11+ & 13+ FAQ

The 11+ is a selective entrance exam sat by children in Year 6 (age 10–11) to win a place at a UK state grammar school or an academically selective independent school at age 11. Most papers cover maths, English, verbal reasoning, and non-verbal reasoning, in some combination set by the local authority or school.

The 13+ is the Common Entrance examination (or a school's own entrance paper) sat by children in Year 8 (age 12–13) for entry to a senior independent school at age 13. Subjects typically include maths, English, science, and either a modern or classical language, with scholarship rounds adding extra papers.

GL Assessment and CEM (Centre for Evaluation and Monitoring) are the two main 11+ exam boards used by state grammar schools — GL papers are slightly more predictable in format, CEM papers were historically marketed as harder to tutor. ISEB (Independent Schools Examinations Board) runs the Common Pre-Test and the Common Entrance papers used by most independent senior schools at 11+ and 13+.

Kent, Medway, Lincolnshire, Birmingham, and many Buckinghamshire grammar schools use GL Assessment. Other regions still use CEM-style papers (the CEM consortium wound down in 2022, but the format persists). Independent senior schools — including Eton, Winchester, Westminster, Dulwich, and most of the HMC schools — use the ISEB Common Pre-Test plus their own entrance papers.

Most state grammar schools test in early September of Year 6 (the start of the school year before entry). Independent senior schools using the ISEB Common Pre-Test typically run between October and December of Year 6, with school-set papers in January of Year 7. Register with each target school directly to confirm dates.

Six to twelve months of focused weekly practice is typical for the 11+, started in Year 5. For the 13+ and scholarship rounds, families usually begin structured practice 12–18 months out, in Year 7. Shorter sprints work if your child already has strong foundations — our Quarter plan is designed for the final 8–12 weeks before the exam.

Yes. The 11+ is open to any child in Year 6 regardless of whether they attend a state primary, independent prep, or are home-schooled. State-school children pass the 11+ every year — the difference is usually only that prep schools build practice into the curriculum, which our platform can replicate at home.

Pass marks vary by school and year because the 11+ is ranked, not absolute. As a guide: most super-selective grammar schools require 121+ on a standardised score (mean 100), and competitive independent schools look for 70%+ on raw papers. Scholarship awards typically require 80%+.

Scholarship papers sit on top of the standard 13+ Common Entrance, are timed harder, cover more advanced material, and are typically taken in May of Year 8 (before regular CE in June). Academic scholarships at Winchester, Eton, Westminster and similar schools test extension topics in maths and English and may include an interview round.

Yes — we host official past papers from Winchester College, Eton College (King's Scholarship Maths), and Westminster School (13+ Scholarship Mental Maths), with full worked solutions. Browse them on the /schools page or in the interactive practice library.

It is deliberately narrow. The tutor only ever sees the question your child is working on, and the subject it teaches — maths, English, science or verbal reasoning — is read from that question's record, never inferred from what your child types. It will not reveal the answer before your child has submitted, and anything off-topic gets one short redirect back to the question. We never send your child's name or email to the AI provider: only the question, the answer and the message itself. Each plan has a daily cap on tutor chats.

Not today, and we would rather say so than imply otherwise. Tutor conversations are not stored anywhere — the transcript lives in your child's browser for that one question and is cleared the moment they move to the next, so there is no history for us to read back and none for you to review. That is good for privacy and a real gap in parental oversight; a parent-visible transcript is something we are considering. In the meantime the tutor is constrained by design rather than by review: it is bound to the question on screen and cannot be steered off it.

Yes. We offer a 14-day no-questions-asked refund on any paid plan — Casual, Quarter or Annual — from the date of purchase. This mirrors the statutory cooling-off right for distance contracts under the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 (regs 29–30), and we honour it regardless of how much you've used the service. After 14 days a purchase is final: nothing renews and nothing is charged again, and your access runs for the full period you paid for. Refunds are handled by a person, not a button — email hello@hearthprep.com within 14 days and we'll process it within 2 working days.