Quest Assessments and the 11+: What parents need to know

Most parents have heard of GL Assessment. Quest Assessments is the name fewer people recognise – but that's changing.

Quest is a newer 11+ exam provider, and it's picking up momentum. Bexley switched to Quest for 2026, having previously used GL. Schools in Devon, Kent and London are already using it. If your child is applying to a grammar school that uses Quest, this guide explains what to expect, what's actually tested and how to help them prepare.

Which schools use Quest?

Quest is used by a growing number of grammar schools across England. At the time of writing, these include:

• Beths Grammar School
• Bexley Grammar School
• Borden Grammar School
• Chislehurst and Sidcup Grammar School
• Colyton Grammar School
• Devonport High School for Boys
• Devonport High School for Girls
• Dover Grammar School for Girls
• Plymouth High School for Girls
• Tiffin School
• Townley Grammar School

Always check your target school's admissions page directly. The list is growing, and details can change year to year.

What does Quest test?

Quest can include English, maths, verbal reasoning and non-verbal reasoning – but each school chooses which combination to use. Not every school tests all four subjects. Check your target school's admissions policy to see exactly what your child will be sitting.

English

The English paper covers reading comprehension, vocabulary, spelling and grammar. The content draws on what children learn in primary school – reading carefully, understanding meaning, spotting correct grammar. At some schools, the comprehension paper is 40 minutes and includes 60 questions.

Maths

Quest maths covers the KS2 curriculum up to the end of Year 5. Children can expect:

• Arithmetic (addition, subtraction, multiplication, division)
• Fractions, decimals and percentages
• Place value
• Word problems and reasoning
• Measurement, geometry and data handling

At some schools the maths element is split into two sections – a shorter fluency paper and a longer reasoning paper – with a combined total of 60 questions.

Verbal reasoning

Verbal reasoning isn't taught in primary school, so it's worth starting early if your child's target school includes it.

It tests how children think and reason with language – patterns, word relationships, logic – rather than what they've memorised from the curriculum.

Typical question types include synonyms and antonyms, letter codes, word analogies, odd-one-out and missing-word (cloze) tasks.

Non-verbal reasoning

Non-verbal reasoning is pattern-spotting and visual logic with no language required.

Children need to identify sequences, complete patterns, work with rotations and reflections, and solve shape-based puzzles.

Like verbal reasoning, it isn't taught at school, so some practice with the question formats beforehand makes a real difference to how familiar and manageable they feel on the day.

Part 1 and Part 2: what's the difference?

Here's something that surprises a lot of parents: Quest has two parts, and not every school uses both.

Part 1 is the paper-based exam described above. It's multiple-choice, sat in an exam hall, and covers whichever subjects your target school has chosen.

Part 2 is a separate computer-based assessment used by some schools. It looks at how your child thinks, rather than what they know. There are two sections:

Puzzles & Problem-Solving (around 15 minutes): interactive puzzles involving logic, patterns and reasoning. Your child might see shape sequences, strategy problems that require trial and error, or tasks that combine number, geometry and logical thinking. These questions are designed to assess how children approach something unfamiliar – whether they adapt, stay focused and keep going when the answer isn't obvious.

Creative Comprehension (around 20 minutes): children are shown several different sources around a shared theme – a short story, a map with grid references, a graph or chart, perhaps a coded message. They need to read across all of them, make connections and answer questions. It blends reading, reasoning and lateral thinking.

Part 2 is sat on a computer or tablet, either at the target school or at a registered test centre.

How are scores used?

Quest provides the exams, but each school makes its own admissions decisions.

Most schools will age-standardise scores. This adjusts for the fact that older children in the year group have had more time to develop. A child born in September and one born the following August are sitting the same test, but the August child is nearly a year younger. Age standardisation is meant to account for that.

Schools then rank children by their standardised score and offer places based on that ranking, alongside any other admissions criteria – catchment area, siblings already at the school, or looked-after children status.

One thing worth knowing: passing the qualifying standard is not the same as getting a place. At popular grammar schools, many children who hit the mark still don't get in. There simply aren't enough places.

When does it happen?

Year 4 – 5: Most families start some structured preparation around now. Verbal and non-verbal reasoning in particular benefit from early exposure, since they're not covered in school.

