13+ Common Entrance: a parent's complete guide
Common Entrance at 13+ is one of the most established assessments in British education – and one of the most misunderstood. This guide explains exactly what it is, which schools use it, what's tested and how to help your child prepare.
What is 13+ Common Entrance? Common Entrance (CE) at 13+ is a set of written exams sat by pupils in Year 8, used by many independent senior schools in the UK to confirm a Year 9 place that has already been offered. Set and administered by the Independent Schools Examinations Board (ISEB) since 1904, it covers a core of English, Mathematics and Science, with optional papers in modern languages, classics and humanities. Most schools that use Common Entrance do not use it to decide whether to offer a place – the place itself was offered earlier through interviews and assessment in Year 6. Common Entrance is the qualifying step that confirms the offer.
This guide explains how the exam works in 2026, what's been updated in recent years and how to help your child prepare without overdoing it. If you'd like to understand how Oppidan supports families through 13+ Common Entrance, you can explore our 13+ Common Entrance preparation programme at any point.
What is Common Entrance?
Common Entrance (CE) at 13+ is a portfolio of written exams set by the Independent Schools Examinations Board, the awarding body for Common Entrance assessments since 1904. ISEB describes CE as "a highly regarded assessment used by many independent schools in the UK to evaluate candidates for entry into Year 9." The exams are typically sat in Year 8, after a child has already been offered a conditional place at a senior school.
Most parents discover CE only when their child's prep school begins preparing for it. The exam itself is administered by the candidate's current school – usually a prep school that takes pupils through to the end of Year 8 – and the papers are then marked by the senior school the candidate is moving on to. Each senior school sets its own grade requirements; there is no centrally-fixed pass mark.
Crucially, CE is not generally used as a selection tool. The selection itself happens earlier, in Year 6, through the ISEB Common Pre-Test, school-specific written assessments, interviews and headteachers' references. By the time a child sits CE in Year 8, they have already been offered a conditional place. CE confirms the offer and gives the senior school useful information for setting and streaming the pupil into the right academic groups in Year 9.
Which schools use Common Entrance?
A broad mix of independent senior schools across the UK use Common Entrance as their qualifying exam for 13+ entry. Eton, for example, explicitly lists Common Entrance as one of three routes (alongside the King's Scholarship and Eton's own Entrance Examinations) by which a Conditional Place is confirmed. Many other major schools – including a number of those for which we prepare candidates – accept CE in the same way.
Different schools approach Common Entrance differently:
Some schools require CE as the standard qualifying exam for boys and girls joining from prep schools. Pupils are expected to sit it as part of their Year 8 exit assessment regardless of which senior school they're heading to.
Some schools accept CE but don't require it – they're happy to take a positive school reference instead. Wellington College is an example: the conditional offer is confirmed solely on the basis of an end-of-Year 8 school report.
Some schools run their own qualifying exam instead of (or alongside) CE. Eton's own Entrance Examinations cover this for boys at schools that don't follow the CE syllabus.
Some schools require a minimum score in CE for specific subjects. St Paul's School, for example, may require a minimum of 70% in prescribed subjects at Common Entrance to confirm offers made to boys not at schools following its prescribed curriculum.
The practical implication for parents: the question isn't "do we sit CE?", it's "does the senior school we've been offered a place at require CE, and if so at what level?" The answer almost always comes from the senior school's admissions office or from the child's prep school, both of which will be working backwards from the same destination.
Subject-by-subject overview: what's actually tested
According to ISEB's own family-facing guide, CE at 13+ assesses a wide range of subjects across compulsory core papers and optional additional papers.
Compulsory core subjects
English – tests reading comprehension and extended writing
Mathematics – assessed at Foundation, Core or Additional level (most candidates sit Core), with a separate Mental Arithmetic paper
Science – covers Biology, Chemistry and Physics
Additional subjects
Languages: French, Spanish and German – often including a speaking and listening assessment
Humanities: History, Geography and Theology, Philosophy & Religion
Classics: Latin, Classical Civilisation and Classical Greek
Most subjects have two difficulty levels, Foundation and Core, with Mathematics adding an Additional level for the most able candidates. ISEB notes that "CE at 13+ exams are most often sat at Core level." The level a child sits is usually decided by their prep school in consultation with the senior school they are moving to.
