Every parent preparing a child for the 11+ eventually hits the same wall: what does a score of 118 actually mean? Is it good enough? Good enough for which school? And why does the number look nothing like a percentage?
The scoring system is confusing, and it doesn't help that different schools, different counties and different exam boards all do things slightly differently. Here's what you actually need to know.
Raw scores don't mean much on their own
When your child sits the 11+, they'll answer a set of questions and get a raw score – the number they got right. That number alone isn't very useful, because different papers have different numbers of questions and different difficulty levels.
So the raw score gets converted into something called a standardised age score, or SAS. This is the number that actually matters.
What is a standardised age score?
A standardised age score adjusts your child's result based on three things: how many questions they got right, how difficult those questions were, and how old they were on the day they sat the test.
That last part surprises some parents. The reason it's included is that children in the same school year can be nearly 12 months apart in age. A child born in September has had almost a full extra year of learning compared to a child born the following August. Left unadjusted, that gap shows up in test scores.
So younger children can gain marks through standardisation. Older children never lose them.
A few things worth knowing:
- A score of 100 is exactly average for the year group.
- A score of 120 or above puts a child in the top 10%.
- A score of 141 is about as high as the scale goes – the top 1% of children taking the test.
- The lowest score is typically around 69.
These numbers are the same across GL Assessment papers, which is what the vast majority of grammar schools now use.
Is there a pass mark?
Not a single national one, no.
Some schools and consortiums do publish a qualifying mark – a score your child needs to reach before they can even be considered. But hitting that mark doesn't guarantee a place. Many schools simply rank all the children who sat the test from highest to lowest and offer places to the top however-many.
The qualifying marks that do exist vary a lot by area. A few examples:
Buckinghamshire – Combined score of 121 or above (across two papers) to qualify for any grammar school in the county.
Kent – Maximum combined score of 423, across English, maths and reasoning papers. Schools look for a total of 332 or more, with no individual paper below 109.
Essex (CSSE) – The combined qualifying mark across both papers has been around 303 in recent years, though this can shift year on year.
Lincolnshire – A qualifying score of at least 220 out of 282 available marks.
Redbridge – Pass mark of 104.
Slough – Eligibility score of 111.
Trafford – Qualifying mark has historically been around 334 across both papers.
Wirral – Combined score of 236 or above.
Medway – Uses a weighted total across extended writing, maths, non-verbal and verbal reasoning. The lowest qualifying total hasn't dropped below 483 in recent years.
West Midlands – In recent years, a combined score of 205 has been the qualifying mark for Birmingham grammar schools, with 224 or above prioritised for places.
If you're not in one of these areas, it's worth checking directly with the consortium or individual schools your child is applying to. Qualifying marks aren't always published, and they can change.
What should my child actually be aiming for?
By the time they sit the exam, a score of around 115 is a reasonable floor. For more competitive schools – particularly in London, Kent or Buckinghamshire – you're really looking for 120 and above.
The "right" target depends entirely on which schools you're applying to and how competitive they are. A score of 118 might be comfortably above the qualifying mark in one area and not enough to get a look-in at a popular school in another.
What the SAS is most useful for is tracking progress. If your child is doing practice papers and their SAS is moving upward over several months, that's a meaningful signal – they're learning and consolidating, not just going through the motions.
A note on summer-born children
If your child has a late birthday – July or August – it's worth understanding that the system is designed to account for this. Their score is adjusted upward to reflect that they've had less time to develop than their older classmates.
This doesn't mean they'll automatically do well. The adjustment is a fairness mechanism, not a shortcut. They still need to sit the same paper as everyone else. But you don't need to panic that being born in August has written them off before they've started.
One more thing
The 11+ is not the same as SATs. SATs test what children have been taught in school. The 11+ tests reasoning ability and problem-solving – skills that go beyond the national curriculum. Most children will encounter question types they haven't seen in class, particularly in verbal and non-verbal reasoning.
That's why consistent, structured preparation matters. Not cramming – consistent practice that builds real understanding.
At HeyKitsu, that's exactly what we've built: adaptive preparation across Maths, English, Verbal Reasoning and Non-Verbal Reasoning, tailored to each child's level. The first three levels in every collection are permanently free – no trial period, no card required. If you want to see how it works before committing to anything, that's the place to start.
If you're wondering which exam board your target school uses, take a look at our grammar school directory.
Written by
HeyKitsu Team