Buckinghamshire 11+ Format: Complete STT Guide for 2026
Two papers, age-standardised scoring, qualifying score 121 — everything parents need to understand the Bucks STT format
Book a Free ConsultationTwo papers, age-standardised scoring, qualifying score 121 — everything parents need to understand the Bucks STT format
Book a Free ConsultationThe Buckinghamshire Secondary Transfer Test (STT) is the entrance test for all 13 Buckinghamshire grammar schools. It is commissioned by The Buckinghamshire Grammar Schools (TBGS), produced and marked by GL Assessment, and administered by Buckinghamshire Council under contract to TBGS. It consists of two papers sat on the same day. Paper 1 covers verbal skills and is worth 50% of the combined score. Paper 2 covers maths (25%) and non-verbal reasoning (25%). All answers are multiple-choice. Scores are age-standardised, and the qualifying threshold is 121. This guide covers every component of the test in detail, explains how scores are calculated, and outlines what effective preparation looks like for each section.
Checked October 2026
Buckinghamshire Council and The Buckinghamshire Grammar Schools give the qualifying standardised score as 121 or above. Most parents were emailed 2026 results after 4pm on Friday 9 October 2026; applications close on 31 October 2026 and National Offer Day is Monday 1 March 2027.
The STT assesses verbal, mathematical and non-verbal skills. These map onto the two papers as follows:
| Paper | Components | Duration | Score weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Paper 1 — Verbal | English comprehension + Technical English + Verbal reasoning | ~60 min | 50% |
| Paper 2 — Maths | Mathematics (national curriculum content up to the end of Year 5) | ~60 min (shared) | 25% |
| Paper 2 — NVR | Non-verbal reasoning and spatial reasoning | ~60 min (shared) | 25% |
Source: The Buckinghamshire Grammar Schools (FAQs and Secondary Transfer Test page), retrieved 24 October 2026.
Both papers are taken on the same day, with a short gap between them. Children at state-funded Buckinghamshire primary schools and partner schools sit the test in their own school; children at any other school sit it at a grammar school test centre. All questions are multiple-choice, and children record their answers on separate answer sheets that are machine-marked (scanned). Marks are not deducted for incorrect answers. This means that pacing, question-type recognition, and not spending too long on any single question are key skills.
Paper 1 carries the highest weighting: verbal skills are worth 50% of the score. It covers three components within a single paper: comprehension, technical English and verbal reasoning. Each component has a different character and requires different preparation.
English comprehension is one of the verbal skills areas tested in Paper 1, and its questions are multiple-choice.
The best preparation for comprehension is sustained reading. Children who read widely — a mix of fiction, non-fiction, and age-appropriate quality journalism — build the vocabulary range and reading stamina that makes an unseen passage manageable. In preparation sessions, it is worth working through comprehension questions explicitly, discussing why an incorrect answer is wrong (often because it misreads inference or changes a detail) and building the habit of referring back to the text rather than answering from memory.
Technical English covers English grammar, punctuation and spelling, and its questions are multiple-choice.
The Buckinghamshire Grammar Schools say that in technical English children are assessed on the sorts of things they are familiar with from national curriculum work and testing. Even so, it helps to check that a child knows the terminology. A child who writes fluently may have never explicitly learned what a subordinate clause is, what distinguishes a semicolon from a comma, or when "who" vs "whom" is correct. These are learnable conventions, but they must be explicitly taught.
Targeted preparation for technical English should cover: clause types (main, subordinate, relative), punctuation rules (commas, semicolons, colons, apostrophes, speech marks), verb tenses (simple, continuous, perfect), word classes (noun, verb, adjective, adverb, conjunction, preposition), spelling, and common grammatical errors (run-on sentences, incorrect pronoun case, subject-verb disagreement). GL Assessment publishes free familiarisation papers for parents, and they cover verbal reasoning, non-verbal reasoning, English and maths.
