ISEB Pre-Test, Common Entrance, school choice and year-by-year preparation guide for families
Book a Free ConsultationThe 13+ admissions process is the entry route into Year 9 at senior independent schools — the boarding and day schools that traditionally select at age 13 rather than 11. For most schools, the process begins much earlier than parents expect: a conditional offer is usually secured through an ISEB Common Pre-Test or bespoke school assessment in Year 6 or Year 7, with Common Entrance examinations in Year 8 serving as the confirmation stage. Understanding when the process starts, what each assessment tests, and how schools differ in their requirements is the essential first step for any family targeting 13+ entry in 2026 or 2027.
The 13+ entry route is used by many of the UK's most academically distinguished independent schools, including Eton, Harrow, Winchester, Marlborough, Rugby, Tonbridge, Charterhouse, Bryanston, Haileybury, Cranleigh, Ampleforth, Lancing, King's Canterbury, Cheltenham College, and many others. Entry is into Year 9 (the September of the year in which the child turns 14), and the typical age at entry is 13.
The admissions process has two distinct phases for most schools. The first is pre-selection, which takes place in Year 6 or Year 7. Schools use the ISEB Common Pre-Test, or their own bespoke assessments, to evaluate applicants and make conditional offers. This phase typically happens when your child is aged 10 to 12. The second phase is confirmation, which takes place in Year 8. Candidates who hold conditional offers sit Common Entrance examinations or the school's own Year 8 papers to confirm their place, usually in the spring or summer term. Some schools — particularly selective London day schools — run an integrated process without CE, using only their own assessments. The critical point for most families to understand is this: for the majority of 13+ schools, the decisive selection happens in Year 6 or 7, not Year 8.
| Stage | Year Group | Child's Age | What Happens |
|---|---|---|---|
| Registration | Year 5–6 | 9–11 | Register with target schools; open day visits; early research |
| ISEB Pre-Test or bespoke test | Year 6–7 | 10–12 | Online adaptive test: Maths, English, Verbal Reasoning, Non-Verbal Reasoning |
| Conditional offer | Year 6–7 | 10–12 | School offers a place subject to minimum CE or own-paper grades in Year 8 |
| Year 8 CE preparation | Year 7–8 | 11–13 | Sustained prep-school curriculum work across CE subjects; tutoring support |
| Common Entrance or school exams | Year 8 | 12–13 | Written subject papers confirm the conditional place (May–June) |
| Year 9 entry | Year 9 | 13 | Pupil joins senior school |
More than 60 senior independent schools use Common Entrance as part of their 13+ admissions process, according to ISEB. The list includes some of the most academically demanding boarding schools in the country, and the schools covered in our dedicated 13+ Preparation hub represent a wide range of entry styles, from traditional CE schools to those with fully bespoke assessments.
The two assessments serve fundamentally different purposes, and confusing them is one of the most common errors parents make when researching 13+ entry.
The ISEB Common Pre-Test is the selection instrument. It is an online, adaptive, age-standardised set of four assessments taken in Year 6 or Year 7: Mathematics, English (reading comprehension and grammar), Verbal Reasoning, and Non-Verbal Reasoning. The four tests together take approximately 2 hours 15 minutes in total — English takes 40 minutes, Mathematics 40 minutes, Verbal Reasoning 25 minutes, and Non-Verbal Reasoning 30 minutes. The Pre-Test is taken at the pupil's own school or an approved invigilation centre, and crucially, it is a shared assessment: results are age-standardised and shared automatically with all senior schools the pupil has applied to. A pupil can only sit the ISEB Common Pre-Test once per academic year. For the 2026–27 session, the Guardian Portal opened for registration on 9 June 2026, with live testing commencing on 1 September 2026 and running until late May 2027.
The Pre-Test is designed to measure academic potential and current attainment, not curriculum knowledge alone. It is adaptive, meaning the difficulty of questions adjusts dynamically based on how a pupil responds. This makes it meaningful across a wide ability range and allows senior schools to compare pupils fairly regardless of curriculum differences between prep schools.
