Which Test Is My Child Sitting? CEM, GL Assessment or FSEC?

One of the first practical questions parents face when 11+ preparation begins is also one of the most important: which exam is your child actually sitting? It sounds basic, but the answer shapes everything: the subjects to prioritise, the format to practise, and the timing that works best. Getting this wrong early wastes preparation time that can't easily be recovered.

The most reliable way to find out is to go directly to the admissions page of each school on your list. Most grammar schools name their test provider clearly. If it isn't listed, and sometimes it isn't, a quick phone call to the admissions office asking "which 11+ provider do you use?" will almost always get you a straight answer. Schools are used to the question and most are happy to tell you. Do this for each school separately, because schools in the same county sometimes use different providers.

GL Assessment is the most widely used provider across England. It runs separate papers per subject, typically Maths, English, Verbal Reasoning, and Non-Verbal Reasoning, in a format that has remained consistent enough over the years to make targeted practice very effective. GL is used in Kent, Lincolnshire, Yorkshire, and many London and South East grammars, among others. Its question styles are well documented and the format is highly coachable: children who practise regularly with GL-style questions make measurable progress.

CEM (the Centre for Evaluation and Monitoring, now part of Cambridge Assessment) is used in areas including Birmingham, Buckinghamshire, Berkshire, and Wiltshire. The CEM test is deliberately designed to be harder to specifically coach for: papers are combined rather than split by subject, the pace is fast, and question styles vary more from year to year. That said, the underlying skills it tests are the same: vocabulary, comprehension, numerical reasoning, spatial reasoning. Children who prepare well for those skills do well on CEM. The preparation approach is different, but it's not impossible.

FSEC, and variations on the name like FSCE or other regional consortium acronyms, refers to independent school entrance exams run by groups of schools rather than a national provider. Some independent schools run entirely their own entrance exams; others belong to a regional consortium that administers a shared test. These typically include Maths, English, and some form of reasoning, and they may also include a writing component or, for some schools, an interview element. If your child is applying to independent schools, check the exact name of any consortium with the school directly, as the naming varies by region and can be confusing. The preparation for FSEC-style exams overlaps significantly with GL, but the writing component, where it exists, requires separate attention.

A small number of grammar schools, often called superselectives and the most academically competitive, run their own entrance exams rather than using a standard provider. These tend to be harder and may cover topics in greater depth or at higher speed. If a school on your list falls into this category, additional targeted preparation beyond standard 11+ practice is worth considering.

The encouraging news for parents managing multiple school applications is that the underlying skills tested by all these formats are largely the same. Strong maths, a wide vocabulary, good verbal reasoning, and solid non-verbal reasoning transfer across GL, CEM, and independent school exams. Preparation for one genuinely supports readiness for another. The differences are in format and pacing; knowing which exam your child is sitting lets you tune the final months of preparation accordingly, rather than starting from scratch.