matches them well. However, we know that school applications are highly competitive, and other families will be using tutoring to boost their children’s applications. You don’t want to disadvantage your child by withholding what could be a valuable resource.

Ultimately, whether you decide to work with a tutor or under your own steam, the main focus for entrance test preparation should be familiarising your child with the format of the tests. Because they are skills-based assessments, you cannot learn the answers; but with a good amount of practice at the right types of question, your child can be ready to face whatever is thrown at them on the day. As Alastair Montgomery says,

"due to the large question banks and their adaptive nature it is not likely that candidates (even if they could get hold of the content) could learn all the answers. So the best advice is to become familiar with the types of questions used in this kind of assessment. Exposure and practice is the best method to become more familiar with them."

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Almost all entrance tests are based on cognition, not curriculum – so practise the skills, and familiarise your child with the test format so they know what’s coming.
• Tests are important, but they are not the only part of admissions – so don’t over-burden your child with intensive prep that isn’t needed.
• Whether you’re preparing for the tests, sitting the tests, or digesting the test results, remember that the main aim of admissions testing is to find the best fit.

ACTION - Try a Sample Admissions Test with My Top Schools

At My Top Schools, we offer a testing service, giving the opportunity to sit a sample test and receive a report with further advice based on your performance. Contact us if you are interested in accessing this top resource.