Selective schools across the UK use different examination boards when testing children at the secondary school entry point. The two main boards are GL- Granada Learning and CEM- Centre for Evaluation & Monitor. A lot of content overlaps between the two exam boards. However, you will find a few differences among the two, formulated in a table below. Read till the end for useful links and free resources that may help.
Many reputable publishers and businesses cater for the demand of material for both the boards. Galore Park, Collins, Bond, Exampapersplus have publications to help prepare children for both GL and CEM. The 11+ Vocabulary, Comprehension and Verbal Skills Workbook by S L Ager provides extensive practise to get better at Verbal skills. For Non-verbal reasoning for the GL tests, Peter Francis’s courses and books are recommended. Peter Francis who is the GL Assessment NVR question developer and covers the 11+ tests for CEM, GL Assessment, ISEB, CAT4 has produced a Non Verbal And Spatial Reasoning online course in partnership with Ieducate centre in Romford. They provide a free sample which can give you a £10 off on the bundle (affiliate discount) , should you decide to purchase both NVR and Spatial Reasoning course together.
The Verbal reasoning section of the 11 plus tests can vary and is also highly dependent on which examining board has set the question paper. For example, in the Verbal reasoning section of the GL tests consists of 21 types of questions which are detailed below. We have partnered with Heckmondwike Tutors who will publish worksheets on different types of VR questions first on our Facebook group and later on our website. We collaborated with them last year on various projects including the FREE classes for Year 4 students which were very much in demand. Mandy Broomhead, Head of the organisation which specialises in preparing Year 5 students to sit the 11+ entrance exams for selective schools said, ”We’ve written a brand new set of resources for the GL style and would love to share with the 11 Plus Journey readers.” The worksheets will be posted twice weekly starting in the week of January 25th, 2021 and will be uploaded in Album- Verbal Reasoning Question Types for GL tests and Guide- Verbal Reasoning in our Facebook group.
21 Verbal Reasoning Question Types for GL tests
01 – INSERT A LETTER A
02 – RELATED WORDS B
03 – WORD-LETTER CODES C
04 – CLOSEST MEANING D
05 – HIDDEN WORD E
06 – MISSING WORD F
07 – LETTERS FOR NUMBERS G
08 – MOVE A LETTER J
09 – LETTER SERIES L
10 – WORD CONNECTIONS M
11 – NUMBER SERIES P
12 – COMPOUND WORDS Q
13 – MAKE A WORD R
14 – LETTER CONNECTIONS U
15 – READING INFORMATION Z
16 – OPPOSITE MEANING H
17 – COMPLETE THE SUM I
18 – RELATED NUMBERS K
19 – WORD-NUMBER CODES N
20 – COMPLETE THE WORD O
21 – SAME MEANINGS
| GL Exam Board | CEM Exam Board |
| GL covers 5 subjects- English, Maths, Spatial reasoning, Verbal Reasoning and Non-Verbal Reasoning | CEM covers 3 subjects- Numerical, Verbal and Non-verbal ability |
| Used by schools (this is subject to change) in
Dorset Kent Lancashire & Cumbria Lincolnshire Northern Ireland Wiltshire Buckinghamshire Plymouth Birmingham |
Used by schools (this is subject to change) in
Berkshire Bexley Buckinghamshire Devon Gloucestershire Shropshire Walsall Wirral Wolverhampton |
| Developed and administered 11+ exams in the majority of grammar schools in the UK. | CEM exam aligns more closely to the content of the KS2 National Curriculum |
| Individual regions and grammar schools can choose what subjects to test as part of their 11+ exam. | Individual regions and grammar schools can choose what subjects to test as part of their 11+ exam. |
| Test format varies from school to school and region to region. Most GL 11+ exams are either Standard Format (answers are written in spaces next to or below the question) or Multiple Choice (answers marked in a separate answer book).
The length of test papers vary, although 45 minutes is the most common exam time |
Standard Format, Multiple Choice, or a combination may be used depending on school/region.
CEM papers are mixed, with one exam combining English and verbal ability and another combining Maths and Non-verbal ability. |
| Tests based on GL board usually do not have individually timed sections | Timings will be allocated to each section, and children will need to carefully manage the time
they spend on each section. |
| Strong vocabulary
Comprehension Logic Maths Spelling skills |
Strong English
Comprehension Vocabulary Spelling Maths skills with an emphasis on complex multi-step word problems |
| GL assessment use 21 different Verbal Reasoning question types that involve word, code and number related questions. | CEM verbal ability is different to GL verbal reasoning section. There is stress on children acquiring and using a wide-ranging vocabulary. |
| Time management skills are important | Time management skills are important, more so as CEM based papers have individually timed sections. |
| GL publishes practice papers on their website. | CEM does not produce or endorse any published practice papers. |
| For information may be found at https://www.gl-education.com/ | For information may be found at https://www.cem.org/ |
| Schools often change examination boards and test patterns, so the first point of contact is the school website. | Schools often change examination boards and test patterns, so the first point of contact is the school website. |
It is very important that you make a list of schools you are targeting and find out exactly what exams your child will be taking.
Useful Links apart from the various links above: