Our Practice Papers and Answers
KENT ENGLISH AND MATHEMATICS PAPER 1
GL ENGLISH PAPER 1
GL MATHEMATICS PAPER 1
The papers we’ve shared above are in a similar style to the Kent/Medway Test papers and those typically delivered as 11 Plus assessments by Holcombe Grammar School.
New 11+ practice papers are sent out via email every Friday. You can sign up to receive these, every week, using the form at the top of this page.
Other Sample Papers and Answers
GL ENGLISH PAPER 1
GL ENGLISH PAPER 2
GL ENGLISH PAPER 3
GL MATHS PAPER 1
GL MATHS PAPER 2
GL MATHS PAPER 3
GL VERBAL REASONING PAPER 1
GL VERBAL REASONING PAPER 2
GL VERBAL REASONING PAPER 3
GL NON-VERBAL REASONING PAPER 1
GL NON-VERBAL REASONING PAPER 2
GL NON-VERBAL REASONING PAPER 3
The papers we’ve shared above are in a similar style to those typically delivered as 11 Plus assessments by Holcombe Grammar School.
About the School
Address — Holcombe Grammar School, Holcombe, Maidstone Road, Chatham, Kent, ME4 6JB
Type of school — Boys’ grammar school
Headteacher — Mr Lee Preston
Cost — Free
Pupils in school — 847
Places available in year 7 — 150
Average applicants per place — 4 or more.
Catchment area — Holcombe Grammar School does have a catchment area which is based on distance from the school.
Oversubscription policy — Before the application of oversubscription criteria, students with an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) which names the school and who have passed the assessment will be admitted. As a result of this the published admissions number will be reduced accordingly.
Where qualifying applications for admission exceed the number of places available, places will be allocated in the following order of priority:
Children in Local Authority Care or Previously in Local Authority Care.
Children with a sibling at the school at the time of application or who will be still attending when the applicant is admitted.
Children who attend any of the following Thinking Schools’ Academy Trust Medway primary schools: The Gordon Children’s Academy, New Horizons Children’s Academy, All Faiths Children’s Academy, Cedars Children’s Academy.
Children of staff at the school (where the member of staff has been employed for three years or more at the time at which the application for admission to the Academy is made and/or where the member of staff is recruited to fill a vacant post for which there is a demonstrable skill shortage).
Child’s health reasons. Written medical evidence from a General Practitioner or hospital consultant must be provided which demonstrates a specific health reason which requires the child to attend “Holcombe Grammar School”.
Children who live closest to the school.
School Summary
Holcombe Grammar School (previously known as Chatham Grammar School for Boys) was founded in 1817 and is an all-boys grammar school in Chatham, Kent. The school has an attached sixth form which admits both boys and girls. It became an academy in 2011.
Students are split into four houses: Barfleur, Conquest, Guardian and Shannon (all named after ships built at the local dockyard).
The school calls themselves ‘a Thinking School’, aiming to equip students for life so they can thrive in a world outside of academia ... setting them up for success.
Holcombe Grammar School uses both the Kent and Medway 11+ entry tests to determined eligibility. Children only need to take one of the test. Neither test is given priority over the other.
Ofsted rated this school as ‘good’ in 2014. Find their reports here.
Compare this school’s performance with other local schools here.
Exam Information
There are two different possible 11 plus exams for entry to this school, The Kent Test and the Medway Test. Both tests are different, but children do not need to take both tests.
THE KENT TEST
Exam style —GL Assessment/The Kent Test
Exam topic:
Reasoning
Verbal, non-verbal and spatial
English and maths
Creative writing
Exam length — 2 x 1 hour exams + a 40-minute writing exercise.
Pass rate — In 2017, 15,253 applicants took the Kent test; only 6,537 passed.
Other exam information:
The reasoning, English and maths tests are multiple-choice with a separate answer sheet.
The first test will be an English and Maths paper. Each section will include a 5 minute practice exercise followed by a 25 minute test. The English section will involve a comprehension exercise as well as some additional questions drawn from a set designed to test literacy skills.
The second test will be the reasoning paper. It will take about 1 hour, including the practice sections and questions. It will contain a verbal reasoning section and a non-verbal reasoning section of roughly the same length. The non-verbal reasoning will be split into short sections, administered and timed individually.
Finally, there will also be a writing exercise which will not be marked but may be used by a local headteacher panel as part of the headteacher assessment stage of the process. 40 minutes will be allowed for the writing task, including 10 minutes planning time.
Scores:
Your child will get three standardised scores (one for English, one for maths and one for reasoning) and a total (aggregate) score.
Standardisation is a statistical process which compares your child's performance with the average performance of other children in each test. A slight adjustment is made to take account of each child's age so that the youngest are not at a disadvantage.
Pass mark:
To qualify, children needed a total score of 332 or more, with no single score lower than 108. Test scores range from 69 to 141. The highest possible total score is 423.
If your child did not reach this threshold score and their primary school referred their case to the local Head Teacher Assessment Panel, the panel will have looked at their achievement in school and examples of their work, including the writing task completed on the day, before a final decision was made.
Please note that a score of over 332 does NOT mean your child is guaranteed a place at your chosen school.
THE MEDWAY TEST
Exam style — GL - The Medway Test.
Exam topic:
Extended writing
Mathematics
Verbal reasoning
Exam length — 3x 50 minutes exams.
Pass rate — The Medway Tests are designed to assess and select the top 23% of the children in the year group to go to a grammar school.
Pass mark —The tests are designed to assess and select 23% of the children in the year group to go to a grammar school.
Any child who has taken the Medway Tests and achieved scores that are below the minimum score will be deemed non-eligible.
Please note - Scoring above the minimum score does not guarantee your child a place at your chosen school.
Other exam information:
The verbal reasoning and maths exams are 50 minutes each. Both are multiple choice.
The English test is one people of writing which lasts 50 minutes, including 10 minutes to plan.
The Medway Test is sat by children in year 6 at their own school if they go to a Medway school (except Kings School in Rochester) or in a Medway Test Centre if they go to schools outside of Medway.
The following formula is used to calculate the total weighted score for each child:
Extended Writing standardised score x 2 + Mathematics standardised score x 2 + Verbal reasoning standardised score x 1
= the total weighted score
All scores will be standardised.
Contact information
Website — https://www.holcombegrammar.org.uk/
Contact — https://www.holcombegrammar.org.uk/about/contact-us/
Facebook — https://www.facebook.com/HolcombeGrammarSchool/
Twitter — https://twitter.com/holcombegrammar
Have a listen to our 11 Plus Vocabulary Podcast and expand your child’s vocabulary one word at a time.
You can find all episodes of The Exam Coach Podcast on: