13+ English Past Papers

The 12 13+ English past papers, and where to download each one

Twelve papers from ten independent schools — Forest School and Reigate Grammar School contribute two each, the other eight one apiece. Every link is a direct PDF download.

What is actually in these twelve papers?

• Nothing here is newer than 2019. The dated papers run 2016 to 2019: three from 2016, one from 2017, two from 2018 and one from 2019. If you want current-format material, the 13+ Maths past papers are the fresher set — nine of those are the schools’ current specimen papers.
• Five of the twelve carry no year at all — the Alleyn’s, Dulwich College, Emanuel and both Forest School papers. The schools published them undated and we have not invented dates for them. Those five are most of the six undated papers in the entire 36-paper collection.
• One is a pre-test paper, and it says so: Reigate Grammar School’s 13 Plus Pre-Test English Sample Paper 2018. A pre-test is sat earlier and pitched lower than a Year 8 entrance paper, so treat it as a warm-up rather than as a yardstick.
• Three of the twelve double as scholarship papers. No English paper here is titled a scholarship paper — all eight of those in our catalogue are Biology — but read the front pages and Dulwich College’s says “Year 9 Entrance and Scholarship Examination”, and both Forest School papers say “13+ English Entrance and Scholarship”. At those two schools one paper does both jobs, so expect them to bite harder than the rest.
• Two of the twelve are image-only scans. The Bancroft’s and St Albans papers have no selectable text, so nothing in them can be searched, copied or read aloud by a screen reader. They download and print normally.
• None of the twelve is a Common Entrance paper. Every one was set by the school itself, which tells you something in itself about how many senior schools now write their own English paper rather than take ISEB’s.

How long is a 13+ English paper, and how is the hour split?

We read the front page of every PDF on this page. Nine of the twelve state a time; the other three are the two scans and the Emanuel paper, which starts straight in at Section A with no cover sheet.

• The stated times run from 1 hour to 1 hour 25 minutes. That is a far tighter band than Maths, where the same collection runs from 30 minutes to an hour and a half. Five papers give exactly an hour, Haberdashers’ and Merchant Taylors’ give 70 minutes, Alleyn’s gives an hour and a quarter, and Dulwich College gives an hour and 25 minutes.
• Three of them build reading time into the clock, and say so. Dulwich instructs candidates to spend 10 minutes reading the passage before writing anything, then 60 minutes on Section A and 15 on Section B. Haberdashers’ allots 40 minutes to the reading part, 10 of which are reading time. Merchant Taylors’ says the first 10 minutes should be spent reading. Sitting still and reading for ten minutes is a skill, and it is worth rehearsing.
• Two print a total mark. Merchant Taylors’ is 50 marks over 70 minutes. Dulwich’s Section A comprehension alone carries 60 marks, which tells you where the weight sits in that paper.
• Forest School’s two papers are a combined question paper and answer booklet, so a child writes into the same document rather than onto separate lined paper. Sevenoaks, by contrast, asks for pen and lined paper.

One paper dates itself twice over, and it is worth pausing on. Sevenoaks School’s front page reads “Year 9 (13+) Entrance Examination, May 2018, for entry in September 2019” — sixteen months between sitting the paper and starting the school. That gap is the real shape of a 13+ timetable, and it is the reason families who start thinking about past papers midway through Year 8 have often already passed a registration deadline. Find the school’s dates first; the papers keep.

None of that is published in one place by anybody else, and it is the difference between doing a paper and doing it under the conditions the school set.

What does a 13+ English paper ask a child to do?

Broadly two things, and the twelve papers here are consistent about it: a comprehension on an unseen passage, and a piece of writing. The comprehension is the half a parent can mark against a key. The writing is the half that makes people buy an answer key, because a blank sheet returned with a number on it tells a child nothing.

That is why the papers are worth having in bulk. Twelve unseen passages from ten different schools is twelve different registers, twelve different sets of question stems and twelve different writing prompts — and reading widely across them is closer to what the exam actually rewards than drilling one school’s paper five times.

Do these schools still set a 13+ English paper?

Several of them do not, and it would be dishonest to list the papers without saying so. Three of the ten schools on this page publish no 13+ or Year 9 entry route at all. All three were checked on their own admissions pages on 8 September 2026:

• Alleyn’s School — admissions run to the Junior Schools, Senior School at 11+, and Sixth Form at 16+. No 13+ route is listed.
• Bancroft’s School — the site sets out a 7+, an 11+ and a 16+ admissions journey. There is no 13+ journey.
• Merchant Taylors’ School — admissions list joining at 11+, into Third Form, which is Year 7, and joining at 16+. Again, no 13+.

Their papers are still real papers and still useful practice at the right level. What they are not is a guide to how those three schools admit children today. Check the school’s own admissions page for your child’s entry year before you plan anything around a paper on this page.

What does the £50 buy, and what does it not?

The question papers on this page are free. Download any of the twelve as a PDF, with no account, no email address and no payment. The £50 buys the worked answer key for every paper in the 13+ collection — all 36 of them, across Maths, English and Biology. That is £1.39 a paper, paid once.

Here is the part most sites leave out. There is no single-subject option. If the English answers are the only ones you want, you are paying £50 for twelve keys, which works out at £4.17 each, and the other twenty-four arrive whether you use them or not. Spread across all 36 it is £1.39. Both figures are the same £50 — we would rather you saw the one that applies to you before you pay than after.

Access lasts a year from the link emailed at the moment of payment, and you can download any key again during that time. There is nothing else to buy: no tier above this one, no per-subject add-on, and no renewal.

What do the worked answer keys look like?

Each key writes the answer out in full, in sentences, showing the reasoning that earns the mark — not a letter, not a tick list. For comprehension that means the point a marker wants plus the textual evidence that supports it. For writing it means the criteria a marker is applying, so you can tell a child what would have lifted the piece rather than only that it was short.

A line from one of the keys is published verbatim on the 13+ past papers hub. It is from the Biology set, which is the excerpt we have cleared for publication, but every key in the collection is written to the same standard.

When is a 13+ paper actually sat?

“13+” describes the entry point, not the exam date. It means entry into Year 9, and the papers are sat in Year 8. That is why a Year 8 past paper is the right level to practise on, and why a Year 6 pre-test paper is not the same thing at all.

ISEB, which sets Common Entrance, runs its 13+ assessment in three sessions a year — in November, January and May/June — and makes three papers compulsory: English, mathematics and science. Candidates may also sit optional papers in a range of other subjects, among them Classics, French, Geography, German, History, Spanish, and Theology, Philosophy and Religion. Plenty of senior schools no longer use Common Entrance at all and set their own papers instead.

English is compulsory in Common Entrance, and it is also the paper almost every school that has left Common Entrance still sets for itself — which is why all twelve here are school-set.

Where else can you download free 13+ English papers?

Some of the schools listed above publish their own English papers free on their admissions pages. If your child is applying to one school in particular, that school’s site is the first place to look and the most current material you will find.

ISEB publishes its Common Entrance English specification and specimen material free, and sells real past papers through its own shop.

What this page adds is twelve unseen passages and twelve writing tasks in one list, each with a worked answer key behind it, rather than ten school websites and the usual discovery that the mark scheme was the bit they kept.

The rest of the collection: 13+ Maths past papers, 13+ science past papers, the 11+ past papers for the earlier entry point, and 13+ past papers hub if you want all three subjects in one filterable table. The wider resources library covers the subjects this collection does not — there are no languages, humanities or reasoning papers at 13+ here.

Questions parents ask before buying