How to prepare for the St John's School 11+

The exam at a glance

For September 2028 entry to Year 7, St John’s School uses the ISEB Common Pre-Test. This is an online, adaptive assessment taken on computer and it covers English, Maths, Verbal Reasoning and Non-Verbal Reasoning.

Because the test is adaptive, the questions a child sees can change depending on how they are answering. In practice, that means preparation should focus on two things at once: secure core skills and working confidently at pace. A child who knows the material but works very slowly can find this format hard.

For St John’s, the Year 7 admissions process does not stop with the test. The school says that applicants also go through school references and St John’s Experience Days. In other words, families should think of this as a broader admissions process rather than a single exam morning.

The school’s Year 7 admissions information says the ISEB tests are usually taken at the child’s current school in October or November of Year 6. If a child cannot sit them there, St John’s has also published an alternative sitting date at the school itself for the current cycle.

What does the assessment day itself look like? In most cases, children will sit the computer-based pre-test at their current prep or junior school, following that school’s arrangements. If they are sitting at St John’s instead, families should expect a structured, supervised session using school computers. The exact running order and arrival details are normally confirmed nearer the date.

The most helpful way to prepare is to treat the pre-test as a timed online reasoning-and-attainment assessment, not as a traditional handwritten paper. Children should practise reading quickly on screen, making decisions efficiently and recovering calmly if they meet a harder question.

Registration and key dates

For St John’s Year 7 entry, registration is handled by the school, not a local authority or grammar-school consortium. Families apply through the St John’s admissions process and then nominate St John’s as one of the schools to receive the child’s ISEB Common Pre-Test results.

The school publishes a non-refundable registration fee of £220, or £300 for overseas registrations. The Year 7 page for the current admissions cycle states a registration deadline of 1 November 2026.

St John’s says the ISEB tests are usually taken in October or November of Year 6, normally at the child’s current school. For the current cycle, the school also states that children who are unable to sit at their school can sit at St John’s on 21 November 2026.

After the test, the school says that all children who sit the ISEB tests for St John’s are invited to Experience Days. For the current cycle these are listed as 4 January 2027 and 5 January 2027.

St John’s also says that offers are made in mid-February of Year 6, with the acceptance deadline in early March for the current cycle.

For families applying for September 2028 entry, the school has not yet published the full new cycle at the time of writing. Based on the current admissions page, the safest expectation is:

registration deadline: likely by early November of Year 6
ISEB testing: usually October or November of Year 6
Experience Days: typically in January of Year 6
offers: typically mid-February
acceptance deadline: typically early March

Always check the school’s Year 7 admissions page before acting, as independent-school timelines can change from one entry cycle to the next.

In practical terms, it is sensible to prepare the usual admissions paperwork early: parent contact details, the child’s current school details, and any information the school requests to arrange testing. If your child cannot sit the ISEB test at their current school, contact St John’s admissions team in good time so that alternative arrangements can be discussed.

Who can apply: catchment and admissions

St John’s School is an independent, coeducational school with Year 7, Year 9 and Sixth Form as key entry points. For Year 7 applicants, there is no catchment area published for admissions priority.

The school gives priority to siblings. Beyond that, parents should expect decisions to take account of the school’s published admissions process, including the ISEB Common Pre-Test, school references and the St John’s Experience Days.

St John’s also states that boarding is available on a regular or flexi basis. That may be relevant for some families looking beyond the immediate Leatherhead area, but the admissions assessment itself is the same Year 7 process described by the school.

The school website consulted for this guide does not publish a verified Year 7 number of places, a published acceptance rate or any score threshold for the ISEB test. St John’s does not appear to publish a pass mark or cut-off score on the pages reviewed, so parents should not rely on online rumours. Check the school’s own admissions page for the latest official information.

Competition for places at popular independent schools can be strong, but it is better to think in terms of fit and readiness than chasing an unknown score. A child who is comfortably secure with upper-Key-Stage-2 English and Maths, and who has had calm, regular exposure to verbal and non-verbal reasoning, is usually in a good position to approach the pre-test well.

A month-by-month preparation plan

The ISEB Common Pre-Test rewards steady preparation more than cramming. For most Year 5 children, a gentle start in the spring or summer term of Year 5 is enough. The aim is not long hours; it is regular, sensible practice.

