Failed 11+ Exam? Here's Your Recovery Plan

Pro tip: Where a child sat only one SEAG paper, the paper is still marked by GL Assessment and an estimated outcome is issued with an 'e' suffix, such as TSAS 196e and Band 3e, and each school decides how it treats an estimated outcome. Illness or other disruption is handled after results through a Claim for Special Circumstances to the post-primary school during the Education Authority transfer process, supported by documentary evidence, which sits entirely outside SEAG's remit. In Kent, a child not assessed as suitable can still name a grammar school on the application, will be refused when places are offered on 1 March 2027, and then has the right of appeal.

• Preparing for a CEM 11 plus that no longer exists for grammar schools
  Bond 11+ records that the CEM 11 plus went online only in 2022-23 and fell from over 40 per cent of the 163 UK grammar schools to almost none, then was renamed Cambridge Select Insight in April 2025. If your target is a state grammar school, work from the consortium's own materials. Buy Cambridge Select Insight material only if a specific independent school names that test in its admissions policy.
• Assuming a high score in one paper can rescue a weak score in another
  Kent applies a floor as well as a total: in 2025 a child needed 332 or more overall and no single score below 108. A child with two strong papers and one at 105 did not receive a grammar school assessment. Check whether your area applies a minimum per paper before deciding to write off a weak subject.
• Treating the Kent Test writing exercise as a scored paper
  Kent County Council states the writing exercise is not marked, though a local headteacher panel may use it during the headteacher assessment stage. Spend enough time on it to produce a legible, organised piece, and put the remaining hours into the papers that generate the standardised scores.
• Practising non-verbal reasoning as one long block
  The Kent Test splits non-verbal reasoning into short sections that are administered and timed individually. A child rehearsed only on 30-minute blocks will over-invest in early questions and lose the last items in each short section. Practise in short timed bursts that end abruptly.
• Sitting only one SEAG paper and hoping the other counts
  SEAG marks a single paper but designates the outcome with an 'e' for estimate, for example TSAS 196e and Band 3e, and each school decides its own protocol for estimated outcomes. There is no alternative date for an individual pupil who misses a paper. If illness strikes, the route is a Claim for Special Circumstances made to the post-primary school during the Education Authority transfer process, not to SEAG.
• Missing the registration deadline because the child's school registers automatically for someone else
  Automatic entry is the exception, not the rule. Buckinghamshire enters children at a state-funded Buckinghamshire primary school or Partner School automatically, but a child at a Milton Keynes school must be registered by the family between 1 May and 3pm on 2 June. SEAG registration closed at 11:59pm on 18 September 2026 with no route in afterwards except any late window at a 50 pound fee.
• Sitting practice papers on plain paper instead of a real answer sheet
  Kent Test papers are multiple choice with a separate answer sheet marked by computer. A single slipped row costs every subsequent mark in that block. Buy or print separate answer sheets, and teach a checkpoint every ten questions where the child confirms the question number matches the row.
• Choosing an assessment centre for the wrong reason
  SEAG states there is no connection between where a pupil sits the assessment and the post-primary admissions process, which the Education Authority runs. Choose the most convenient of the 63 centres. Changing centre after submitting a pupil application requires a completely new application, a fresh payment, and the withdrawal of the original, with no refund of the administration fee.
• Doing volume practice without an error log
  Sitting ten papers and marking them produces ten scores and no diagnosis. Keep one running log with the topic and the reason for every wrong answer, sorted into content gap, misread question, ran out of time and careless slip. The four causes need four different fixes, and only the first is solved by more content teaching.
• Reading the qualifying score as a place
  Buckinghamshire's 121 makes a child qualified, not admitted; places are then allocated under each school's own oversubscription criteria. Kent's 332 gives a grammar school assessment, and applications are still refused when places run out, at which point an appeal opens. Read the admissions policy of each school for its ranking rules, catchment definition and address cut-off date, which in Buckinghamshire is 1 September for most schools but earlier for some.

• Taken at age 10-11
• Verbal reasoning, non-verbal, maths, English
• GL vs CEM format varies by region
• Bond and CGP books for prep
• Learn every question type before test day
• Some areas very competitive (10:1 ratio)