"Harrow" means two different things here, and getting that wrong wastes months of tutoring. If you are asking about Harrow School, the answer is: yes, non-verbal reasoning is tested — but inside the ISEB Common Pre-Test in Year 6, roughly two years before your son actually turns 13, not at 13+ itself (see our full Harrow School 13+ guide). If you mean the London Borough of Harrow more broadly — which schools around Harrow actually set a 13+ non-verbal reasoning test — the honest answer is: almost none of them. Harrow's ten state secondaries set no test at all, and John Lyon, Merchant Taylors' and North London Collegiate either drop non-verbal reasoning from their 13+ papers or don't run a 13+ round in the first place.
The London Borough of Harrow covers Harrow-on-the-Hill, Wealdstone, Pinner, Stanmore, Kenton, Rayners Lane and the rest of the borough — a population of state and independent schools with very different admissions systems. Harrow School is one specific independent boarding school on Harrow-on-the-Hill, admitting around 160 boys into Year 9 each year, in the September following their 13th birthday. A search for "13+ non-verbal reasoning tutor Harrow" could mean either — a family with a son already registered at Harrow School, or a family in the borough weighing up 13+ options generally, including whether non-verbal reasoning even applies to the schools they're considering.
Most of what ranks for this search assumes one meaning without saying so. Pages built around Harrow School go deep on its ISEB Pre-Test and Common Entrance process but never mention the borough, the state schools, or any other 13+ school nearby. Pages built around the borough talk generically about "grammar schools in Harrow" and 12+/13+ "late transfer tests" without naming a single real school — Harrow does not, in fact, have any state grammar schools, so that framing does not hold up against the borough council's own list of secondary schools. This page separates the two properly, then works through what actually tests non-verbal reasoning at 13+ across the schools a Harrow-area family would realistically be choosing between.
| School | 13+ entry point? | Tests non-verbal reasoning? |
|---|---|---|
| Harrow's 10 state secondary schools | No entrance exam of any kind | No |
| Harrow School | Yes — Year 9, via ISEB Pre-Test + Harrow Test | Yes, but in Year 6, not at 13 |
| John Lyon School | Yes — Year 9 entrance exam | No — 4 subject papers, no NVR |
| Merchant Taylors' School | No — 11+ and 16+ only | Not applicable |
| North London Collegiate School | Occasional places only, not a scheduled round | Not applicable to a standard round |
| Buckinghamshire grammar schools | No — 11+ only (Secondary Transfer Test) | Not at 13+ |
No. The London Borough of Harrow is the admissions authority for ten community and academy secondary schools: Bentley Wood, Canons, Hatch End, Harrow High, Nower Hill, Park, Pinner, Rooks Heath, Sacred Heart Language College and Welldon Park. Each has its own published admission policy, coordinated through Harrow Council, and none of them is a selective grammar school. Places are allocated on criteria such as distance from home, faith affiliation and sibling links — the ordinary comprehensive system used across most of outer London — not on the result of an exam.
This matters for the borough-sense reading of the search term because it closes off the most literal possibility first: if a family is asking "which Harrow school tests non-verbal reasoning at 13+" expecting an answer among the borough's own state secondaries, the honest answer is that none of them does. There is no Harrow equivalent of the Kent Test or the Bucks Secondary Transfer Test operating inside the borough boundary. Any 13+ non-verbal reasoning preparation a Harrow-area family needs is being driven by a specific independent school's own admissions process, not by the borough's state system — which is exactly why knowing which school is the real target matters more than knowing the borough.
Harrow School does test non-verbal reasoning — it is one of the few schools near the borough that genuinely does — but the timing catches many families out. Every boy applying to Harrow is required to sit the ISEB Common Pre-Test, an online, adaptive assessment covering verbal reasoning, non-verbal reasoning, English and Mathematics. Harrow's own admissions page is specific about when: "All standard applicants should sit the ISEB CPT between 1 October and the end of November in Year 6." That is the autumn term of Year 6 — when a boy is around ten or eleven years old, not thirteen.
Boys who pass the Pre-Test are then invited to the Harrow Test itself, in the Spring term of the same Year 6: a 20-minute interview with a House Master, a one-hour computerised English and Maths assessment, and a 20-minute classroom-based group activity. Non-verbal reasoning is not retested at this stage — the interview and group activity assess character and communication, not reasoning ability. Boys who receive an offer then progress to Common Entrance or the Academic Scholarship examinations in Year 8, which are academic subject papers, not reasoning tests.
The practical consequence is that a family searching for "13+ non-verbal reasoning tutoring" for Harrow School, and starting that search once their son is in Year 7 or 8, has already missed the window: the non-verbal reasoning component was sat and marked roughly two years earlier. Registration for Year 9 entry closes on 30 September of Year 6, with a non-refundable registration fee of £450, and the school admits around 160 boys each year. For the full admissions timeline, scholarship information and Common Entrance grade expectations specific to Harrow School, see our dedicated Harrow School 13+ guide and Harrow's own Year 9 Entry admissions page — this page is deliberately not repeating that detail, since it already exists and is kept current there.