Papers typically range from 40 to 90 minutes depending on the subject and use a combination of multiple-choice, short-answer and extended essay-style questions. The exam now explicitly assesses critical thinking, problem-solving and analytical reasoning alongside subject knowledge.
The Common Academic Scholarship Exam (CASE)
For pupils with exceptional ability in a particular subject – or those who have been entered for an academic scholarship by their target senior school – ISEB also administers the Common Academic Scholarship Exam (CASE). CASE papers are more demanding than the standard CE papers and are designed to identify pupils who would benefit from academic stretch in their new senior school.
CASE is sat in the same examination windows as Common Entrance, by candidates whom the senior school has invited to sit for a scholarship. Some schools – including Eton with its King's Scholarship – run their own scholarship exams rather than using CASE. The decision about whether a child sits CASE or a school-specific scholarship paper is made between the prep school and the senior school during Year 8.
When are Common Entrance exams sat?
ISEB administers Common Entrance in three examination sessions per academic year – Autumn, Spring and Summer. The Summer session (May/June) is by far the most common, and is the default for most pupils sitting CE as their Year 8 exit assessment. Schools can choose to enter pupils in earlier sessions for specific reasons (for example, if a pupil has reached a level of confidence earlier than expected).
Registration is handled either by the child's current prep school or, for pupils at schools that do not offer the exam, directly via ISEB's online registration form. For Summer 2026, ISEB confirmed registration was open from 27 January to 31 March 2026 – with similar windows for the Autumn and Spring sessions.
How to prepare for 13+ Common Entrance
The good news for parents is that Common Entrance preparation is well-trodden territory. The exam has been around in its current form for years, syllabi are published openly by ISEB and past papers are available through ISEB's online shop.
1. Start with the senior school's expectations
Before designing any preparation, find out which CE papers the senior school requires, at what level and what (if any) minimum scores they expect. Different schools have very different requirements – some only care about the core subjects; others require strong performance in three or four additional papers. The senior school's admissions office is the authoritative source.
2. Build on the prep school's plan
For pupils at independent prep schools, the prep school is already preparing them for CE – it's the school's main academic objective in Years 7 and 8. Most of the work happens in the classroom. Parents should know what the school is doing, support it and intervene only if specific gaps emerge.
3. Use past papers thoughtfully
ISEB publishes past papers from recent sessions, available as printed packs from ISEB's online shop. Past papers are most useful in the final six months before exams – earlier than that and they're discouraging rather than instructive. The school will run mocks, but a small number of additional timed papers under exam conditions at home, between January and the Summer session, can help build confidence.
4. Focus on the skills CE actually rewards
CE rewards clarity of thought and clear written communication, alongside subject knowledge. Children who can structure an essay, show their working in Maths and write neatly and accurately under time pressure consistently outperform children who simply know more. Critical thinking and analytical writing are now explicit ISEB objectives.
5. Mind the wellbeing piece
ISEB's own family guidance makes a point of emphasising mental health and wellbeing during the CE period, recommending "creating a positive and supportive home environment, encouraging breaks and balance in revision plans, and promoting healthy habits such as sleep and nutrition." Year 8 children sitting CE while also adjusting to the prospect of senior school often need more emotional support than parents anticipate. Calm, sleep, exercise and time to read for pleasure all matter more than another past paper.
CE vs ISEB Pre-Test: what's the difference?
This is one of the most common sources of confusion for parents, and it's worth pinning down precisely.