Common Entrance at 13+ is the confirmation instrument. It is a suite of subject-based written papers set by the Independent Schools Examinations Board (ISEB) and taken in Year 8, usually in the spring or summer term (the main sitting is in May–June). The core papers are English, Mathematics, and Science. Pupils also typically sit optional papers in subjects such as French, Latin, History, Geography, Spanish, and Religious Studies. The papers are sent to the receiving school for marking, which applies its own grade thresholds. There is no single national pass mark — each school sets its own minimum requirements and communicates these at the offer stage. For most schools, Common Entrance does not select; it confirms. A pupil who holds a conditional offer and achieves the required grades has their place secured. Failure to reach the grades is rare but can result in a deferred or, in exceptional cases, withdrawn offer.
It is also worth noting the CASE (Common Academic Scholarship Examination) at 13+, which is an optional additional assessment set by ISEB for scholarship candidates. CASE papers are more demanding than standard CE papers and are sat by pupils who are candidates for academic scholarships at their target senior school. Not all schools use CASE; some set their own scholarship papers.
One of the most important facts about 13+ admissions is how early the process begins. Many families who discover the 13+ route in Year 7 or Year 8 find themselves already behind registration deadlines at popular schools. Here is the full timeline for families planning 13+ entry.
Year 5 (age 9–10): Begin researching schools and attending open days. Some boarding schools — Eton College being the most prominent example — require registration in Year 5 or even earlier. If you have a specific target school in mind, checking its registration deadline is the first practical step. Missing a registration deadline for an oversubscribed school rules it out entirely, regardless of how strong your child's assessment results later are.
Year 6 (age 10–11): This is the critical year for most 13+ applicants. Families should have a finalised shortlist and should formally register with target schools by the start of Year 6 at the latest. The ISEB Pre-Test for the 2026–27 session opened for Guardian Portal registration on 9 June 2026, with live testing commencing 1 September 2026. Many schools require the Pre-Test to be completed by November or December of Year 6, with conditional offers released in the spring term. The Pre-Test is typically sat at the child's current prep school.
Year 7 (age 11–12): For families who missed the Year 6 window, some schools still accept applications and run Pre-Test assessments in Year 7. By Year 7, your child should ideally hold conditional offers from their first-choice schools. Year 7 is also the right time to begin structured academic preparation for Common Entrance subjects if this has not already started, with particular attention to any subjects where the child is working below the standard expected by their target schools.
Year 8 (age 12–13): Preparation for Common Entrance intensifies. Prep schools structure much of their Year 8 curriculum around CE subjects. The CE main sitting is in May–June of Year 8. Some schools also offer a winter CE sitting in November of Year 8 for scholarship candidates or late entrants. CE results are typically returned and places confirmed in June–July, with Year 9 entry the following September.
For families applying to multiple schools with different assessment styles, it is worth noting that Pre-Test and CE preparation can run in parallel throughout Year 7 and into Year 8 without significant conflict: the Pre-Test rewards broad academic ability and reasoning skills, while CE rewards subject-specific knowledge — both are addressed through good prep-school education and well-targeted tutoring.
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Our specialist tutors have detailed knowledge of the ISEB Pre-Test format and the Common Entrance syllabus across all subjects. We prepare pupils for specific target schools from Year 5 onwards, including Ampleforth, Bryanston, Cheltenham College, Cranleigh, Haileybury, King's Canterbury, Lancing, and Millfield.
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Book a Free Consultation Message us on WhatsAppOne of the most important things to understand about 13+ admissions is that schools differ significantly in how they assess candidates. Families often assume that all 13+ schools use the same process; in practice, the approach falls into three distinct groups, and preparation strategy varies substantially between them.
Group 1 — ISEB Pre-Test followed by Common Entrance: This is the most common model at traditional boarding schools. Schools in this group use the ISEB Pre-Test in Year 6 or Year 7 for initial selection and then require Common Entrance papers in Year 8 for confirmation. Schools in this category include Eton, Harrow, Winchester, Rugby, Tonbridge, Sherborne, Oundle, Ampleforth, and Lancing, among many others. For these schools, CE grades genuinely matter and must be taken seriously: a strong pre-test candidate who underperforms in CE risks having their offer deferred or subjected to further review. Read our detailed guide to Ampleforth College 13+ admissions or Lancing College 13+ entry for school-specific detail.
Group 2 — ISEB Pre-Test followed by bespoke Year 8 papers: Some schools use the ISEB Pre-Test for initial selection but then set their own Year 8 assessments rather than requiring Common Entrance. Charterhouse, Marlborough, Wellington, Sevenoaks, Cheltenham College, and Bryanston are examples of schools that have moved to bespoke Year 8 papers. The practical implication for families is that candidates for these schools need preparation calibrated to each school's specific paper style, not just the generic CE syllabus. See our guide to Bryanston School 13+ admissions for a school-specific example of this model.
