Prep schools tend to talk about “the pre-test” and “CE” as though every parent already knows the difference. Plenty do not, and the two are frequently confused.
They are separate assessments, sat two years apart, doing different jobs. The pre-test usually decides whether your child is shortlisted. Common Entrance usually confirms a place that has already been offered.
This guide sets out what each involves, how they fit together in the 13+ journey, and how to help your child get ready without turning two years of prep school into exam preparation.
ISEB stands for the Independent Schools Examinations Board. It has set entrance assessments for independent schools since 1904, and it produces both the Common Pre-Test and the Common Entrance papers.
ISEB does not decide admissions. Individual senior schools do, and they use ISEB's assessments in different ways and different combinations. Some rely heavily on the pre-test, some pair it with their own written papers, and some use neither.
Which is why the single most useful thing any parent can do is read the admissions page of each target school. Requirements vary considerably and change from year to year, and our guide to 11+ exam boards explains how the wider assessment landscape fits together.
Around seventy-five selective independent schools use the Common Pre-Test, including many of the best known. Because the result is shared, a child sits one test and the outcome goes to every school they have registered with, rather than sitting a separate paper for each.
Four sections, completed in one sitting of roughly two hours and fifteen minutes.
The English and Maths content covers the Key Stage 2 curriculum up to the end of Year 5, which is worth knowing. Children sit the test partway through Year 6 and are not examined on material they have not yet been taught.
The test adjusts as your child works. Answer correctly and the questions get harder; answer incorrectly and they ease back. The aim is to find the level at which a child is genuinely working, rather than giving everyone identical papers.
There are two practical consequences. Questions cannot be skipped, and it is not possible to go back and change an answer. A child used to scanning a paper for the easy questions first will find that habit does not transfer, which is exactly the kind of thing worth knowing beforehand.
Scores are also age-standardised, so a child born in July is compared fairly with one born the previous September.
Usually in the autumn or spring term of Year 6, with many schools preferring the autumn. It is sat at your child's current prep or primary school rather than at the senior school, and the timing is arranged between the two.
It can normally only be taken once in an admissions cycle, which is why familiarity with the format matters more here than in an assessment a child could resit.
This catches parents out every year. Results go directly to the senior schools your child has registered with. Parents do not receive a score, and the prep school may not either.
What you hear instead is the outcome: an invitation to interview, a further assessment, or no further contact. If a school does not take the application forward, you are unlikely ever to know by how much.
Common Entrance is the traditional written examination, sat in Year 8. The core papers are English, Mathematics and Science, with optional papers available in modern languages, classics and humanities depending on the school and the child.
Its role is often misunderstood. For most schools that still use it, Common Entrance is not the point at which a place is won. The offer has usually been made a year or more earlier, following the pre-test and interviews in Year 6, and Common Entrance confirms it.
That does not make it a formality. Offers are conditional, and schools do occasionally look again at a result well below what was expected. But the pressure is different from an exam that decides everything, and it helps children to understand that.
Registration is normally handled by the prep school. For the summer 2026 series, ISEB registration opened in late January and closed at the end of March, which gives a sense of how far ahead the administration runs.
Not every senior school uses Common Entrance, and some have moved to their own assessments. Check with each school rather than assuming.
Scholarship candidates follow a parallel route with additional papers, usually in Year 8. Families applying at 11+ rather than 13+ should read our guide to preparing for the 11 Plus, which covers a different set of assessments.
Preparation for these assessments is a subject on which sensible people disagree, and the market is full of material promising to raise scores. A more measured approach tends to serve children better.
The English and Maths sections test Key Stage 2 content. A child who reads widely, writes regularly and has secure number fluency is prepared for most of what the pre-test asks. Time spent shoring up those foundations is worth more than time spent on practice papers, and it does not expire the moment the test is over.
This is the part genuinely worth doing. ISEB publishes its own familiarisation materials so children can see the online interface, understand that questions cannot be revisited, and practise working at a steady pace. A child meeting an adaptive online test for the first time on the day is at a disadvantage that has nothing to do with ability.
Verbal and non-verbal reasoning are not taught in the national curriculum, so most children arrive at them cold. This is the one area where structured practice is clearly reasonable, because the skills are unfamiliar rather than under-learned. Short, regular sessions work better than long ones.
If your child's school also uses cognitive testing, the reasoning sections will feel familiar. Our guide to the CAT4 test explains that format, which covers similar ground.
ISEB's own advice discourages last-minute cramming, and prep schools generally begin gentle familiarisation well ahead rather than intensively at the end. Two years of relentless preparation tends to produce tired children rather than better scores, and the adaptive format is reasonably good at finding a child's genuine level regardless.
The week before, the most useful preparation is sleep, a normal routine and a clear explanation that the test finds the right level rather than something you pass or fail.
Access arrangements are available for both assessments, but they have to be requested in advance and evidenced, usually through the prep school.
Extra time, rest breaks, or a modified presentation may all be possible depending on the evidence available. Start the conversation with the school early, because the process takes longer than most families expect. Our step-by-step guide to getting extra time in exams explains how these arrangements are usually assessed and what schools need to see.
Where a difficulty has not yet been formally identified, raise it anyway. Schools are generally willing to look, and a child who has been quietly compensating for years often shows it first under timed conditions.
Not every child needs tutoring for these assessments, and it is worth saying so plainly. Cost is a fair question too, and our guide to what private tutoring costs in London sets out the ranges.
Where it earns its place is in three situations: a child who is strong in class but unfamiliar with reasoning questions, a child whose foundations in English or Maths have a specific gap that will show up under time pressure, and a child moving into the independent system from a school that does not prepare for these assessments at all.
From our experience with admissions families, the most useful work happens early and gently, and looks more like closing gaps and building confidence than drilling papers. At HRB Education our admissions tutors work through the underlying skills first, add format familiarity closer to the time, and are honest with parents when a child does not need much at all.
If you would like to talk through where your child is and what preparation would actually help, book a free consultation or message us on WhatsApp.
An online, adaptive assessment used by around seventy-five selective independent schools as part of their admissions process. It covers English, Maths, Verbal Reasoning and Non-Verbal Reasoning in one sitting of roughly two hours and fifteen minutes, usually in Year 6.
The pre-test is an online adaptive assessment sat in Year 6, used to shortlist candidates. Common Entrance is a set of written papers sat in Year 8 which, for most schools, confirms a place already offered rather than deciding it.
English for 40 minutes, Maths for 40 minutes, Verbal Reasoning for 25 minutes and Non-Verbal Reasoning for 30 minutes. English and Maths follow the Key Stage 2 curriculum to the end of Year 5, while the reasoning sections are not part of the national curriculum.
No. Results are sent directly to the senior schools your child has registered with. Parents learn the outcome through what the schools do next, such as an invitation to interview, rather than through a score.
Focus on curriculum foundations in English and Maths, use ISEB's own familiarisation materials so the online adaptive format is not new on the day, and give some structured attention to verbal and non-verbal reasoning, which are not taught in school. ISEB advises against last-minute cramming.
It is normally sat once in an admissions cycle, with the result shared across all the senior schools your child has registered with. That is why familiarity with the format beforehand matters more than it would for an assessment that could be repeated.
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