Verbal reasoning is one of the three verbal skills areas in Paper 1. The Buckinghamshire Grammar Schools say the question types vary each year and include some that may appear in the free materials provided by GL Assessment. Working through the familiarisation materials, which parents of Year 5 children receive in the summer term, shows children what the question booklets and answer sheets look like.
The question types vary each year, so these are examples of verbal reasoning formats rather than a fixed list:
Each format has its own strategy. Recognising the format type before attempting the answer is a useful habit. The practice test and familiarisation materials help children become familiar with the look and format of the test so that they know what to expect on the test day.
Struggling with the verbal skills paper?
Technical English and verbal reasoning are two of the three areas tested in the verbal paper, and our specialist tutors can help your child prepare for both. Leading Tuition prepares students for every section of the Bucks STT. Book a free consultation or message us on WhatsApp.
The Buckinghamshire Grammar Schools say the maths content in the test does not go beyond what the national curriculum expects children to know and be able to do by the end of Year 5. Areas worth revising include:
Timed fluency — the ability to work accurately at speed — is a useful skill under exam conditions. Children who know the topics but have never practised in timed conditions may find the pace of the test difficult. One approach is progressive timed practice: start with untimed topic work to build accuracy, then introduce time pressure gradually, eventually doing full-paper practice under test conditions.
A specific note on problem-solving language: some children who can do the arithmetic struggle with multi-step word problems because they lose track of what is being asked or misread a key word. Practising the skill of identifying exactly what is being asked before starting the calculation — and checking the answer makes sense — helps reduce avoidable errors.
Paper 2 includes non-verbal reasoning and spatial reasoning questions alongside maths. The question types vary each year, so these are examples of non-verbal formats rather than a fixed list:
Some children find non-verbal reasoning intuitive and others find it harder. The Buckinghamshire Grammar Schools provide a practice test and familiarisation materials so that children know what to expect on the test day.
After the test, GL Assessment marks the papers and the marks are then standardised for age before results are released. Here is how it works in practice:
First, each correct answer gains one raw mark, and marks are not deducted for incorrect answers. Second, the marks are standardised, taking into account each child's age in years and months on the date they take the test. Standardisation makes sure that all children are placed on an equal footing and that no child is unfairly advantaged or disadvantaged because of their age. A child's standardised score will be between 60 and 170.
Next, the standardised scores are weighted (50% verbal, 25% maths and 25% non-verbal) and added together to give the Secondary Transfer Test Score (STTS). Finally, children with an STTS of 121 or above qualify for grammar school. The results email sent to parents gives the child's STTS and their scores in the verbal, mathematical and non-verbal sections, and says whether the STTS qualifies the child for grammar school admission.
Because scores are age-standardised, younger children in the year group are not disadvantaged: the purpose of age standardisation is to eradicate age differences among the children.
These dates apply to the 2026 test for Year 7 entry in September 2027:
Results were released on 9 October 2026, and the deadline to submit the secondary school application is 31 October 2026. The application is submitted to your home local authority, not to the grammar school directly. Families who live in Buckinghamshire can list up to six preferences in order. The order of preferences does not affect a child's chance of getting a place at any one school, because each school's admission rules are applied to each preference separately — but if a place is available at more than one preferred school, the council offers the highest preference possible. For September 2028 entry (children born between 1 September 2016 and 31 August 2017, who are in Year 5 now), the council's timeline gives registration in May to June 2027, the test in early September 2027 and an application deadline of 31 October 2027.
For an overview of all 13 Buckinghamshire grammar schools, catchment areas, and how to choose between them, see our Buckinghamshire grammar schools guide 2026. For individual school guides covering specific catchments, places, and what makes each school distinctive, see our guides for Aylesbury Grammar School, Royal Latin School, Burnham Grammar School, and Sir William Borlase's Grammar School. Our complete grammar school preparation guide covers how to structure preparation from Year 4 through to offer day.
Leading Tuition is rated 4.8 out of 5 on Trustpilot from 59 reviews, read on 3 October 2026, and 91% of our students achieve their desired grades.
