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Since this will probably be the first exam for your child we will take an approach that is stress-free. We will prepare for the test but in a low key way - building skills and experience week by week to be test ready.

The 7 Plus Exam

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

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

Why is it so competitive?

There are several reasons why entry at 7 plus is so competitive. Typically 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.

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.

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

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

How can they test children so young?

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 have to have some criteria for selection, so what better way than to see where they are on their academic journey?

What does the exam consist of?

All schools will test maths and English in one shape or another. Generally, the school will not test beyond the National Curriculum levels for their age, but that does not mean that the test will always be easy.

More and more, there is an element of online testing. Some schools will put straightforward multiple-choice questions online, whilst others will use computer adaptive testing. This is when the question level is adjusted automatically according to how the child is managing with the questions.

Some schools will also include reasoning (verbal and/or non-verbal).