Families targeting Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School, Faversham ask the same first question: what exactly should we practise? The honest answer is that good preparation isn't generic — it fits the way this particular school selects its pupils. QEGS Faversham chooses its intake through the Kent Test, so everything in this guide is shaped around that one exam: the subjects it covers, the format your child will face in the hall, and a calm, free practice plan that builds the right skills in the right order.
About Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School, Faversham
Founded by royal charter in 1576, QEGS Faversham is one of Kent's oldest schools and one of a small number of mixed grammars in the county. That heritage matters less to your preparation than one plain fact: entry is fully selective and decided by the Kent Test, sat in the September of Year 6. Kent runs 32 state grammar schools — England's largest fully-selective system — so the test your child sits is the same county-wide assessment used to qualify for grammar places across the region.
- Location: Faversham, Kent
- Intake: Mixed
- Founded: 1576 (by royal charter)
- Type: Foundation Grammar
- Admissions test: Kent Test (GL Assessment)
You can read our full school profile for a fuller picture, and always confirm this year's exact registration and open-day dates on the official QEGS Faversham website, which is the authority for admissions policy. For the wider county picture, our grammar school directory lists every Kent grammar and the test each one uses.
How selection works at Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School, Faversham
QEGS Faversham selects through the Kent Test, which is written and standardised by GL Assessment. There is no separate school-set entrance paper to prepare for — qualify on the Kent Test and you are eligible to name the school on your application. The Kent Test covers three areas:
- English — comprehension and literacy, drawn from the Year 5 curriculum ceiling.
- Maths — arithmetic and problem-solving, no calculator, tightly timed.
- Reasoning — a combined paper testing verbal reasoning (VR) and non-verbal reasoning (NVR).
GL papers are multiple-choice, with answers usually marked on a separate answer sheet, and they are sharply timed — roughly a minute a question. Kent combines the three scores into an aggregate, and the standardised marks are age-adjusted, so a summer-born child sitting on the same day as an older classmate receives an uplift for being younger. We will not publish a specific pass mark: Kent's qualifying thresholds and the rule that no single element should fall too low are set by the county each year, and the definitive figures come from the school and your local authority, not from us. Do treat qualifying and securing a place as two separate hurdles — meeting the standard makes your child eligible, but oversubscription criteria and catchment still decide the final offer.
What to practise for this test
Because the Kent Test is a GL exam, the question types are published and stable — which makes systematic, type-by-type practice genuinely rewarding. Focus your effort here:
- Verbal reasoning: GL uses around 21 named question types — codes, letter sequences, hidden words, analogies, odd-one-out, closest-meaning and opposites, compound words, moving a letter, and number series. Vocabulary is the single best predictor of VR and comprehension scores, so read widely and keep a word book.
- Non-verbal reasoning: series, matrices, analogies, odd-one-out, reflections, rotations and spatial patterns. These reward pattern-spotting speed more than knowledge.
- Maths: secure times tables to 12×12, mental methods, fractions, percentages and worded problems.
- English: timed comprehension, inference, and precise use of grammar and vocabulary.
Every one of these is covered by our free resources. Start with the worksheet library to drill individual types, then move to full timed mock papers once each type feels automatic. As the exam nears, switch to centre-specific mocks matched to Kent's format so the layout and answer sheet feel familiar. No account is needed to practise.
A realistic preparation timeline
The strongest candidates build gradually — no cramming, no burnout. Here is a sensible shape, with no invented dates:
- Year 4: daily reading for pleasure and tables to 12×12. No formal papers yet — the goal is fluency and confidence.
- Year 5 autumn: 15–20 minutes of daily topic practice using free worksheets, introducing one reasoning type at a time.
- Year 5 spring/summer: confirm the registration window on the school's official site (Kent's registration typically opens in the summer before the test). Begin one full timed paper each week and review errors carefully.
- Year 6, early September: the Kent Test is sat. In the final weeks, taper to short, calm sessions and rehearse the answer-sheet format.
Review matters more than raw scores: a mark that dips shows you exactly which type to revisit next.
On the day and after
By test day the aim is composure. A child who has sat ten timed mocks at the kitchen table treats the real hall as simply the eleventh. On the morning, a good breakfast, arriving early, and a reminder to move past any stuck question and come back to it will do more than last-minute revision. Teach one habit above all: keep the pencil moving, transfer answers accurately to the separate sheet, and never leave a multiple-choice question blank. Afterwards, resist post-mortems — results arrive through the county's timeline in the autumn, and there is a head-teacher assessment and appeal route if a borderline result needs a second look. Confirm those details with the school directly.
Frequently asked questions
Is the Kent Test GL or CEM?
It is a GL Assessment test. CEM's separate paper 11+ was discontinued around 2023, and Kent uses GL — which is good news for preparation, because GL's question types are published and predictable.
Does QEGS Faversham set its own entrance exam?
No. Selection is entirely through the county-wide Kent Test. Qualify on that and you are eligible to name the school on your application; there is no additional school paper to sit.
What score do we need to pass?
Kent sets its qualifying standard each year using age-standardised aggregate scores, and thresholds can change. We won't quote a figure that might mislead — check the current requirement on the school's official website and with your local authority.