No, and this is the single most useful correction on this page for anyone assuming "13+ near Harrow" automatically means an NVR test. John Lyon School, also on Harrow-on-the-Hill, publishes its Year 9 (13+) entrance examination as four subject papers plus a group discussion: English (90 minutes), Mathematics (60 minutes), French or Spanish (45 minutes), Science covering Biology, Chemistry and Physics (45 minutes), and an optional Latin paper (45 minutes). Non-verbal reasoning does not appear anywhere on that list. The group discussion that follows is explicitly not a formal interview — the school describes it as an opportunity for candidates to "discuss a topic within a small group... academic or based on current affairs," assessed for engagement rather than reasoning ability.
For 2027 entry, John Lyon's deadline for 13+ applications is 31 October, with the Entrance Examination itself scheduled for Wednesday 2 December 2026. Registration carries a non-refundable fee of £180, and candidates who sit the exam are automatically considered for an Academic Scholarship based on their results. A family preparing a son for John Lyon by working through non-verbal reasoning papers — reasonably, given how closely the school sits next to Harrow School geographically and reputationally — is preparing for a paper that simply is not part of this exam. The tutoring hours would be far better spent on the French or Spanish paper, or on Science, both of which carry real weight in the actual assessment.
Not in the way most families assume. Merchant Taylors' School, in Northwood — the nearest boys' independent school to Harrow after Harrow School and John Lyon — structures its admissions pages around exactly two entry points: "Joining at 11+" and "Joining at 16+". There is no Year 9 or 13+ entry route published at all. A family targeting a Merchant Taylors' 13+ place is targeting an entry point the school does not currently offer on a standard competitive basis, which makes any non-verbal reasoning preparation aimed specifically at a Merchant Taylors' 13+ exam preparation for a test that does not exist.
North London Collegiate School in Edgware, on Harrow's eastern border and one of the most prominent girls' schools families in the area consider, follows a similar pattern from the opposite direction. NLCS states plainly that it "welcomes new students at 4+, 7+, 11+ and 16+", with occasional places available in other year groups. Year 9 — the year a 13-year-old would join — sits inside "Senior School Occasional Places (Years 8, 9 & 10)": vacancy-led, not a scheduled competitive round with a published exam format or a fixed non-verbal reasoning component. Families should approach the school directly about whether a place is realistically available, rather than preparing for a standardised 13+ test that NLCS does not run as a matter of course.
Harrow borders Hillingdon, which in turn borders Buckinghamshire — and Buckinghamshire's grammar system is the nearest state selective network to Harrow, which leads some families to ask whether it offers a later, 13+ entry point the way some independent schools do. It does not. Buckinghamshire Council is explicit that the county's 13 grammar schools, run together as The Buckinghamshire Grammar Schools, admit "through the Buckinghamshire Secondary Transfer Test (formerly known as 11+)". Children need a score of at least 121 to be considered qualified. The test is sat in Year 6 — there is no separate 13+ transfer test into a Buckinghamshire grammar school.
This is worth stating plainly precisely because it is the kind of gap a generic tutoring page glosses over: Bucks sits geographically closer to Harrow than Kent does, so a Harrow family is more likely to wonder about it than a family in, say, Bromley would be. But proximity does not create a 13+ route. A Harrow-area family whose child has already missed the Year 6 Buckinghamshire test, or who is considering it as a "second chance" at 13, is looking for an option that the county's own grammar consortium does not provide.
The answer depends entirely on which school is genuinely the target, which is the reason the disambiguation above matters more than any generic prep timeline. For Harrow School specifically, non-verbal reasoning needs to be strong well before the autumn term of Year 6, when the ISEB Common Pre-Test is sat — realistically, that means starting focused reasoning practice in Year 5, not waiting until a son is closer to his thirteenth birthday. For John Lyon, non-verbal reasoning drops out of the picture entirely in favour of subject-specific preparation across English, Maths, a modern language and Science. For Merchant Taylors' and North London Collegiate, the more useful first step is confirming with the school directly whether a Year 9 place is realistically on offer at all, since neither runs a standard 13+ round. And for families weighing Buckinghamshire's grammar schools as a fallback, the relevant test — if any — is the Year 6 Secondary Transfer Test, not anything at 13.
Leading Tuition works with Harrow-area families across all of these routes, because the right preparation plan only makes sense once the actual target school and its actual test format are pinned down. For a son already registered at Harrow School, that means non-verbal reasoning work concentrated well ahead of the Year 6 Pre-Test window. For families still weighing John Lyon, Merchant Taylors', North London Collegiate or a state secondary place, it usually means a short diagnostic conversation about which school's real requirements apply before any tutoring plan is built at all.
