13+ Tuition and Common Entrance Preparation

"13+ tuition" now covers four different jobs. Some schools confirm places with Common Entrance in June of Year 8. Some sit it but ignore the marks. Some decided in Year 6 and no later exam changes it. One states plainly that entry does not depend on its Year 8 papers. This page sets out which is which, using each school's own published wording.

What does "13+ tuition" actually mean at your child's target school?

The phrase is sold as one service and is really four. Before any preparation is worth buying, it is worth knowing which of these your shortlist sets, because the answer changes both the work and whether the work is needed at all.

Read the right-hand column first. For four of these eight schools, the Year 8 examination does not decide whether a child is admitted — the decision was taken in Year 6. Harrow sits Common Entrance and states there is no pass mark, using the results to set pupils rather than to admit them. Winchester goes further and says entry is not dependent on its Year 8 papers, adding that good assessment "shouldn't be stressful or require additional tutoring".

That does not make Year 8 work pointless. A child arriving at a school that sets by Common Entrance result has a real interest in the mark even when it cannot lose them the place. But it does change the honest sales pitch, and it should change what you pay for. Where the decision genuinely sits in Year 6, the money and the effort belong in Year 5 and Year 6, not in a Year 8 crash course.

Westminster publishes the shape of its funnel, which is the clearest illustration of where the pressure actually is: around 500 applications for roughly 125 places, with about 250 candidates interviewed. That filtering happens well before Year 8. Westminster also becomes co-educational at 13+ from 2028, when the first girls enter Year 9.

What is actually in a Common Entrance paper, in minutes?

Common Entrance at 13+ has only three compulsory papers — English, mathematics and science. Everything else is optional and school-dependent, which is why two children sitting "Common Entrance" can sit quite different timetables.

The science structure catches families out more than anything else on this list. A child who has practised one long science paper has not practised the thing they will sit, which is three 40-minute papers with separate settling-in and separate endings. Stamina is not the constraint; switching is.

Scholarship preparation is often sold as a different syllabus. It is not. ISEB states that CASE questions are based on the CE at 13+ specifications, so scholarship work is depth and speed on the same material rather than new content. The difference is the paper length: CASE English runs 1 hour 45 minutes.

Which dates can you actually plan around for 2027?

Common Entrance runs three sessions a year, in November, January and May or June. CASE runs two, in February and May. ISEB publishes both timetables.

Two of those rows are the ones families miss. The modern-language speaking assessment sits about three weeks before the written papers, so a child revising to a single June deadline has already met one component. And the geography fieldwork submission has its own deadline of 15 October, 15 January or 15 March depending on session — a date that falls months before the examination and cannot be recovered afterwards.

Before any of that: how does the ISEB Common Pre-Test work?

For most of the schools in the table above, the Year 6 pre-test is the assessment that actually decides the offer. It is four adaptive online tests — English, mathematics, verbal reasoning and non-verbal reasoning — and ISEB publishes the total length as 2 hours 15 minutes.

Three published details change how it should be prepared for.

It is adaptive, and answers cannot be revisited. ISEB states that pupils may be presented with differing numbers of questions and that the system does not allow them to go back and change a previous answer. Checking-back strategies, which work on paper, actively cost time here.

The maths stops at the end of Year 5. ISEB states that mathematics questions are based on the National Curriculum until the end of Year 5. Accelerating a child through Year 6 content is not what this test rewards; fluency and accuracy on material they have already met is.

It is age-standardised against the right population. Results are standardised against a sample of pupils applying for independent school admission across the academic year, not against the national cohort. So sitting earlier in the window is not a penalty and a summer-born child is not disadvantaged by date. Our Common Entrance guide covers the syllabus itself.

A child may sit the pre-test only once in an academic year. The 2026-27 window runs from 1 September 2026 to late May 2027, and the Guardian Portal opened for registration on 9 June 2026. Our ISEB pre-test guide covers the format in more detail.

Which deadlines actually close first?

Registration deadlines at 13+ fall far earlier than most families expect, and several now close a full academic year before the assessment.

Wellington closes registration on 30 June of Year 5. Eton closes at the end of Year 5, and its deadline moved from 30 June to 31 August, so registration for 2029 entry closed on 31 August 2026. Harrow closes on 30 September of Year 6. Westminster opens on 1 October of Year 5 and closes on 30 September of Year 6 — a window a full academic year wide, which is easy to assume is still open when it is not.

The practical consequence is that for a child in Year 5, the binding decisions are being made now, not in Year 8. If a family is weighing whether 13+ preparation is worth starting, the registration calendar answers that question before any assessment of the child does. Our 13+ preparation guidance sets out the routes school by school.

What access arrangements exist, and who has to ask for them?

Both routes publish allowances, and neither applies them automatically.

The ISEB Common Pre-Test allows 25% extra time per test element, requested at registration. Because the request sits at registration rather than at the test, a family that discovers the need in the autumn of Year 6 may already be too late for that session — and the child can only sit once in the year.

Common Entrance at 13+ allows up to 10% extra time for candidates who have been studying in English for fewer than three years. This one is widely missed because it is an English-as-an-additional-language provision rather than a special educational needs one, and families arriving from overseas often do not know to ask.

In both cases the request is made through the child's current school. If you think either might apply, raise it with the school at the start of Year 6 rather than in the term of the assessment.

So what should a family actually pay for?

Work backwards from the table at the top of this page.

If the decision sits in Year 6, as it does at Westminster, Tonbridge, Wellington and Winchester, then the pre-test and interview are the whole game and Year 8 preparation is largely irrelevant to admission. Preparation belongs in Year 5 and early Year 6.

If Common Entrance confirms the place, as at Oundle and Eton, then Year 8 matters and the three compulsory papers are the priority.

If a numerical condition is attached, as St Paul's may do at 70% in prescribed subjects, then you know the target and can work to it.

If the school says the assessment needs no tutoring, believe it. We would rather tell you that at a free consultation than sell you a course. If you want help working out which of these applies to your shortlist, book a free consultation and we will go through the schools one at a time.

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