Kent Test

It is for children in their last year of primary school whose families want them considered for a grammar school place in Kent. Kent County Council lists the Kent Test under its Education and children services, together with school places, term dates and school transport, which is where you should confirm your own child's eligibility and deadlines.

The assessment is organised around English, mathematics, verbal reasoning, non-verbal reasoning and spatial reasoning. English and maths test attainment you can practise directly through reading and arithmetic; the three reasoning areas test pattern-spotting and logic, and improve most through exposure to many different question types.

Those details are not stated in the official source material available here, so we do not quote figures. Timings and paper structure are published by Kent County Council each year and can change, so check the council's Kent Test pages for the current arrangements rather than relying on numbers from an older year or a forum post.

No fixed pass mark is published in the source material available here, so we cannot state one. Selection decisions involve standardised scores and are made against the cohort and school circumstances. Treat any specific number you see online as unverified and confirm the current position with Kent County Council.

The source material available here does not describe a retake route, so we cannot confirm one. In practice, families who are unhappy with an outcome usually ask about the appeals or review arrangements the council publishes for that year. Check the council's Kent Test pages for the current process and any deadlines that apply.

It is a selective test, so it is designed to discriminate across a wide ability range, and the reasoning sections are unfamiliar to most children. The difficulty for an individual child usually comes from timing pressure and unusual question formats rather than from content beyond the primary curriculum. Familiarity removes most of that disadvantage.

Build accuracy before speed. Start with untimed practice in each of the five areas to find weak question types, then add short timed sets in the weakest areas, then full mixed practice closer to the test. Keep reading and mental arithmetic running throughout, because they underpin both English and maths performance.

Three recur: drilling only maths and English because reasoning feels unfamiliar, doing long practice papers instead of short frequent sessions, and leaving timed practice until the last few weeks. A fourth is relying on last year's dates and formats. Confirm all current arrangements directly with Kent County Council.

The source material available here does not describe official past papers. Families generally prepare with commercially published familiarisation material covering the same five areas, which is useful for question-type exposure. Treat any claim of genuine past papers with caution and check Kent County Council's own guidance on familiarisation.