11+ Glossary: Every Key Term Explained for Parents

In short

• A standardised age score (SAS) is your child's raw mark adjusted for age within the cohort and scaled to a common range — typically centred around 100 — so children born in different months are compared fairly.
• Qualifying for grammar school and being offered a place are different events: a qualifying score clears the threshold, but oversubscribed schools then admit by rank, distance or other published criteria.
• The CAF (Common Application Form) is the local-authority form where you rank up to six schools — 11+ results arrive before the CAF deadline precisely so you can rank realistically.
• Super-selective schools have no catchment and admit purely in score order; catchment grammars prioritise local children who clear the threshold — the same score plays very differently at each.
• Most 11+ jargon describes the admissions machinery, not the child — parents who learn these two dozen terms early make calmer, better decisions all year.

Scores and marking: SAS, standardisation, raw marks and weighting

Raw mark — the number of questions answered correctly, before any adjustment. Standardisation — the statistical conversion of raw marks so scores can be compared fairly across different papers and cohorts. Age standardisation — the part of that conversion that adjusts for a child's age in years and months, so a September-born and an August-born child are compared against what's typical for their exact age; this is why two children with identical raw marks can receive different final scores, and it is a feature, not an error. Standardised age score (SAS) — the final adjusted score, typically scaled so that around 100 is the cohort average, with most tests reporting somewhere in a range like 70-140 (exact ranges vary by test). Weighting — how much each paper counts toward the total; many areas weight verbal reasoning or English more heavily than other papers, and the weighting is published in each area's admissions arrangements. Aggregate score — the weighted total across all papers, which is usually the number admissions decisions actually use. Our pass marks and SAS guide walks through worked examples of all of these.

What's the difference between qualifying and getting a place?

This distinction generates more October confusion than anything else in the 11+ world. Qualifying score (or threshold) — the score an area treats as 'assessed suitable for grammar school'; clearing it means your child has passed the test in the everyday sense. Oversubscription criteria — the published rules a school applies when more qualified children apply than it has places: typically some order of score rank, distance, siblings, pupil-premium priority or a combination. Admission in rank order — the super-selective model: places go to the highest scorers among applicants, full stop, so the effective score needed depends on who else applied that year and is always higher than the qualifying threshold. Catchment or priority area — a defined geographic zone whose resident children are considered first at many grammars, explained fully in our catchment areas guide. The practical upshot: a child can qualify comfortably and still not be offered a specific oversubscribed school, and a child can miss one school while holding offers elsewhere. Qualification is about the threshold; places are about the criteria.

Admissions machinery: CAF, PAN, National Offer Day, waiting lists and appeals

CAF (Common Application Form) — the local-authority form, submitted by 31 October of Year 6, where you rank up to six secondary schools in genuine preference order; it is the only application that counts, regardless of any test your child sat. PAN (Published Admission Number) — the number of places a school admits into Year 7, published in its admissions arrangements; when applications exceed the PAN, the oversubscription criteria decide who gets in. Equal preference system — how councils process the CAF: schools don't see where you ranked them, and you're offered the highest-ranked school whose criteria you meet, which is why listing an ambitious first choice never costs you your safer choices. National Offer Day — 1 March (or the next working day), when every family receives one secondary school offer. Waiting list — the ranked list (by the school's criteria, not by application date) that operates after offers; movement is common in the weeks after 1 March as families holding multiple-area offers release places. Appeal — the formal process for asking an independent panel to admit your child despite the school being full, covered step by step in our appeals guide. Our results-day guide maps how all of these connect between October and March.

School types: what do super-selective, partially selective and 'grammar' actually mean?

Grammar school — in current English usage, a state secondary school that selects its entire intake by academic test; there are around 160, concentrated in a minority of areas. Super-selective — a grammar with no catchment priority that admits purely in score rank order from a wide (sometimes national) applicant pool; the most competitive schools in the system, profiled in our super-selectives guide. Catchment grammar — a grammar that prioritises children in a defined local area who clear the qualifying score; competitive, but the local child's odds are structurally better. Partially selective school — a comprehensive that allocates a minority of places by ability or aptitude test, with the rest by ordinary criteria; South West Hertfordshire's consortium (including the historically named Watford Grammar schools, which are not grammars in the technical sense) is the best-known cluster — see our South West Herts guide. Independent school — fee-paying, setting its own entrance exams (increasingly the ISEB Common Pre-Test), compared against the state route in our grammar vs independent guide. Bilateral and 'wholly selective area' turn up occasionally — a bilateral school has separate selective and non-selective streams, and a wholly selective area (like Buckinghamshire) is one where grammar entry is the default pathway all local children are tested for unless parents opt out.

Exam formats: GL, CEM, CSSE, ISEB and the question-type jargon

GL Assessment — the dominant 11+ provider, setting multiple-choice papers in English, maths, verbal reasoning and non-verbal reasoning for most selective areas. CEM — the Durham University-originated test designed to be less coachable; since its withdrawal from paper testing, 'CEM-style' mostly survives as a materials label. CSSE — the Essex consortium's distinctive English-and-maths format with open answers and creative writing. ISEB Common Pre-Test — the adaptive, on-screen test many independent schools share. School-set test — a paper written by or for an individual school (Kingston's Tiffins are the famous example). Within papers: VR (verbal reasoning) — logic and language-manipulation question types; NVR (non-verbal reasoning) — pattern, shape and spatial types; cloze — passages with missing words or letters to complete; multiple-choice versus standard format — separate answer sheet versus writing answers on the paper, worth rehearsing specifically because answer-sheet transfer errors are a real mark-loser. The full board-by-board strategy lives in our exam boards guide, and the exam board finder tells you which of all this applies to your target schools.

Preparation jargon: mocks, tapering, error logs and adaptive practice

A short set of terms from the preparation side that this blog uses constantly. Mock exam — a full-length practice paper sat under realistic timed conditions, ideally including the answer-sheet format your child will face; scheduling them is covered in our mock exam guide. Error log — a running record of wrong answers classified by cause (method gap, careless slip, timing), which converts marking from a verdict into a plan. Tapering — deliberately reducing practice load in the final days before the test so the child arrives fresh. Little and often — the evidence-aligned pattern of short daily sessions over occasional long ones. Adaptive practice — software that adjusts question difficulty and topic selection to the child's performance in real time, keeping practice at the productive edge; it's the model GrammarPrep is built on, and you can feel the difference in a free taster session. Readiness — not a jargon term officially, but the question all of the above serves: whether a child's current performance, on the right question types, at the right pace, clears what their specific target schools require.