January to March of Year 5

Keep it light. Around 1 to 1.5 hours a week is usually plenty at this stage.

Read widely every day: fiction, non-fiction and short articles.
Check arithmetic fluency: the four operations, times tables, fractions and simple percentages.
Introduce verbal and non-verbal reasoning in short bursts so the styles feel familiar rather than strange.
Use screen-based practice occasionally, because the real test is online.

April to June of Year 5

Build consistency. Aim for about 1.5 to 2 hours a week.

Work on one Maths focus each week, such as fractions, ratio basics, averages or multi-step problems.
Develop English comprehension through inference, vocabulary in context and quick retrieval of detail.
Practise verbal reasoning patterns: codes, sequences, classifications and vocabulary-based tasks.
Practise non-verbal reasoning patterns: rotations, reflections, similarities and odd-one-out tasks.

July to August before Year 6

This is a useful consolidation period. Around 2 to 3 hours a week works well for many children, with breaks for holidays.

Start mixing subjects within one session, as the real assessment covers several areas.
Introduce short timed sets rather than full papers.
Notice which question types slow your child down and teach a clear method for each.
Keep reading going over the summer so vocabulary and stamina continue to grow.

September of Year 6

This is the month to become more exam-specific. Aim for 3 to 4 hours a week, divided into short sessions.

Move from untimed practice to timed work most of the time.
Use computer-based practice where possible.
Teach skipping and returning: if a question is chewing up time, move on calmly.
Review mistakes carefully so the same errors do not repeat.

October to November of Year 6

In the run-up to the St John’s test window, keep preparation focused but not exhausting. Around 3 to 5 hours a week is usually enough.

Use a small number of realistic mock sessions.
Practise transitions between subjects and question styles.
Keep one or two sessions each week for accuracy, not speed.
Reduce workload slightly in the final week so your child feels fresh.

The biggest mistake families make is doing too much full-paper practice too early. Start with skills, then timed sections, then a few realistic mixed sessions. That sequence usually produces better confidence and better pacing.

Subject by subject: what to practise

Maths

For the ISEB pre-test, focus on secure Key Stage 2 and early Key Stage 3 style number work rather than niche topics. Children should be comfortable with arithmetic, fractions, decimals, percentages, ratio basics, simple algebraic thinking, shape and measure, interpreting tables and charts, and multi-step word problems.

Because the test is timed and adaptive, practise mental efficiency as well as written method. Your child should know when to calculate exactly, when to estimate and when to eliminate unlikely answers quickly. Short timed quizzes are often more useful than long worksheets.

English

English preparation should centre on comprehension, vocabulary and careful reading. Children need to retrieve information quickly, infer meaning, understand tone, and work out vocabulary from context. Strong general reading habits matter a great deal here.

Useful practice includes reading short passages and discussing what is implied rather than simply stated, building a family vocabulary notebook, and getting used to answering concise comprehension questions under time pressure. Spellings and grammar knowledge can still help, but quick reading accuracy is the core skill.

Verbal Reasoning

Verbal reasoning in the ISEB format typically draws on a child’s vocabulary, pattern recognition and ability to manipulate language efficiently. Practice may include letter and word sequences, classifications, codes, relationships between words and logic using verbal information.

The best preparation is a combination of explicit method teaching and vocabulary building. If a child learns the common task types one by one, speed usually improves. Reading widely also helps because a strong vocabulary makes many verbal reasoning tasks easier.

Non-Verbal Reasoning

Non-verbal reasoning assesses how well a child can spot patterns and relationships in shapes and visual sequences. Common areas include rotations, reflections, symmetry, shape analogies, hidden rules, similarities and differences, and odd-one-out patterns.

Children often improve quickly when they are shown how to look systematically: first check shape, then position, then shading, then number, then rotation. Encourage them to describe the rule aloud before choosing an answer. That habit reduces rushed mistakes.

Across all four subjects, remember that this is an online adaptive test. So include some practice that feels digital and tightly timed. It is not enough to know the content; your child also needs to respond briskly and stay composed if the questions seem to become harder.

Practice papers and mock exams

Practice papers are most useful when they are used sparingly and diagnostically. One completed paper should lead to careful review: which topics were weak, which question types caused hesitation, and whether timing or understanding was the main issue.

