Mayfield Grammar School, Gravesend has its own admissions pattern, and the right preparation follows exactly how this school selects. Mayfield chooses its Year 7 girls through the Kent Test, so effective preparation is Kent Test preparation: the specific subjects that test assesses, the September test date, and steady, timed practice in the GL Assessment style. This guide walks through the school, the test, what to practise, and a calm build-up that fits real family life.
About Mayfield Grammar School, Gravesend
Mayfield is the girls' grammar in Gravesend and a long-established part of Kent's selective system. It is the partner school to Gravesend Grammar, with the two schools sharing sixth-form classes, so a Mayfield place can lead into a broad co-educational sixth form. Selection at eleven is by the Kent Test, the same test used across the county's grammar schools. You can always check current admissions dates, open evenings and the published oversubscription criteria on the official school website, which is the authority for anything year-specific.
- Location: Gravesend, Kent
- Intake: Girls (Mixed Sixth Form)
- Founded: 1933
- Type: Academy Grammar
- Admissions test: Kent Test (GL Assessment)
For links, key dates and a snapshot of the school in one place, see our full school profile, and browse nearby options on the Quest Arena grammar school directory.
How selection works at Mayfield Grammar School, Gravesend
Admission to Year 7 at Mayfield is decided by the Kent Test, produced by GL Assessment and administered by The Kent Association of Grammar Schools. Children normally sit it in early September at the start of Year 6, which means the real preparation happens across Year 4 and Year 5. You register your child through your home local authority during the summer term of Year 5, before the registration window closes; the school's website and our key dates page both flag the deadlines each year.
The Kent Test covers three areas across its papers:
- English — comprehension, spelling, punctuation and grammar in a timed multiple-choice format.
- 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).
GL papers are multiple-choice, tightly timed at roughly a minute a question, and answered without a calculator. Scores are age-standardised, so a summer-born child is not penalised for being younger: the same raw mark converts to a slightly higher standardised score for a younger child than an older one. Kent uses an aggregate of the standardised scores across the papers, with a rule that no single area may fall too low. We deliberately do not publish a fixed Mayfield pass mark, because thresholds are set each year and depend on the cohort; the honest position is to aim comfortably clear of the qualifying standard rather than chase a rumoured number. Passing the Kent Test makes a child eligible; a place then depends on the school's published admissions criteria, including distance and any priority categories.
What to practise for this test
Because the Kent Test is GL-style, it is one of the more learnable 11+ formats: the question types are stable and published, so type-by-type practice pays off directly. Split preparation across the four skill areas and use Quest Arena's free resources for each.
- English: read widely and daily to build vocabulary — the single strongest predictor of comprehension and verbal-reasoning scores — then drill comprehension technique and SPaG with our free worksheet library.
- Maths: secure times tables to 12×12 and fluent mental arithmetic, then work through timed problem sets that mirror the KS2-to-Year-5 ceiling.
- Verbal Reasoning: practise the named GL VR types — codes, letter sequences, hidden words, analogies, odd-one-out, closest-meaning and opposites, compound words, move-a-letter and number series — until each is automatic. For example, in a code question where WORD becomes XPSE, each letter has simply moved one place forward in the alphabet.
- Non-Verbal Reasoning: train the standard NVR patterns — series, matrices, analogies, odd-one-out, reflections, rotations and cube nets — so shape logic becomes quick and confident.
Once the individual types feel secure, move to full-length timed mock papers in the GL multiple-choice format, and in the final weeks add centre-specific mocks matched to Kent's paper structure. If you want the reference material behind these question types, our GL Assessment papers guide lays out the format in detail — and everything is free, with no account needed to practise.
A realistic preparation timeline
The children who cope best on Kent Test day are rarely the ones who crammed; they are the ones who built the habit early. A workable rhythm looks like this, with no invented dates — always confirm the exact registration and test days for your year on the school's site.
- Year 4: make daily reading a fixture and lock in times tables to 12×12. No formal papers yet — this stage is about vocabulary, number confidence and enjoyment.
- Year 5 autumn: begin 15–20 minutes of daily topic practice using our free worksheets, introducing one VR or NVR type at a time.
- Year 5 spring/summer (register): register through your local authority before the deadline; check our key dates page and the official website. Start short timed sections so the clock stops feeling frightening.
- Summer before Year 6: build up to one full timed mock paper a week. Review the errors far more carefully than the score — every mistake is a free lesson.
- Final weeks before the September test: switch to centre-specific papers in Kent's format, then taper. Rest and reading matter more than last-minute drilling.
On the day and after
By September the work is done, so the job on test day is simply to let your daughter show what she knows. A few practical habits help more than any last-minute revision:
- Sleep and breakfast: a good night's rest and a proper breakfast beat an extra hour of practice every time.
- Answer-sheet discipline: GL tests use a separate multiple-choice answer sheet — remind her to keep answers aligned with question numbers and to fill bubbles cleanly.
- Pace and skip: spend about a minute per question, mark a best guess and move on if stuck, then return if time allows. Finishing calmly beats stalling on one hard item.
- Keep perspective: reassure her that one test does not define her, and that the head-teacher assessment and appeal routes exist within the Kent system.
After the test, results arrive in the autumn term of Year 6, ahead of the secondary application deadline. Whatever the outcome, the reading, reasoning and resilience she has built are genuinely valuable — and if you are weighing several schools, keep exploring the grammar school directory and our revision hub to plan the next step.
Frequently asked questions
Is the Mayfield entrance exam GL or CEM?
It is GL Assessment. Mayfield selects through the Kent Test, which is a GL-produced, multiple-choice test. CEM's separate paper 11+ was discontinued around 2023, so current Kent preparation should be GL-focused.
What subjects does the Kent Test cover?
English, Maths, and a Reasoning paper combining Verbal and Non-Verbal Reasoning. All are timed and multiple-choice, marked by age-standardised scores that adjust for your child's month of birth.
When is the Kent Test taken for Mayfield?
In early September at the start of Year 6, with registration through your local authority during Year 5. Confirm the exact dates each year on the official school website and our key dates page.