Eton College 13+ Entry and Preparation for 2029 Entry

Eton takes registrations for 13-plus entry up to the end of UK School Year 5, and closes them on 31 August. For 2029 entry that deadline is 31 August 2026. The first assessment, the ISEB Common Pre-Tests, follows in October or November of Year 6, which puts the deadline a full school year ahead of anything a boy actually sits.

When Does Eton Close Registration for 13+ Entry?

This is the single fact that decides whether a family has a candidate or not, and it is the one most often reported wrongly. Eton's published position is that a boy can be registered at any time up to the end of UK School Year 5, the academic year in which he reaches the age of 10 years, and that registrations close on 31 August. Eton notes explicitly that this replaced a 30 June deadline.

Our arithmetic on Eton's own dates, rather than a claim Eton makes: registration closes at the end of Year 5, and Stage 1 falls in the autumn term of Year 6. The deadline therefore sits a full school year before the first assessment. A family that starts researching Eton once their son is in Year 6 — which is when most families start thinking about senior schools — has already missed the window for that cohort.

Registration itself has a document trap in it. Eton requires an uploaded copy of the boy's unabridged birth certificate showing parental details, which on a UK certificate is the one titled "Certified Copy of an Entry". That is not the short-form certificate most families keep in a drawer, and ordering a replacement takes time. Eton states it cannot process incomplete applications and reserves the right to discard them after a month.

What Happens at Stage 1, in the Autumn of Year 6?

Eton assesses in two stages, and Stage 1 contains no examination Eton itself writes. All boys sit the ISEB Common Pre-Tests during October or November of Year 6, either at their current school or at an agreed centre. Alongside that, Eton requests a Head Teacher's report covering the boy's academic strengths, interests and character.

Eton reviews the two together and communicates the outcome in December. The report is not a formality, and that is worth saying plainly to a family who see the Pre-Test as the whole of Stage 1: half of what Eton reads at this stage is written by the boy's current school, about who he is as well as how he scores.

Eton describes the Pre-Tests as multiple choice, covering Verbal Reasoning, Non-Verbal Reasoning, English and Mathematics, taking about two and a half hours — roughly 150 minutes — and available to be taken together or separately. It also notes that each score is standardised and age-adapted so that the result measures ability and attainment irrespective of when a boy's birthday falls. That matters for the next stage, where the birthday decides something else entirely.

Which Assessment Window Will Your Son Be In?

Stage 2 runs across the spring and summer terms of Year 6, and Eton bands boys into four groups. The band is set by birthday, except for one group defined by something else, and it determines when a boy is assessed and when the family hears.

Two practical consequences follow. First, a summer-born boy will not hear until July, five months after an autumn-born boy in the same cohort — so a family with an April birthday should plan for a longer wait rather than reading silence in March as a rejection. Second, a family requesting significant financial aid is assessed in mid-January, earlier than every other group regardless of the boy's age, which brings the whole preparation timetable forward.

The assessment itself is an individual interview and an online predictive test of academic ability and potential, taken on a computer. Eton adds that minimal IT skills are required, which is its way of saying the technology is not what is being tested. An individual interview is a different exercise from the multiple-mini or panel formats used elsewhere, and it rewards a boy who can hold a conversation rather than one who has rehearsed answers.

What a Conditional Place Actually Commits You To

A boy who succeeds at Stage 2 is offered a Conditional Place. The condition is an examination two years later: Eton confirms the place on passing the King's Scholarship, Common Entrance or Eton Entrance examinations at age 12 or 13, in UK School Year 8.

Between those two points sits Year 7, which has its own step. Parents and boys with a Conditional Place meet a selection of House Masters during the first and second terms of Year 7, with a view to finding a suitable boarding house. Some boys are instead offered a Waiting List Place; those who accept are invited back to Eton in the summer term of Year 7 for a further assessment.

Set end to end, the process runs from registration at the end of Year 5 to confirmation in Year 8: four school years, three separate assessment points, and one examination that most families think of as the whole thing. Common Entrance is the last gate, not the first. A boy registered at 10 years old is confirmed at 13, and in between he sits about 150 minutes of Pre-Test, one interview and one online predictive test.

How Should a Family Plan Backwards From These Dates?

Working forwards from Year 5 makes the process look impossibly long. Working backwards from the fixed points makes it manageable, because only three of them are actually fixed: the registration deadline at the end of Year 5, the Pre-Test window in October or November of Year 6, and the confirming examination in Year 8. Everything else follows from those.

The registration deadline needs nothing academic. It needs a form, the right birth certificate and a decision, and it can be met years before any preparation begins. Treating it as an administrative task for the spring of Year 5 rather than as the start of an academic campaign is the correct framing, and it removes the pressure most families put on themselves too early.

Pre-Test preparation is the first genuinely academic deadline, and it lands in the autumn of Year 6. Because the tests are adaptive and age-standardised, work done in Year 5 that raises a boy's underlying attainment counts; drilling in the fortnight before does not count for much. That argues for steady work through Year 5 rather than an intensive push in September of Year 6, which is exactly when most families start.

The last fixed point is two years further on. A Conditional Place held from Year 6 is confirmed by examination in Year 8, and the intervening Year 7 carries the House Master meetings rather than any assessment. A boy who peaks in Year 6 and coasts through Year 7 arrives at the confirming papers weaker than he was when Eton offered him the place.

How Many Scholarships Does Eton Actually Award?

Around 14 King's Scholarships a year, awarded on academic ability to boys entering at 13. Eton reports approximately 140 scholarship boys in the school at any one time across all its awards.

The figure of 70 turns up repeatedly in writing about Eton scholarships, and it is historical rather than current. Henry VI founded the school for 70 King's Scholars in 1440, and Eton says the foundation still exists nearly 600 years later. It is not the number of boys competing in a modern year, and quoting it as though it were misstates the odds in both directions.

One further point closes off a common line of enquiry: Eton states that it does not offer sports or arts scholarships. Those abilities, it says, feature strongly in the majority of its selection processes, but they are not a separate award route. A boy applying for a King's Scholarship or a Music Award may do so in Year 8, up to the age of 13, which is the one route that survives the 31 August registration deadline.

Reviewed August 2026: every deadline, assessment stage, age band and scholarship figure on this page was checked against Eton College's own Year 9 (13+) Entry and Scholarships and Awards pages on 22 August 2026. Eton has already changed this registration deadline once, so confirm it with the school before you plan around it.

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