11+ Exam Boards: A Strategy Guide
· 12 min read
How to choose your 11+ preparation strategy by exam board — GL, CEM or CSSE — and what changes for your child based on which paper they will actually sit.
Why does the exam board change your plan so much?
The same child can score well on a GL Assessment paper and poorly on a CSSE paper because the two exams test different skills in different formats. GL papers are heavily multiple-choice, score fast accurate paper technique, and assess verbal and non-verbal reasoning that is not taught in school. CSSE papers are mostly free-response, with a long creative writing task and open-answer Maths where method earns marks. A child who has only ever practised multiple-choice GL papers can be caught flat-footed by CSSE writing demands; a child trained for CSSE composition can struggle with GL's coded VR question families they have never seen. Choosing your preparation strategy by board, rather than by generic '11+ practice', is the single most cost-effective decision you can make. This guide walks through each main board, what changes for you, and how to confirm which one applies to your child.
Quick reference: which board does each region use?
GL Assessment is by far the most common, used in Kent, Buckinghamshire, Birmingham (King Edward VI consortium), the West Midlands Grammar Schools consortium (covering Walsall, Wolverhampton and Shropshire), Trafford, the Wirral, Lincolnshire, Gloucestershire, North Yorkshire, the Bournemouth & Poole consortium and several others. CEM (Durham) was used historically in Buckinghamshire, Birmingham and other consortia but withdrew from paper-based testing in 2023; many former CEM schools have switched to GL — see our GL vs CEM 2027 explainer for what changed. CSSE serves Essex grammar schools (Westcliff, Southend, Chelmsford and the surrounding pyramid) with English and Maths papers only. School-set tests apply at super-selectives that set their own papers — notably the Tiffin schools in Kingston upon Thames, Reading's Kendrick and Reading School, and Sutton's super-selectives at Stage 2. Always confirm on each target school's admissions page; consortia change membership occasionally.
GL Assessment: the most common format
GL papers are multiple-choice, machine-marked, and age-standardised. A typical GL exam runs two or three papers of around 50 minutes each, covering some combination of English, Mathematics, Verbal Reasoning and Non-Verbal Reasoning depending on the consortium. GL Assessment uses approximately 21 verbal reasoning question types and a similar variety of non-verbal reasoning families — the question types are stable year to year, well-documented, and respond well to structured practice. Preparation for GL rewards three things: question-type fluency, fast and accurate paper technique with separate answer sheets, and breadth across all the question families the paper might draw from. For step-by-step worked methods, see our VR worked examples and NVR worked examples. The biggest preparation risk for GL is uneven coverage: a child fluent in 18 of the 21 VR types but cold on the other 3 will lose marks every paper until those gaps are closed.
CEM and what 'CEM-style' means now
CEM (Centre for Evaluation and Monitoring at Durham University) ran 11+ papers until 2023, when it withdrew from paper-based testing. Several former CEM regions moved to GL Assessment for 2024 entry onwards. The legacy matters because 'CEM-style' is still used as a marketing label by some publishers, and parents whose older children sat CEM can find the format change confusing. Practically, if your target region used CEM historically but now uses GL, treat your preparation as GL preparation with one caveat: vocabulary breadth was always more central in CEM than in GL, and the schools that moved to GL have often kept some of that vocabulary emphasis in their English papers. Continue to invest in wide reading and a word journal, but do not buy CEM-branded practice books for a child sitting a GL test today — the question formats are different. See our GL vs CEM 2027 explainer for the regions affected and the practical implications.
CSSE: Essex's English-and-Maths-only test
The CSSE (Consortium of Selective Schools in Essex) test is a striking outlier. It tests English and Mathematics only — no verbal or non-verbal reasoning — and rewards different skills from a GL paper. The English paper includes a comprehension passage and a creative or persuasive writing task, with pupils writing into a free-response answer booklet rather than ticking multiple-choice boxes. The Mathematics paper covers the upper end of Key Stage 2 content with strong emphasis on multi-step word problems, ratio and proportion, and clearly shown working — partial credit is awarded for correct method even when the final answer is wrong, which is unusual for 11+ papers and worth practising deliberately. Preparation for CSSE looks heavier on reading depth, structured writing and open-answer Maths than for a GL test, and lighter on reasoning-format drill. For the full CSSE picture, see our Essex CSSE test guide and the Essex region overview. Families sitting both CSSE and another region (e.g. Sutton or Kent) need to maintain parallel preparation streams.
School-set tests: Tiffin, Reading, Sutton stages
Several super-selective schools run their own school-set entrance tests rather than using a named exam board. The Tiffin schools in Kingston upon Thames use a two-stage process: a multiple-choice Stage 1 in English and Maths, followed by a written open-answer Stage 2 for the highest-scoring Stage 1 candidates. Reading's Kendrick and Reading School operate a similar two-stage model. Sutton's super-selectives sit a common GL Stage 1 then each school runs its own Stage 2. School-set tests reward depth in English and Maths over reasoning breadth — and Stage 2 tests in particular reward written, open-answer technique that GL multiple-choice drill does not develop. If your child is preparing for a school-set test, build extended-writing and open-answer Maths practice from early Year 5, not just from autumn of Year 6. Our super-selective grammar schools guide covers the rank-order admissions logic that makes these tests unusually competitive.
How do I confirm which board my target schools use?
Three reliable sources, in this order. First, the school's own admissions page — the only fully authoritative source, updated for each year's entry. Second, the local authority's secondary admissions page, which lists the test used by each grammar school in that authority. Third, the consortium's website where one exists (e.g. WMGS for the West Midlands, the Sutton consortium, the BCP consortium). Avoid relying on a third-party tutoring site or social-media thread — they go stale quickly, and a board change you missed wastes months of preparation. Confirm in the spring of Year 5, then confirm again in the late summer of Year 5 in case anything has shifted. If your child is sitting more than one consortium, list each test's board and format side by side; preparation overlap is real but partial, and a written plan is far safer than mental triangulation.
Putting it together: choosing your preparation focus
Once the board is settled, three preparation choices follow almost automatically. Subjects: only practise what the test covers — GL boards typically include reasoning, CSSE does not, Tiffin does not. Format: practise the actual answer format your child will use on the day — multiple-choice with separate answer sheets for GL, free-response booklets for CSSE, mixed for school-set tests. Materials: buy practice papers and workbooks aligned to the right board, and ignore those aligned to the wrong one no matter how cheap or well-reviewed they are. From there, the broader 11+ preparation guide sets out a month-by-month plan, and our free diagnostic at grammarprep.uk/onboarding shows where your child currently stands across the four subjects so you can decide which to weight in their specific plan. The point of matching the board is not to make preparation easier — it is to make every practice hour count toward the test your child will actually sit.