Chesham Grammar School has its own admissions pattern, and the most effective preparation follows it exactly. Because entry is decided by the Buckinghamshire Secondary Transfer Test rather than a paper the school writes itself, your child's practice needs to match the county test's subjects, its multiple-choice answer style and its tight per-section timing. This guide walks through the school, how selection actually works, precisely what to practise, a realistic build-up across Years 4 to 6, and how to keep calm on test day — all using free Quest Arena worksheets and mocks, with no account needed to begin.
About Chesham Grammar School
Chesham Grammar is a mixed grammar school in the north of the Chilterns, and one of the thirteen state grammar schools in Buckinghamshire. It has educated local children since 1903 and selects its intake through the shared county entrance test rather than any bespoke paper of its own. Because the selection route is county-wide, the same preparation that suits Chesham Grammar also suits Aylesbury, Beaconsfield, the Royal Latin and the other Bucks grammars — a genuine advantage if you are keeping options open across the area, since one consistent programme of practice covers every school on your list.
- Location: Chesham, Buckinghamshire
- Intake: Mixed (boys and girls)
- Founded: 1903
- Type: Foundation grammar school
- Admissions test: Buckinghamshire Secondary Transfer Test
You can read our full school profile for admissions context, and you should always confirm this year's open evenings, deadlines and policy on the school's own site: cheshamgrammar.org, which is the authority for dates and admissions rules. Chesham Grammar also appears in our wider grammar school directory alongside every other Bucks selective, so you can compare it against neighbouring schools in one place.
How selection works at Chesham Grammar School
Entry is by the Buckinghamshire Secondary Transfer Test, the single test used by all the county's grammar schools and administered on behalf of the local authority. Children sit it in mid-September of Year 6, right at the start of the school year, which means almost all of the preparation happens during Year 5 and the summer that follows it. The test is delivered as two papers and covers three areas: verbal reasoning, non-verbal and spatial reasoning, and mathematics with comprehension-style questions. Answers are given in multiple-choice format on a separate answer sheet, and each section is separately and tightly timed — roughly a minute a question — so speed and accuracy matter every bit as much as knowledge.
The Bucks test was historically written by CEM (Durham University), whose "tutor-proof" design blended subjects within a sitting and leaned heavily on wide vocabulary. It is worth knowing that CEM's separate paper 11+ was discontinued around 2023, and 11+ provision nationally is now dominated by GL Assessment; question styles across the country have converged as a result. Whatever the exact provider in a given year, the honest advice stays the same: prepare across all three areas, build vocabulary steadily, and drill against the clock. A qualifying standardised score of around 121 has been the Bucks benchmark, but exact thresholds are set year by year, so treat that as a guide rather than a promise — and never rely on an invented cut-off. For the current answer-sheet-based, multiple-choice style, our GL-style practice papers are the closest free match your child can rehearse against.
At a glance, here is how the county test breaks down:
| Element | Detail |
|---|---|
| Provider | GL Assessment, on behalf of Buckinghamshire (multiple-choice, answer-sheet format) |
| Papers | Two papers, each with separately timed sections |
| Subjects | Verbal reasoning, non-verbal and spatial reasoning, maths and comprehension |
| Timing | Approximately one minute per question, no calculator |
| Test date | Mid-September of Year 6 |
| Guide qualifying score | Around 121 standardised (confirm the current year with your LA) |
What to practise for this test
Because the test is reasoning-heavy, split practice across the three assessed areas rather than only revising school maths:
- Verbal reasoning: codes, letter sequences, hidden words, analogies, odd-one-out, closest-meaning and opposites, compound words and number series. Vocabulary is the single best predictor of success here, so read widely and keep a growing word list.
- Non-verbal and spatial reasoning: series, matrices, analogies, odd-one-out, reflections, rotations and paper-folding. These sit outside the national curriculum, so children need direct, repeated exposure to the question types before the shapes stop feeling alien.
- Mathematics: Key Stage 2 arithmetic, fractions, percentages, ratio and multi-step word problems, all worked at pace without a calculator. Fluent times tables to 12×12 underpin almost every question and free up time for the harder reasoning.
Start with our free worksheet library to isolate and strengthen each question type one at a time, then move to full-length, self-marking mock papers to build stamina and exam pacing. When the test draws near, switch to centre-specific mocks tuned to the Bucks two-paper format so the layout, instructions and timing feel completely familiar. Everything is free, and no sign-up is required to start practising today.
A realistic preparation timeline
You cannot cram reasoning, but you can build it steadily. This pacing keeps pressure low and progress high, without inventing any dates — always confirm the year's registration window and test day with the local authority and the school before you plan around them.
- Year 4 into the summer: daily reading for pleasure, times tables to 12×12, and gentle mental arithmetic. No formal papers yet — the goal is a broad vocabulary and quick, confident number sense.
- Year 5 autumn: begin 15–20 minutes of daily topic practice with the free worksheets, introducing verbal and non-verbal reasoning question types one at a time so nothing feels overwhelming.
- Year 5 spring — register: Bucks registration typically opens in the spring or early summer before the September test. Check our key 11+ dates page and the school site, and complete the registration promptly; missing the deadline cannot be undone.
- Year 5 summer: one full timed mock a week. Review the errors far more carefully than the score — the patterns in a child's mistakes tell you exactly what to fix next.
- Year 6, first weeks: the test falls in mid-September, so the final few weeks are for centre-specific papers, timing drills and confidence, not new material. Our revision hub and 11+ process guide help you plan a calm run-in.
On the day and after
By test day the work is done; the job now is composure. A child who has sat ten timed mocks at the kitchen table treats the real hall as simply the eleventh. Keep the routine ordinary: a normal bedtime, a proper breakfast, and no last-minute drilling that only sparks nerves. Remind them of the mechanics they have practised — read each instruction, keep the answer sheet aligned to the question number, guess sensibly rather than leaving blanks in a multiple-choice paper, and move on quickly if one question stalls. Afterwards, resist the temptation to hold a post-mortem; results arrive on the authority's timetable in mid-October, and secondary offers follow the national allocation on 1 March. Whatever the outcome, remember that a qualifying score is about securing a test pass, not a guaranteed place — catchment, banding and school preference all still apply, so it is worth naming several suitable schools on your application.
Frequently asked questions
Is the Chesham Grammar test GL or CEM?
Chesham Grammar uses the shared Buckinghamshire Secondary Transfer Test. It was historically a CEM test; since CEM's paper 11+ was phased out around 2023, provision nationally is GL-dominated. Either way it is a multiple-choice, answer-sheet paper, so our GL-style practice is the best free match. Always confirm the current provider with the local authority.
What score do I need to pass in Buckinghamshire?
The county's qualifying standardised score has been around 121, but exact thresholds are set each year and vary. Treat 121 as a guide, aim comfortably above it in mocks, and never rely on an unofficial figure.
When is the Bucks test and does it include verbal reasoning?
Children sit it in mid-September of Year 6, and yes — it tests verbal reasoning, non-verbal and spatial reasoning, and maths, all under tight per-section timing.