Group 3 — Entirely bespoke assessments: A smaller group of schools — principally the most academically selective London day schools — run their own assessments at both stages. St Paul's School and Westminster School, for instance, set their own Year 8 Mathematics and English papers and do not use Common Entrance at all. Candidates for these schools need highly targeted preparation focused on the specific difficulty and content style of each school's own papers, which are set at a standard considerably above the standard CE papers. See our St Paul's School London 13+ guide for detail on that school's approach.
For families targeting schools across different groups simultaneously — for example, a child applying to both a Group 1 CE school and a Group 3 bespoke school — preparation must cover CE subject content alongside school-specific preparation. This is manageable with good planning, but it is important to recognise that the two streams require somewhat different work. Our 13+ Preparation hub has guidance on coordinating preparation across multiple school types.
For pupils and parents who have not been through the process before, it helps to understand what the two main assessments actually involve in practice.
The ISEB Pre-Test experience: The test is typically arranged by the child's prep school and sat on school premises during the school day. There is no paper version — it is entirely online. Parents register their child via the ISEB Guardian Portal, creating an Applicant ID that is shared with senior schools and the invigilation centre. The tests can be taken on a single day or split across multiple sessions. The adaptive format — where the difficulty of questions increases as a pupil answers correctly — means that able pupils will encounter progressively harder questions in each section. This is entirely normal and is how the test is designed; it does not mean things are going wrong.
The mathematical content is broadly Key Stage 3 level up to Year 6 standard. The reasoning components — verbal and non-verbal — are skills-based, and targeted practice with specific question types (letter series, matrix patterns, verbal analogies, code sequences) meaningfully improves performance. The English section tests reading comprehension and grammar at a level consistent with a strong Year 6 pupil.
No past papers for the ISEB Common Pre-Test are publicly available, which is a deliberate design choice — the test is intended to assess underlying ability rather than coached knowledge. However, the Official ISEB practice materials provide examples and question-style familiarity that are worth using in preparation. Verbal and non-verbal reasoning practice books (GL Assessment, Bond) also build the underlying skills meaningfully.
The Common Entrance experience: CE is taken under formal examination conditions, usually at the pupil's prep school. Papers are handwritten and sent to the receiving senior school for marking. The full examination schedule runs across three to four days, with multiple papers sat each day. English requires extended written responses in both composition and comprehension. Mathematics is sat at Level 1, 2, or 3 — the level must match what the target senior school expects; scholarship-level and highly selective schools typically require Level 3. Science covers Biology, Chemistry, and Physics in a single integrated paper, with Level 1 and Level 2 tiers. Optional subjects such as History, Geography, French, Latin, and Religious Studies add further papers to the schedule.
Most senior schools require a minimum average of 55–65% across all CE papers for confirmation of a conditional offer. The most academically selective schools — including Eton, Winchester, and Tonbridge — typically expect averages of 65–70% or higher. Scholarship candidates are generally expected to achieve 75–85%+ and also sit additional scholarship papers. These thresholds are communicated privately by each school at the offer stage and are not published nationally.
Scholarship assessments: Most CE schools also offer scholarship tracks alongside CE, with additional or harder papers in a specialist area — Academic, Music, Sport, Drama, or Art. Scholarship preparation requires dedicated additional work and typically begins around 12–18 months before the scholarship assessment date. A scholarship is worth considering if your child shows genuine strength in a relevant area, but it is an optional additional pathway — a CE place and a scholarship assessment can run in parallel without one compromising the other.
Given the variation in 13+ assessment approaches, there are several questions worth asking each target school's admissions department before committing to an application.
First, confirm whether the school uses the ISEB Pre-Test or sets its own Year 6/7 assessment. Some schools that use CE in Year 8 run their own interviews or written assessments at the pre-selection stage rather than the ISEB Pre-Test; for those schools, the ISEB Pre-Test may be unnecessary. Second, confirm what the Year 8 confirmation stage requires — Common Entrance, the school's own papers, or both. Third, confirm which CE subjects the school requires and at which tier for Mathematics. Taking Maths at a tier that caps the achievable grade below the school's minimum is a surprisingly common preparation error. Fourth, ask about the scholarship track and whether your child should be considered for it — some schools require a separate scholarship application, while others consider all strong candidates automatically.
