The 7 plus examination is an academic assessment for entry to independent schools. The exam usually comprises of English, math, verbal and non-verbal reasoning and may be online, written or a combination of both. Successful candidates may be invited to a second round of exams and or an interview.

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The assessment will cover the KS1 curriculum with some elements of KS2. Most successful candidates will be working at ‘greater depth’ in their current year group.

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The 7 plus exam is taken at the end of year 2. It is an entrance exam for independent fee-paying schools and is usually held mostly in the January of when the child is in year 2, for entry in September of year 3.

It is highly competitive – almost as competitive as the 11 plus entrance exam.

Why is it so competitive?

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There are several reasons why entry at 7 plus is so competitive. Usually, in any given area, there will be a limited number of independent schools. Within those schools, there will be some schools that are only prep schools, meaning that they are primary schools. An even fewer number of independent schools in your area will be secondary schools.

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The trend has been for many schools to become all through schools, meaning that entry will need to be gained into at an early age.

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If the school contains a pre-prep school, then this means that in turn, there will be fewer places available at age 7 as those children who joined at age 4 will typically go straight through to the prep school.

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On average, for every 1 place available in an all-through school, there are anything between 7 and 15 applications.

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How can they test children so young?

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The tests consist of what they would generally be taught in school and the schools are usually very sympathetic to that they are so young.

From the school’s point of view, they are almost always oversubscribed and so they must have some criteria for selection, so what better way than to see where they are on their academic journey.

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What does the school look for?

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No matter what age your child takes his/her entrance exam, there are  basic skills that all schools will look for.

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• Maths – in maths, children will be expected to know at least to the expected level in the current National Curriculum. For example, not only will they be expected to know their 2, 3, 4, 5 and 10 times tables, they will be able to apply them. There will also be the more challenging questions, where they will be expected to interpret the information given and then using the appropriate method, produce an answer. 

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• Reading – reading is a key skill as it feeds into every subject. Children will be expected not only to read out loud but also be able to discuss what they have read and be able to talk about the topic in context.

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• Writing – here spelling, punctuation and grammar (using the right tense, for example) will be very important. Where they struggle with complex words, they will be expected to spell the word phonetically, and use the phonics skills they will have learnt in previous years. Children will be expected to show structure in their wring with clear demarcations with punctuation and paragraphs.