A good routine is:

learn or revise the skill first
do a short focused exercise
try a timed section
review mistakes the same day
repeat the weak area a few days later

For St John’s-specific preparation, these free resources are a sensible place to start:

If you use mock exams, use them to build familiarity, not fear. One or two realistic mocks in the autumn of Year 6 are usually enough for most children. Too many can drain confidence and create the false impression that endless testing is the same as learning.

After each mock, ask three simple questions:

Did my child know the material?
Did my child manage the pace?
Did nerves affect performance?

The answers tell you what to change next. If knowledge is the issue, revise content. If pace is the issue, use shorter timed drills. If nerves are the issue, rehearse the routine of sitting down, starting calmly and moving on from difficult questions.

On the day

Keep the day straightforward. A calm child nearly always does better than an over-coached one.

Make sure your child knows where they are sitting the test: usually their current school, or St John’s if alternative arrangements have been made.
Have an early night beforehand and a normal breakfast.
Avoid last-minute cramming on the morning itself.
Arrive in good time if the test is at St John’s, so there is no sense of rush.
Remind your child that some questions may feel harder as the test goes on; that is normal in an adaptive format.
Encourage them to keep moving, not to dwell on one difficult question.
After the test, do not conduct a full post-mortem in the car. A simple “well done” is enough.

One very helpful script is: read carefully, work briskly, move on if stuck, and reset after each question. Children who can recover quickly from one awkward item often perform better overall than children who panic when the test becomes challenging.

After the exam: results, allocation and appeals

For St John’s, the process after the ISEB pre-test includes the school’s Experience Days. The current Year 7 admissions page says that all children who sit the ISEB tests for St John’s are invited to those days.

The school states that offers are made in mid-February of Year 6, with an acceptance deadline in early March for the current cycle. For September 2028 entry, parents should treat that as the likely pattern unless the school publishes different dates for the new cycle.

As an independent school, St John’s does not follow the local-authority National Offer Day system used by state secondary schools in the same way for Year 7 allocations. Instead, families should follow the school’s own admissions communications closely.

The pages reviewed for this guide do not publish a separate ISEB score report date or any public pass mark. If you want to know exactly how outcomes are communicated in a given cycle, check directly with the admissions office.

If your child is not offered a place, the next step is to ask the school politely about its waiting-list and review process. Independent schools can differ in how they handle this, and the details should come from the school itself rather than assumptions based on state-school appeals systems.

What has changed recently

On the sources reviewed for this guide, St John’s publishes its Year 7 admissions process as including the ISEB Common Pre-Tests, school references and Experience Days, and states that applications are welcomed for September 2027 entry and beyond. The current page also gives a school-based alternative ISEB sitting date for children who cannot test at their own school.

No separate officially announced change to the exam board, catchment policy, number of places or admissions structure for the last two years was clearly published on the pages reviewed beyond the current cycle details above.

Frequently asked questions

Does St John's School use the ISEB Common Pre-Test for Year 7 entry?

Yes. For 2028 entry, St John’s uses the ISEB Common Pre-Test covering English, Maths, Verbal Reasoning and Non-Verbal Reasoning.

Is the St John's test online or on paper?

It is computer-based. Children should practise working accurately and quickly on screen.

Is there a catchment area for St John's School Year 7 admissions?

No catchment area is published for admissions priority. The verified priority noted here is for siblings.

When do children usually sit the St John's Year 7 test?

The school says the ISEB tests are usually taken in October or November of Year 6. For the current cycle, it also published 21 November 2026 as an alternative sitting at St John’s for children who cannot test at their own school.

Does St John's publish a pass mark or cut-off score?

Not on the admissions pages reviewed for this guide. Parents should be careful with unofficial figures online and check the school directly for the latest admissions information.

What happens after the test at St John's?

St John’s says applicants who sit the ISEB tests for the school are invited to Experience Days. Offers are then made later in Year 6 according to the school’s admissions timetable.

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Sources

ISEB - Common Pre-Test: ISEB Common Pre-Test is an online assessment used for school admissions.
ISEB - Common Pre-Test familiarisation: Familiarisation materials support that the pre-test is computer-based and used as an online assessment format.

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Written by ElevenReady from the school's published information and reviewed by a person before publishing. Last reviewed 4 October 2026. Exam arrangements change. Check the school's admissions page for the current year.