For schools with multiple 13+ intake routes — including those that also have a 11+ entry — confirm which entry point is most appropriate for your child's prep school background and intended Year 9 start date. Some schools offer more places at 13+ than at 11+, making it the more accessible route for certain applicants.
Our dedicated guides cover many of the most commonly targeted 13+ schools, including Haileybury College, Cheltenham College, Cranleigh School, Millfield School, and King's Canterbury. For Common Entrance specifics, see our detailed Common Entrance 13+ subject-by-subject guide. For the ISEB Pre-Test, see our dedicated ISEB Common Pre-Test parent guide.
The 13+ admissions process is the route into Year 9 at senior independent schools. Most selective schools run a two-stage process: an ISEB Common Pre-Test or bespoke assessment in Year 6 or Year 7, which leads to a conditional offer, followed by Common Entrance examinations sat in June of Year 8 to confirm the place. Some schools bypass Common Entrance entirely and use their own Year 8 papers. Registration typically opens 2–3 years before entry, meaning families of children in Year 6 should already be in contact with target schools. The Pre-Test is adaptive and age-standardised, and results are shared with all senior schools the pupil applies to.
The ISEB Common Pre-Test is a series of four online, adaptive assessments: Maths, English (reading comprehension and grammar), Verbal Reasoning, and Non-Verbal Reasoning, totalling approximately 2 hours 15 minutes. Tests are usually taken in Year 6 or Year 7 at the child's current school or an approved invigilation centre. Results are age-standardised and shared with all senior schools the pupil has applied to. Pupils can only sit the Pre-Test once per academic year. For the 2026–27 session, live testing commenced on 1 September 2026 and runs until late May 2027. Schools set their own internal deadlines for Pre-Test results, so always confirm deadlines directly with target schools.
Common Entrance at 13+ is a suite of subject-based written papers set by ISEB, taken in Year 8 (usually May–June). Core papers cover English, Maths, and Science; optional papers include French, Latin, History, Geography, Spanish, and Religious Studies. Each receiving school marks the papers and applies its own grade thresholds — most require 55–65% on average for offer confirmation, while the most selective (such as Eton and Winchester) typically expect 65–70% or higher. Not all schools use Common Entrance: St Paul's and Westminster, for example, set their own Year 8 exams. Always confirm requirements with individual schools before beginning preparation.
Registration should begin in Year 6 (age 10–11), approximately 2–3 years before Year 9 entry. Some boarding schools require registration even earlier — Eton, for instance, has historically required registration in Year 5 or before. The ISEB Pre-Test is typically taken in Year 6 or Year 7, and conditional offers are usually made during this window. Year 8 is then focused on Common Entrance preparation and confirmation. Starting the process in Year 7 or later risks missing registration deadlines at popular schools and leaves insufficient time for Pre-Test preparation. We recommend making an initial shortlist of schools and contacting admissions departments by the start of Year 6.
Assessment approaches vary considerably between schools. They broadly fall into three groups: those using the ISEB Pre-Test followed by Common Entrance in Year 8 (including Eton, Harrow, Winchester, Rugby, and Tonbridge); those using the ISEB Pre-Test followed by their own bespoke Year 8 papers rather than CE (Charterhouse, Marlborough, Wellington, Sevenoaks, Bryanston, and Cheltenham College, among others); and those running entirely bespoke assessments at both stages (St Paul's, Westminster). The distinction matters for preparation: CE candidates need sustained subject-knowledge work across multiple papers over two years, while bespoke-paper candidates need targeted preparation for each school's specific question style and content level.
Leading Tuition provides specialist tuition for the ISEB Common Pre-Test, Common Entrance at 13+, and school-specific 13+ assessments. Our tutors work across all CE subjects — English, Maths, Science, French, Latin, and humanities — as well as the Verbal and Non-Verbal Reasoning components of the Pre-Test. We build preparation programmes around specific schools and timelines, drawing on detailed knowledge of each school's grade expectations, question style, and scholarship requirements. Programmes typically begin in Year 5 or 6 for Pre-Test preparation and continue through Year 8 for CE. Rated 4.8/5 on Trustpilot. Book a free consultation to discuss your child's 13+ preparation plan and the schools you are targeting.
Leading Tuition provides specialist 13+ preparation for the ISEB Pre-Test, Common Entrance, and school-specific exams. Rated 4.8/5 on Trustpilot.
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