Reviewed October 2026: dates, figures and rules checked against Buckinghamshire Council's grammar school, Secondary Transfer Test, results, marking and application pages and school admissions pages, and The Buckinghamshire Grammar Schools' FAQs, Secondary Transfer Test page and Transfer Test Analysis.
The Buckinghamshire Secondary Transfer Test consists of two papers. Paper 1 covers verbal skills — English comprehension, technical English (grammar, punctuation and spelling), and verbal reasoning — and is worth 50% of the total score. Paper 2 covers maths (25%) and non-verbal reasoning (25%). Both papers are multiple-choice, each approximately 60 minutes including an introduction and practice examples, and are sat on the same day with a short gap between them. All scores are age-standardised to eradicate age differences, so that younger children are not disadvantaged. The test is commissioned by The Buckinghamshire Grammar Schools (TBGS) and produced by GL Assessment, and Buckinghamshire Council administers the testing process under contract to TBGS.
The qualifying score for the Buckinghamshire Secondary Transfer Test is 121. This is an age-standardised score, not a raw mark: it takes into account each child's age in years and months on the date they take the test, so that younger children are not disadvantaged. Buckinghamshire Council expects about 37% of children to get an STTS of 121 or more. In the initial update of The Buckinghamshire Grammar Schools' Transfer Test Analysis for September 2027 entry, 3,459 of the 9,217 children, from all home local authorities, who had sat the test had qualified (provisional). The 13 grammar schools' Year 7 admission numbers for September 2027 add up to 2,351.
Technical English is one of the three sections within Paper 1 of the Buckinghamshire STT. It covers English grammar, punctuation and spelling, and its questions are multiple-choice. The Buckinghamshire Grammar Schools say children are assessed on the sorts of things they are familiar with from national curriculum work and testing. The free familiarisation papers published by GL Assessment cover verbal reasoning, non-verbal reasoning, English and maths.
Children answer multiple-choice questions in both papers. Each correct answer gains one raw mark, and marks are not deducted for incorrect answers. The marks are then standardised, taking into account each child's age in years and months on the date they take the test. The standardised scores are then weighted (50% verbal, 25% maths and 25% non-verbal) and added together to give the final Secondary Transfer Test Score (STTS). Children with an STTS of 121 or above qualify and are eligible to be considered for a Buckinghamshire grammar school place; qualifying does not guarantee an offer.
The 2026 Buckinghamshire Secondary Transfer Test took place on Thursday 10 September 2026 for most children, with the practice test on Tuesday 8 September 2026. The practice test has two short papers that are not marked; it lets children experience listening to the test instructions. Most parents were emailed their child's result after 4pm on Friday 9 October 2026. The deadline for secondary school applications, which are submitted to your home local authority, is Saturday 31 October 2026 (The Buckinghamshire Grammar Schools' FAQs give the time as midnight). Registration, needed for children at partner schools or schools outside Buckinghamshire, opened on 1 May 2026 and closed at 3pm on Tuesday 2 June 2026.
Verbal reasoning is one of the three verbal skills areas in Paper 1, alongside English comprehension and technical English. The Buckinghamshire Grammar Schools say the question types vary each year and include a range of question types, some of which may be included in the free materials provided by GL Assessment. Parents of Year 5 children are provided with familiarisation materials specific to the Buckinghamshire test in the summer term, and additional free materials are available on GL Assessment's website; the guide above gives examples of verbal reasoning formats such as word analogies and missing letters in sequences.
Leading Tuition's specialist tutors prepare students for each part of the Buckinghamshire Secondary Transfer Test: English comprehension, technical English, verbal reasoning, maths and non-verbal reasoning. Lessons are online and one-to-one, so each child can concentrate on the sections they struggle with most. We offer a free consultation to talk through your child's starting point and the timing of the next test, and our tutors can work with the familiarisation materials that The Buckinghamshire Grammar Schools and GL Assessment provide. You can book a free consultation or message us on WhatsApp.
Leading Tuition's specialist tutors cover all three verbal components, maths and non-verbal reasoning for the Bucks STT, including technical English.
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