Assessment
Upper School
All pupils who have applied for a place at The Perse School are assessed in the academic year prior to entry.
No remote or overseas testing is possible. All candidates must attend in person.
Our entrance assessments involve a combination of tests, a group activity and a short informal interview with a Perse teacher to talk about their interests and passions. A child’s ability to engage with the extra-curricular life of our school and support our values are important factors in the selection process.
Entrance assessments for Year 7 and 9 entry in September 2025, will take place on Saturday 11 January 2025.
The tests do not require preparation or revision. All candidates sit papers in English, maths and verbal reasoning. Year 9 candidates only sit an additional humanities paper. Our entrance tests are stretching and will go beyond the primary school curriculum (for Year 7 entry) or what a pupil may have been taught in the first two years of secondary school (for Year 9 entry), but we work hard to ensure that these tests are accessible to all. Please make sure you declare any special educational needs or disabilities to enable us to make the appropriate adjustments.
Sample papers are provided for indicative purposes. They are papers from a previous year so some elements may have changed, for example, all 2024 papers will be 30 minutes long. However, they will give you an idea of the format and standard of our testing. No further sample papers are available and no revision or practice is required.
English:
The English paper lasts 30 minutes. The task is a creative response to a short given passage for Year 7 candidates, while for Year 9 candidates, the stimulus materials will be shared with the humanities paper (short passages of text or images). The paper will focus on a candidate’s understanding of the passage or materials, as well as their writing ability and creativity.
Maths:
The maths paper is a 30-minute non-calculator paper, designed to test reasoning, problem solving and comprehension as well as basic fluency. The required knowledge is based on the National Curriculum up to and including Year 5 (for 11+) or Year 7 (for 13+).
- Year 7 Maths Syllabus
- Year 7 Maths Sample Paper
- Year 7 Maths Sample Paper – Solutions
- Year 9 Maths Syllabus
- Year 9 Maths Sample Paper
- Year 9 Maths Sample Paper – Solutions
Verbal Reasoning:
The test lasts 30 minutes and covers verbal reasoning questions. No sample papers are available.
Humanities (Year 9 candidates only):
Humanities is a 30-minute paper assessing skills of comprehension, inference, interpretation of data and reasoning. It is not a test of knowledge from any particular subject, but of the skills relevant to humanities subjects in the curriculum. No sample papers are available.
What happens next?
All candidates who attend an entrance assessment will be notified of the outcome in early February, with an acceptance deadline of early March.
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Getting here
Our contact page features information on how to get to The Perse if you’re coming by road, train or bus.