COMMON PRE-TESTS | INFORMATION FOR SCHOOLS

Senior schools can register pupils for the Common Pre-Tests between 1 September and 16 June. The Common Pre-Tests can be taken any time between 1 October and 30 June.

Candidates should be registered by senior schools through the ISEB registration website. Schools registering more than 30 candidates at the same time can request an Excel template to complete and email back to ISEB for processing. Senior schools are provided with candidate login details, and can forward these on to the school or testing centre at which the candidate will take the exam.

We recommend that pupils take the tests in their own school, to reduce anxiety and save pupils from having to take days out of school.

It is possible for more than one school to register the same candidate for the Common Pre-Tests, but the candidate will only take the tests once in each academic year. The results for each candidate will be shared with all schools who have registered them.

Senior schools should register candidates at least five working days before they would like the tests to be taken. If they wish to register candidates for tests taking place in June, registrations should be completed by 16 June 2022. Senior schools should also ensure that prospective pupils, their parents/guardians and their prep schools are informed that they will need to take the Common Pre-Tests as part of the pupils’ application and check that prospective pupils have not already taken the Common Pre-Tests in the current academic year.

Our Common Pre-Tests are designed to identify potential as well as attainment, and no special preparation is required for the tests. We do not provide practice tests, however examples and practice questions, where relevant, are provided during the tests so that candidates understand what they have to do.

What do the tests include?

• English question styles include reading comprehension, sentence completion, spelling and punctuation
• Mathematics content is in line with the National Curriculum; candidates are assessed on topics taught up to the end of Year 5.
• Verbal reasoning question styles include common words, antonyms, word combinations, letter transfer, number codes
• Non-verbal reasoning question styles include shape analogies, classes like, horizontal codes

How do the tests work?

The Common Pre-Tests are online, and are taken at a computer. Questions are in a multiple-choice format; they are completed by choosing an answer from a selection shown on the screen. Each question must be answered, and candidates cannot go back to previous questions. Candidates are able to track their progress through the test by viewing how many questions they have answered in relation to the overall number of questions.

Textbooks, calculators, mobile devices, and other materials which might assist a candidate must not be accessible during the Common Pre-Tests.

The use of pen/pencil and paper is not permitted in the non-verbal reasoning or English tests. However, candidates should have access to pen/pencil and paper for their rough work during the verbal reasoning and mathematics tests. It is the responsibility of the invigilation centre to provide pen/pencil and paper.

A familiarisation test is available which demonstrates the look and feel of the tests. Schools can share the link to the familiarisation test with candidates’ parents/guardians.

Where appropriate, and in agreement with senior schools, candidates can be given additional time to complete each test element. Candidates requiring extra time should take the untimed/manually timed version of each test. This version does not have an on-screen countdown timer. The invigilator is responsible for timing the test and ending the test at the appropriate time.

All senior schools which register candidates for the tests should be informed of any adjustments made for SEND/EAL candidates.

Senior schools should indicate SEND/EAL candidates during registration, and take into account the potential impact of any specific needs in their overall assessment of a candidate’s application.

SEND candidates

The Common Pre-Tests are accessible to candidates with a range of special educational needs or disabilities. Reasonable adjustments may be applied, the nature of which will depend on the candidate’s specific needs. In individual cases, schools may decide that not all test elements are a suitable form of assessment for a particular candidate.

Parents/guardians and/or prep schools should always inform senior schools about a candidate’s specific needs, provide a report from a suitably-qualified professional, where relevant, and discuss with the senior school what provision or adjustments will be made when assessing the candidate for entry.

For visually-impaired candidates, a degree of on-screen text enlargement is available via standard web browser zoom. It is also possible to purchase text-enlargers which clip onto the screens.

SEND report 2021-2022

EAL candidates

The Common Pre-Tests are accessible to candidates for whom English is an additional language. Reasonable adjustments may be applied, the nature of which will depend on the candidate’s specific needs. For EAL candidates, this may include the use of a standard bilingual paper dictionary. In individual cases, schools may decide that not all test elements are a suitable form of assessment for a candidate whose first language is not English.

Parents/guardians and/or prep schools should always inform senior schools about a candidate’s specific needs, and discuss with the senior school what provision or adjustments will be made when assessing the candidate for entry.

Once the Common Pre-Tests have been taken, senior schools can access the results using the login details supplied. It is possible for more than one school to register the same candidate for the Common Pre-Tests, but the candidate will only take the tests once in each academic year. The results for each candidate will be shared with all schools who have registered them. In the very unlikely event of a candidate taking the tests more than once within a single academic year, the first set of results will stand. In no other circumstances will schools have access to results from candidates other than those they have registered.

Each candidates’ results will include:

• The time taken for each test element
• A Standardised Age Score (SAS) which is based on the number of questions answered correctly. The score is adjusted for age and placed on a scale which makes a comparison with a standardisation sample taken from the independent schools’ sector (the average is 100)
• Individual stanine, percentile rank and group rank scores, together with mean SAS

Percentile rank (PR) and stanine are based on the standardised age score. The only variance is that they use different numeric ranges.