Not sure which Harrow 13+ route actually applies to your child? We'll talk through the schools you're considering, confirm whether non-verbal reasoning genuinely features in their assessment, and build a preparation plan around the real exam — not a generic one.
Book a Free Consultation Message us on WhatsAppYes, but not in the way the question implies. Harrow requires all boys to sit the ISEB Common Pre-Test, which includes non-verbal reasoning alongside verbal reasoning, English and Maths, in the autumn term of Year 6, between 1 October and the end of November. That is roughly two years before a boy actually starts at Harrow in Year 9, in the September following his 13th birthday. The later stage, the Harrow Test in the Spring term of Year 6, does not retest non-verbal reasoning: it is a 20-minute interview, a computerised English and Maths assessment, and a group activity. For full detail on Harrow School's process, see our dedicated Harrow School 13+ guide.
No. The London Borough of Harrow is the admissions authority for ten community and academy secondary schools — Bentley Wood, Canons, Hatch End, Harrow High, Nower Hill, Park, Pinner, Rooks Heath, Sacred Heart Language College and Welldon Park — and none of them is a selective grammar school. Admission is decided under each school's published academy or community admission policy, coordinated through Harrow Council, using criteria such as distance, faith and sibling links rather than an exam. If your child is applying to a Harrow borough state school for Year 9, there is no non-verbal reasoning test to prepare for at all.
No. John Lyon, on Harrow-on-the-Hill, sets a Year 9 (13+) entrance examination of four subject papers plus a group discussion: English (90 minutes), Mathematics (60 minutes), French or Spanish (45 minutes), Science covering Biology, Chemistry and Physics (45 minutes), and an optional Latin paper (45 minutes). Non-verbal reasoning is not among them. For 2027 entry the exam is scheduled for Wednesday 2 December 2026, with a £180 registration fee. A family assuming John Lyon needs the same NVR preparation as Harrow School would be tutoring for a paper that does not exist on this exam.
Not on a 13+ basis, no. Buckinghamshire's 13 grammar schools, run together as The Buckinghamshire Grammar Schools, admit only through the Buckinghamshire Secondary Transfer Test — described by the council as "formerly known as 11+" — with a qualifying score of at least 121. It is sat in Year 6, and there is no separate 13+ transfer round. Families near the Harrow border sometimes assume the nearest grammar system offers a later entry point the way some independent schools do; for Buckinghamshire's grammar schools, it does not.
No. Merchant Taylors' School in Northwood, the closest boys' independent school to Harrow after Harrow School and John Lyon, structures its admissions around two entry points only: "Joining at 11+" and "Joining at 16+". There is no Year 9 (13+) round listed on its admissions pages. A family targeting Merchant Taylors' at 13+ is targeting an entry point the school does not currently publish, so non-verbal reasoning tutoring aimed at a Merchant Taylors' 13+ place has no exam to prepare for.
They are two separate, sequential stages of Harrow School's Year 9 process. The ISEB Common Pre-Test comes first, in the autumn term of Year 6, and is where non-verbal reasoning is actually tested, alongside verbal reasoning, English and Maths. Only boys who pass it are invited to the Harrow Test itself, in the Spring term of Year 6 — a 20-minute interview, a one-hour computerised English and Maths assessment, and a 20-minute group activity, with no further non-verbal reasoning component. Preparation should be complete before the autumn Year 6 pre-test, not before either later stage.
Harrow School admits around 160 boys into Year 9 each year, joining in the September following their 13th birthday, alongside up to 20 boys who join Year 12 aged around 16. Registration must be completed by 30 September of Year 6, with a non-refundable £450 registration fee. Because the non-verbal-reasoning-bearing Pre-Test is sat within weeks of that registration deadline, in October and November of the same Year 6 term, the effective preparation window is considerably earlier than the Year 9 entry date suggests.
It depends entirely on which school is the target, which is why the disambiguation matters more than the tutoring plan itself. For Harrow School specifically, non-verbal reasoning needs to be secure by the autumn term of Year 6 — realistically, preparation should start in Year 5. For John Lyon, Merchant Taylors', North London Collegiate, Harrow's state secondaries, or Buckinghamshire's grammar schools, non-verbal reasoning at 13+ either isn't tested or isn't offered as a route at all, so time is better spent confirming which subjects that school's actual papers cover.
For the wider 11+ picture across the borough, including how Harrow families weigh state and independent options at that earlier stage, see our Harrow 11+ borough guide. For a general introduction to the ISEB Common Pre-Test format used by Harrow, John Lyon and many other 13+ schools, see our ISEB Common Pre-Test guide, and for the full range of schools we support at 13+, see 13+ Preparation.