Kent Test information
What is the Kent Test?
The Kent Test is a set of assessment papers that children complete, in exam conditions, at the start of Year 6 (the last academic year of primary school).
The Kent Test is run by Kent County Council and the results of the test are used by KCC to decide which children can attend their Grammar Schools.
At the same time that the Kent Test is being taken, other entrance tests are available for some independent schools. They often assess similar skills to those covered by the Kent Test. These include Maths, English, Verbal Reasoning and Non-Verbal Reasoning.
What does the Kent Test contain?
Each component of the Kent Test is multiple-choice.
Children record their answers on a separate answer sheet, which is marked by an automated marking machine.
The first test is an English and Maths paper lasting 1 hour. Each section will involve a 5 minute practice exercise followed by a 25 minute test. The English section includes a comprehension exercise plus a section of spelling, punctuation and grammar questions.
The second test is a reasoning paper. It will take about 1 hour, including practice sections and questions. It includes a verbal reasoning section and a non-verbal reasoning section of roughly the same length. The non-verbal reasoning is split into short sections which are timed individually.
There is also writing exercise which is not automatically marked but may be used by a local headteacher panel as part of the headteacher assessment stage of the process. 40 minutes is allowed for the writing task, including 10 minutes planning time.
The Maths paper
Below is a list of the subjects covered in the Maths paper. This is not an exhaustive list, but will give you an idea of the areas that your child could expect to see in the test. It is possible that some of these will not have been taught in State Primary schools by the end of year 5.
- place values
- rounding up and down and to decimal places
- factors, multiples and prime numbers
- square and cube numbers
- fractions - adding / subtracting / mixed numbers / improper fractions / finding a fraction of a number
- converting fractions / percentages and decimals to each form
- finding a percentage of an amount
- finding a proportion of an amount
- ratio
- number sequences
- algebra, including:
- If a = 4 what is 2a + 10
- 2x + 4 =10x-2 find x
- If the cost for of calling out a mechanic is M = 30+7h + P, where h is the number of hours, p is the cost in pounds of any parts. What is the cost of a mechanic who spends £100.00 on parts and works for 5 hours.
- At a school fayre small cakes cost £1.00 and large cakes £3.00. Find the expression which gives the total cost in pounds of buying A small cakes and B large cakes.
- units mm/cm/m/km g/kg ml/l and conversion between each unit
- time - 24 hour clock, timetables, eg length of time between 8.45 and 3.05 working day with an hour for lunch.
- number sequences / finding the nth term
- mean, mode, median, range
- probability
- angles - degrees in a circle, triangle, quadrilateral and on a straight line
- 2D shapes
- area and perimeter
- 3D shapes
- Symmetry
- bar charts/pie charts / pictograms / line graphs
- coordinates
- transformations - on a mirror line, around a point and using direction
The English paper
The first section is a comprehension. The first thing to remember is to make sure you read everything carefully, find an answer in your head before you look at the multiple choice options and let them influence you. Underline key points.
The next section covers SPaG - Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar.
Spelling - spelling rules such as
- "I before E except after C but only when the word rhymes with bee" there are exceptions;
- when you add ly to a stem word the stem word remains complete,
- when you add 'ful' only one l, cross of the e and add ing.
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Grammar - look out for basics such as
- capital letters (especially for proper nouns) and full stops.
- commas missed out or added where they should not be.
- speech - remember the rules! Comma before speech begins if it is not at the beginning of the sentence, capital letter for new speech, some kind of punctuation before speech ends, inverted commas come in pairs. Look out for speech which is a question or an exclamation where question mark or exclamation mark has been missed out.
- colons, semi-colons, brackets.
- the use of apostrophes for shortening words and for possession. No apostrophe for possession when using a possessive pronoun.
Make sure you know what the following are: common noun, proper noun, pronoun, collective noun, abstract noun, verb, modal verb, adverb, adverbial phrases and clauses, adjectives, onomatopoeia, alliteration, simile, personification metaphors, antonym, synonyms, proverb, fables, myths and legends.
The Reasoning paper
There is no specific list of the things that come up on the reasoning papers, and this is the section that is supposed to be "untutorable". However there are lots of resources that provide practice reasoning papers. The best way to prepare for this paper is practice, practice, practice.
Writing exercise
The Kent Test also includes a writing exercise which will not be marked but may be used by a local headteacher panel as part of the headteacher assessment stage of the process. 40 minutes will be allowed for the writing task, including 10 minutes planning time.
For more details about the Kent Test, key dates and how to apply please see the Kent County Council website.