13+ Science Past Papers

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

Twelve papers from six institutions — five independent schools and ISEB. This is the narrowest of our three subjects by institution: Radley School alone accounts for five of the twelve. Every link is a direct PDF download.

Why is this page called science when every paper is Biology?

Because that is the word parents search for, and pretending otherwise in the title would only move the disappointment one click further down. The honest version is on this page instead: we hold Biology, and that is a third of the science picture at 13+.

Here is why a third. According to ISEB’s own Common Entrance science page, Common Entrance science at 13+ is offered at two levels. At Foundation level a candidate sits one paper with roughly equal numbers of questions drawn from the 13+ biology, chemistry and physics specifications. At Core level a candidate sits three separate papers, one in biology, one in chemistry and one in physics. ISEB advises schools to consider the Foundation paper for a candidate expected to average below 40 per cent across the three Core papers.

The ISEB Biology paper in the table above puts a number on that. Its own front page states that the examination is 40 minutes long and carries 60 marks, and that calculators may be required. So “three separate 40-minute papers” is not a figure of speech — it is what the paper says. The Haberdashers’ Boys’ School paper from 2015 says the same thing from the school’s side: its front page explains that the science paper is divided into three sections, Biology, Chemistry and Physics, that the whole thing lasts an hour, and that a candidate should spend no more than 20 minutes on each.

So for a Core candidate, the twelve papers here are practice for one of the three papers they will sit. For a Foundation candidate they cover roughly a third of a single paper. Either way, this collection is not a complete science preparation and we are not going to describe it as one. What it is good for is Biology, in depth, with the answers.

What is actually in these twelve papers?

• Eight of the twelve are titled as scholarship papers — five from Radley School (2015 to 2019), two from Westminster School (2015 and 2016) and one, undated, from St George’s College Weybridge. Every paper our catalogue calls a scholarship paper is a Biology paper, and all eight of them are on this page.
• On the papers’ own evidence it is nine, not eight. Westminster’s 2019 paper, which we list as a sample paper, is headed “The Challenge 2019” — the same series as its 2015 and 2016 papers, both of which we do label scholarship. We would rather flag the inconsistency in our own catalogue than let you find it after downloading.
• A scholarship paper is harder than an entrance paper, deliberately. It is excellent stretch material and the wrong yardstick for judging whether a child is on track. If your child scores badly on a Radley scholarship paper, that is not the signal it looks like.
• Three are pitched at ordinary entrance level: Aldenham School’s 2020 paper, Haberdashers’ Boys’ School’s 2015 paper and the ISEB Level 2 paper from 2017. Those are the three to start with, and only then move up to the scholarship set.
• One is an image-only scan. The St George’s College Weybridge PDF has no selectable text, so nothing in it can be searched, copied or read aloud by a screen reader. It downloads and prints normally.
• This is the only subject with an ISEB paper in it. The Maths and English shelves are entirely school-set; the one Common Entrance paper we hold is the 2017 Biology paper.
• The dates run 2015 to 2020, with one undated. Nothing here is from the last five years, which is a real limitation and the reason to pair these with whatever the school itself publishes now.

How long is a 13+ Biology paper, and how many marks?

Short, is the answer, and much shorter than parents expect. We read the front page of every PDF on this page; ten of the twelve state a time or a mark total.

• All five Radley papers carry 33 marks. The 2018 and 2019 papers state 30 minutes on the front page. The 2016 paper says 90 minutes for all three science papers, which is the same 30 minutes once you divide it by three.
• All three Westminster papers are 30 minutes. Each is dated to the day — Thursday 30 April 2015, Thursday 28 April 2016 and Thursday 2 May 2019 — which is the clearest sign in the collection that these were sat, not merely published.
• Aldenham’s is the shortest: 20 minutes and 28 marks.
• ISEB’s is the longest and the heaviest: 40 minutes and 60 marks.

Two consequences follow, and they are the practical reason to have the timings at all. A 30-minute paper is a sprint: there is no room to plan, and a child who is used to an hour will over-write the first question and run out. And a 33-mark paper means every mark is worth three per cent, so a single missed explanation costs more here than it would on a 100-mark Maths paper.

What do the worked answer keys look like?

This is the clearest place to show it, because the excerpt we publish comes from this shelf. The line below is copied verbatim from the answer key to the St George’s College Weybridge 13+ Biology scholarship paper in the table above — a question about beetles respiring under a bell jar with lime water:

If CO₂ from the air entered the bell jar, it would be impossible to determine whether the cloudiness of the lime water was caused by respiration from the beetles or from atmospheric CO₂.

That is a sentence, not a tick. It names the confounding variable and says why it matters, which is the reasoning the mark is for. A parent who has not opened a Biology textbook since school can read that and explain it to a child. A mark scheme that said “to prevent contamination” could not be used that way.

All 36 keys in the collection are written to that standard, across Maths and English as well as Biology. You can see the same excerpt in context on the 13+ past papers hub.

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 Biology 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.

Do these schools still set a 13+ Biology paper?

Treat every paper here as a document about the past, because that is what it is. Some schools have kept a 13+ intake, some have moved the decisive assessment earlier into a pre-test, and some no longer admit at 13+ at all. Our own collection carries a paper from a school that now publishes no 13+ route, which is exactly why we say this on every one of these pages.

Scholarship arrangements move faster still: a school can keep its 13+ entry and change, narrow or drop the science scholarship paper in a single admissions cycle. Before you plan around anything in the table, read the school’s own admissions page for your child’s entry year. Use these papers as practice material, which is what they are genuinely good for.

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.

Where else can you download free 13+ science papers?

This is the page where the honest answer matters most, because our coverage has a hole in it. ISEB’s own Common Entrance science page carries free downloads of its own: the Common Entrance and CASE science specification, and a set of Science CE at 13+ specimen papers. If you need Chemistry and Physics as well as Biology, go there first.

Several of the schools listed above publish their own science material free on their admissions pages too. If your child is applying to one school in particular, that is the most current source there is, and it costs nothing.

What this page adds is twelve Biology papers in one list, eight of them scholarship level, each with a worked answer key behind it. Free 13+ Biology past papers are not hard to find one at a time; twelve of them with answers, in one place, is the part that is genuinely hard to assemble yourself.

The rest of the collection: 13+ Maths past papers, 13+ English 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 full resources library covers everything else.

Questions parents ask before buying