Families targeting Gravesend Grammar School ask the same first question: what exactly should we practise? The honest answer is that good preparation is not generic. It fits the way this particular school selects its intake, and Gravesend Grammar selects through one specific assessment — the Kent Test. Once you understand what that test looks like and when it happens, everything else, from your reading routine to your first timed mock, falls into a sensible order. This guide walks through the school, the test, the subjects that matter, and a realistic build-up you can start today with free practice.
About Gravesend Grammar School
Gravesend Grammar is the boys' grammar in north-west Kent, with a co-educational sixth form. It has served the town for well over a century and selects its Year 7 intake by the Kent Test, the same countywide assessment used across Kent's network of 32 state grammar schools — England's largest fully-selective system. Boys who pass the test and name the school on their application compete for places under the school's published admissions criteria.
- Location: Gravesend, Kent
- Intake: Boys (Mixed Sixth Form)
- Founded: 1893
- Type: Academy Grammar
- Admissions test: Kent Test (GL Assessment)
For exact registration dates, catchment details and this year's open events, the school's own site is the authority: gravesendgrammar.com. You can also see our full school profile and browse neighbouring options in the grammar school directory.
How selection works at Gravesend Grammar School
Entry to Gravesend Grammar is decided by the Kent Test, which is set by GL Assessment and sat by children in early September of Year 6. It is a countywide test: your son sits it once, and the result is used by every Kent grammar he applies to, including Gravesend Grammar. You register through your home local authority in the summer term of Year 5 — usually by the start of the summer holidays — so the registration deadline arrives a good year before secondary school actually starts.
The Kent Test is built from GL Assessment materials, which matters because GL is the most predictable of the 11+ boards. Its question types are published and stable, the papers are multiple-choice, and timing is tight — roughly a minute a question with no calculator. The Kent Test covers three areas:
- English — comprehension and literacy, testing how well your son reads for meaning and handles vocabulary under time pressure.
- Maths — arithmetic and problem-solving drawn from the Key Stage 2 curriculum up to Year 5 level.
- Reasoning — a combined paper of verbal reasoning (VR) and non-verbal reasoning (NVR), the skills that sit outside the normal school curriculum.
Scores are age-standardised, so a summer-born child is not penalised for being younger than an autumn-born classmate who sat the same paper. Kent uses an aggregate threshold across the three areas together with a rule that no single area may fall too far below the average — but pass marks shift slightly year to year, so we will not quote a fixed number here. Treat the official Kent County Council guidance and the school's website as the final word, and read our 11+ process guide for how the aggregate and head-teacher assessment routes fit together.
What to practise for this test
Because the Kent Test is GL-based, systematic type-by-type practice pays off directly. The four skill areas each reward a different kind of preparation:
- Verbal reasoning: GL uses around 21 named question types — codes, letter sequences, hidden words, analogies, odd-one-out, closest-meaning and opposites, compound words, move-a-letter, and number series among them. The best single lever here is vocabulary: the wider your son's word knowledge, the higher his VR and comprehension scores climb together.
- Non-verbal reasoning: series, matrices, analogies, odd-one-out, reflections, rotations and spatial patterns. These are learnable through repetition — most children improve sharply once they have seen each pattern type a dozen times.
- Maths: secure times tables to 12×12, quick mental arithmetic, fractions, percentages and worded problems solved at speed.
- English: daily reading of increasingly demanding books, plus timed comprehension so your son learns to find answers in a passage quickly rather than re-reading the whole thing.
Every question type named above has a free worksheet and a timed mock on Quest Arena — no account needed to start. Begin with the GL Assessment practice papers, drill weak spots using the free worksheet library, and progress to full-length timed mock papers. When you are within reach of the test, switch to centre-specific mocks built in the Kent Test format so the layout and answer sheet feel familiar on the day.
A realistic preparation timeline
Good 11+ preparation is a slow build, not a summer sprint. Spread the work out and it feels light; leave it late and it feels frantic. Here is a sensible shape:
- Year 4 and earlier: read together every day and secure the foundations — number bonds, times tables, confident silent reading. No formal papers yet. This is the stage that quietly decides how easy everything later feels.
- Year 5 autumn: introduce 15–20 minutes of daily topic practice using the free worksheets. Rotate through English, maths, VR and NVR rather than hammering one area.
- Year 5 spring — register: confirm the registration window with your local authority and the school's site, and note the key deadlines on our key dates page. Missing the registration deadline is the single most avoidable way to lose a place.
- Year 5 summer into Year 6: add one full timed mock paper a week. Review the mistakes far more carefully than the score — every wrong answer is a free lesson.
- Final six weeks before September: move to Kent Test-format papers, tighten timing, and taper the volume in the last few days so your son arrives fresh, not fried. Keep the revision hub handy for quick top-ups.
On the day and after
By the September test day the learning is done; the job now is to let your son show what he already knows. A calm, well-rested child who has sat ten mocks at the kitchen table treats the real hall as the eleventh. Practical points that help:
- Protect sleep for the two nights before — rest matters more than one last late cramming session.
- Eat a proper breakfast and arrive with time to spare so nobody is rushing.
- Remind him of the timing habit he has practised: if a question is stuck, mark the answer sheet carefully, move on, and come back. In a multiple-choice paper, a blank is a guaranteed nought.
- Keep your own nerves off the doorstep. A relaxed goodbye does more good than any last instruction.
Afterwards, do not let him replay the paper in detail — it changes nothing and only feeds anxiety. Results for the Kent Test arrive in mid-October, before the secondary application deadline at the end of that month, which means you will know his outcome in good time to complete the application naming Gravesend Grammar. If the result is not what you hoped, there is a head-teacher assessment and appeal route in Kent worth understanding early.
Frequently asked questions
Is the Kent Test GL or CEM?
GL. The Kent Test is set by GL Assessment, so its question types are published and predictable, which makes structured type-by-type practice genuinely effective. CEM's separate paper 11+ was discontinued around 2023, so ignore older guides that still describe Kent as a CEM region.
When does my son sit the test for Gravesend Grammar?
In early September of Year 6. You must register with your home local authority in the summer term of Year 5, roughly a year before he starts secondary school. Always confirm the exact dates on the school's website and with Kent County Council.
What score does he need to pass?
Kent uses an age-standardised aggregate across English, maths and reasoning, with a rule that no single area may drop too far below the average. The exact threshold varies year to year, so we will not quote a fixed figure — check the current official Kent guidance rather than any number you read on an out-of-date site.