Admissions and entrance exams

Updated 29 October 2026

ISEB Pre-Tests and Common Entrance

For families in the UAE applying to UK independent senior schools: what the ISEB Pre-Tests are, how to register and sit them from abroad, and where 11+ and 13+ Common Entrance fit.

What the Pre-Tests are

ISEB (the Independent Schools Examinations Board) sets the Pre-Tests, sometimes called "the ISEB" or the 11+ Pre-Tests. They are used by many UK independent senior schools for Year 7 entry, or as an early stage of Year 9 entry. The four tests cover:

• Mathematics
• English: reading comprehension and grammar
• Verbal reasoning (VR)
• Non-verbal reasoning (NVR)

All four are multiple choice and adaptive: each question depends on the answers before it, so children spend less time on questions that are far too easy or too hard. The test player has accessibility options such as colour overlays and font choices.

Results are age-standardised against pupils applying for independent school places, so younger children and those who test early in the window are not disadvantaged. Because the comparison group is other independent school applicants, not all children nationally, these scores do not line up with CAT4 scores (see CAT4 scores explained). ISEB does not publish pass marks.

The 2026-27 timeline

The pattern repeats each year. Senior schools set their own test deadlines, often well before the end of the window, so check each school.

How to register and sit the tests from the UAE

1. Apply to the senior schools first. ISEB says you should only share your child's Applicant ID with schools you have already applied to.
2. Create an Applicant Profile on the Guardian Portal. You do this once, however many schools you apply to. Use your child's legal name as on their birth certificate. You can upload evidence of special educational needs (SEND) and request 25% extra time or other adjustments, and record whether English is an additional language.
3. Choose an invigilation centre. ISEB suggests asking your child's current school first: hosting is free and needs only a computer and internet access, though schools do not have to test external candidates. Otherwise ask the senior school whether it runs sessions, or use ISEB's map of registered centres (such as British Council offices). Always check with a centre before selecting it.
4. Share the Applicant ID with each senior school, in the way it asks.
5. Your child sits the tests on the date the centre gives you. Results are available to schools as soon as the tests are finished.

Preparing

ISEB recommends its free Test Walkthrough, so your child sees the platform and question styles before the day, and its free Pre-Tests Admissions Toolkit for parents. It also endorses one paid practice platform, and warns that other third-party practice materials may not reflect the real tests' content, difficulty or scoring. Verbal and non-verbal reasoning are not taught as school subjects, so these question types are the ones most worth seeing in advance.

Common Entrance at 11+ and 13+

Common Entrance (CE) is ISEB's older, paper-based exam, still in use:

• CE at 11+ is taken in Year 6, mainly for independent girls' schools. There are three papers (English, maths and science) and two sessions a year, in November and January; most pupils sit in January.
• CE at 13+ is taken in Year 8, with sessions in November, January and May/June. All pupils sit English, maths and science, and schools may ask for papers in subjects such as geography, history, classics, modern languages, and theology, philosophy and religion.
• CASE (Common Academic Scholarship Examinations) are scholarship papers based on the 13+ syllabus. The senior school enters the pupil, chooses the papers and marks them, usually at the school, in February or May.

ISEB says pupils are usually entered for CE once they have been offered a place that depends on passing, and usually sit it at their current school. CE at 13+ has its own syllabus for Years 7 and 8, written for prep schools, so a child at a British secondary school in the UAE should check with the senior school how they would be entered and how the syllabus compares with what they are taught. Ask each senior school which route it uses for your child's age.

Other routes into UK schools

Many independent schools accept UKiset from international applicants, and some set their own tests. State grammar schools use a different 11+ entirely, run by each area: see the 11+ from abroad.