Exam Information
There are two different possible 11 plus exams for entry to this school, The Kent Test and the Medway Test. Both tests are different, but children do not need to take both tests.
THE KENT TEST
Exam style —GL Assessment/The Kent Test
Exam topic:
Reasoning
English and maths
Creative writing
Exam length — 2 x 1 hour exams + a 40-minute writing exercise.
Pass rate — In recent years, 15,000+ applicants took the Kent test; only 6,500 passed.
Other exam information:
The reasoning, English and maths tests are multiple-choice with a separate answer sheet.
The first test will be an English and Maths paper. Each section will include a 5 minute practice exercise followed by a 25 minute test. The English section will involve a comprehension exercise as well as some additional questions drawn from a set designed to test literacy skills.
The second test will be the reasoning paper. It will take about 1 hour, including the practice sections and questions. It will contain a verbal reasoning section and a non-verbal reasoning section of roughly the same length. The non-verbal reasoning will be split into short sections, administered and timed individually.
Finally, there will also be a writing exercise which will not be marked but may be used by a local headteacher panel as part of the headteacher assessment stage of the process. 40 minutes will be allowed for the writing task, including 10 minutes planning time.
Scores:
Your child will get three standardised scores (one for English, one for maths and one for reasoning) and a total (aggregate) score.
Standardisation is a statistical process which compares your child's performance with the average performance of other children in each test. A slight adjustment is made to take account of each child's age so that the youngest are not at a disadvantage.
Pass mark:
To qualify, children needed a total score of 332 or more, with no single score lower than 108. Test scores range from 69 to 141. The highest possible total score is 423.
If your child did not reach this threshold score and their primary school referred their case to the local Head Teacher Assessment Panel, the panel will have looked at their achievement in school and examples of their work, including the writing task completed on the day, before a final decision was made.
Please note that a score of over 332 does NOT mean your child is guaranteed a place at your chosen school.
THE MEDWAY TEST
Exam style — GL - The Medway Test.
Exam topic:
Extended writing
Mathematics
Verbal reasoning
Exam length — 3x 50 minutes exams.
Pass rate — The Medway Tests are designed to assess and select the top 23% of the children in the year group to go to a grammar school.
Pass mark —The tests are designed to assess and select 23% of the children in the year group to go to a grammar school.
Any child who has taken the Medway Tests and achieved scores that are below the minimum score will be deemed non-eligible.
Please note - Scoring above the minimum score does not guarantee your child a place at your chosen school.
Other exam information:
The verbal reasoning and maths exams are 50 minutes each. Both are multiple choice.
The English test is one people of writing which lasts 50 minutes, including 10 minutes to plan.
The Medway Test is sat by children in year 6 at their own school if they go to a Medway school (except Kings School in Rochester) or in a Medway Test Centre if they go to schools outside of Medway.
The following formula is used to calculate the total weighted score for each child:
Extended Writing standardised score x 2 + Mathematics standardised score x 2 + Verbal reasoning standardised score x 1
= the total weighted score
All scores will be standardised.