Late Year 5: Registration for many grammar school entrance tests opens. Worth checking your target schools' admissions pages well in advance – some deadlines arrive earlier than parents expect.

September – October, Year 6: Quest exams are typically sat early in the autumn term. Some schools spread the papers across two consecutive Saturdays.

October, Year 6: Results are sent out before the common application form deadline of 31 October.

Early March, Year 7: Grammar school offers are made on national offer day.

What if my child is also sitting GL or ISEB?

Many families apply to several schools – some using Quest, some using GL Assessment, some using the ISEB Common Pre-Test for independent schools. The good news is that there's a lot of overlap in content, especially in maths and English.

The main things to manage across different providers are:

Format differences. GL and Quest Part 1 are both paper-based and multiple-choice. ISEB is computer-based and adaptive – there's no going back to a previous question, and the difficulty adjusts as children answer. If your child is sitting ISEB as well, they need separate practice with that format.

Scope differences. Quest and GL both cover KS2 maths up to around the end of Year 5. ISEB also covers up to the end of Year 5, but the topics are similar enough that one solid preparation covers most of the ground for all three.

Timing. Quest exams are sat in September or October of Year 6. ISEB is usually sat in the October or November of Year 6. GL is also typically September. If your child is applying to multiple schools with different providers, map out the exam dates early to avoid clashes.

In practice, the shift from one exam board to another rarely requires rebuilding your preparation from scratch. The skills being tested – reading carefully, reasoning logically, applying secure maths knowledge – are consistent across all three.

Preparing sensibly

Quest isn't trying to catch children out. It's trying to find children who think well and have solid foundations. That's actually quite a reasonable thing to assess.

The most useful preparation combines two things: building genuine knowledge and skills across English and maths, and getting comfortable with the question formats and time pressure of the exam.

On knowledge: Quest maths has a clear scope – KS2 up to the end of Year 5. English covers reading comprehension, grammar and vocabulary. Verbal and non-verbal reasoning are less familiar to most children, but the question types follow predictable patterns. Exposure matters more than any special technique.

On format: Part 1 is paper-based and multiple-choice. Children record answers on a separate answer sheet. Practising with that format before the day – rather than encountering it for the first time in an exam hall – is a small thing that makes children feel noticeably more settled.

On Part 2: The skills here are harder to drill for directly, and that's partly the point. But children who read widely, enjoy puzzles and are used to working with different types of information tend to feel more comfortable with it. The section below has some practical ideas.

Building the skills Part 2 rewards

Part 2 doesn't test knowledge – it tests how your child thinks. The most effective preparation happens in normal life, not at a desk.

Read across different formats. Not just fiction. Encourage your child to read maps, timetables, graphs, news articles, instruction manuals. Can they find the key information quickly? Can they explain what something means in their own words? That's the core skill of Creative Comprehension.

Play logic and word games. Wordle, Scrabble, Bananagrams, Murdle – games that make children reason with language under gentle pressure. The habit of thinking about word patterns matters more than any one game. (We share more about board games that build 11+ skills here.)

Try strategy board games. Games like chess, Rush Hour or Ticket to Ride build forward thinking and the ability to adapt a plan when it's not working. The exam asks children to persist with unfamiliar problems – games teach exactly that.

Build spatial awareness. LEGO, jigsaws and Tangrams help children visualise how shapes and patterns relate to each other. Useful background for the Puzzles & Problem-Solving section.

Do everyday maths. Work out change. Scale a recipe. Estimate how long a journey will take. These aren't exam questions – but they build the number sense and reasoning instinct that makes unfamiliar maths problems feel more approachable.

Encourage writing. Not practising writing – just writing for fun. Stories, diary entries, letters. Children who are comfortable putting their thoughts into words find it easier to work through multi-source questions that ask them to make connections and explain their reasoning.

Ask questions about things you see together. Museums, exhibitions, even a walk around town. "What do you notice here?" "What do you think that's for?" "What does this graph tell you?" This is what observation and interpretation look like in real life.

None of this requires extra sessions or a new workbook. It's about habits of mind that develop over time, not cramming.

HeyKitsu covers the Quest Assessment curriculum across English, maths, verbal reasoning and non-verbal reasoning. The adaptive engine identifies where your child is strong and where they need more work – then adjusts what they see accordingly. The first three levels in every collection are permanently free, no card required.

You can explore it at heykitsu.com.