The ISEB Common Pre-Test is an online, age-standardised, adaptive assessment in English, Mathematics, Verbal Reasoning and Non-Verbal Reasoning, sat at a child's own school in Year 6 (or sometimes Year 7). It typically takes around two and a half hours in total. Its purpose is to act as a filter: most leading senior schools use the ISEB Pre-Test as the first stage of their 11+ and 13+ admissions, deciding which children to invite forward to a school-specific assessment day or interview. A single Pre-Test sitting can be shared with multiple senior schools, which keeps the testing burden on younger children low.
The 13+ Common Entrance exam (CE) is a different beast entirely. It's a portfolio of written subject exams sat at the end of Year 8, in printed paper form, set and marked traditionally. Its purpose is not selection (that's already happened) but academic confirmation – does this child have the academic foundation to thrive in Year 9 at this particular senior school? Different subjects, different format, different stage, different purpose.
In simple terms: the Pre-Test gets the child the offer; Common Entrance confirms it. Both are run by ISEB, but they're separated by two years and serve completely different functions.
How CE compares to other 13+ assessments
Several major UK senior schools don't use Common Entrance, or use it only alongside their own assessments. The most prominent examples:
Eton offers three options to confirm a Conditional Place: King's Scholarship, ISEB Common Entrance, or Eton's own Entrance Examinations. Boys from state schools or schools that don't follow the CE syllabus typically take Eton's own papers.
Wellington College does not use Common Entrance as a qualifying exam at all – the conditional offer is confirmed by a positive school report at the end of Year 8.
Sevenoaks School uses a similar approach: assessment in Year 6 is the selection, with the conditional offer confirmed by school report rather than Common Entrance.
Winchester College runs its own Winchester Entrance and Election papers, which differ significantly from CE in both content and style.
For pupils targeting a non-CE school, the question becomes whether they'll still sit CE at their prep school because the prep requires it as its Year 8 exit assessment. Many do – which is part of why CE has remained widely sat even as some senior schools have moved away from requiring it.
A note on the London 11+ Consortium
Parents searching for "Common Entrance" sometimes find references to the London 11+ Consortium, but this is a different assessment. The London 11+ Consortium is a group of 14 independent girls' day schools that use a shared online, adaptive test at 11+ entry, sat in late November of Year 6. It is not connected to Common Entrance and not relevant to 13+ entry. If your child is sitting for the Consortium, the timeline, format and purpose are different from CE in every respect. For full details, see the Consortium's own website.
How Oppidan helps families through Common Entrance
Common Entrance has a reputation for being demanding, but the children who succeed share a common pattern: they understand what's being asked, they can manage their time under exam pressure and they have the emotional resilience to sit a series of papers across several days without losing focus.
Our 13+ Common Entrance preparation programme is built specifically for this. We pair your child with an inspirational role model who will work one-to-one on the subjects, skills and confidence the exam rewards. The work covers subject-specific preparation across English, Maths, Science and any additional papers; exam technique and time management; the broader study habits that sustain children through a fortnight of formal exams; and the wellbeing piece that ISEB itself emphasises.
Since 2016, we've supported hundreds of families through senior school admissions, including 13+ Common Entrance for schools across the UK and internationally. Our mentees often stay with us for years – through 11+ and 13+, on into GCSE, A Level and university applications. If you'd like to discuss how mentoring could support your child's 13+ Common Entrance preparation, get in touch with our team for an initial conversation.
Frequently asked questions
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13+ Common Entrance (CE) is a portfolio of written exams set by the Independent Schools Examinations Board (ISEB), sat by pupils in Year 8 to confirm a place at an independent senior school. It covers compulsory papers in English, Mathematics and Science, plus optional papers in languages, humanities and classics. CE is generally not a selection tool – the senior school place is already offered, conditional on the CE result, by the time a child sits the exam.
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Common Entrance is sat in Year 8. ISEB administers three sessions each year – Autumn, Spring and Summer – with the Summer session (May/June) being by far the most common. Specific dates depend on the session and the year.
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Most CE subjects are offered at two levels: Foundation and Core. Mathematics adds an Additional level for the most able candidates. ISEB confirms that "CE at 13+ exams are most often sat at Core level." The decision on which level a child sits is usually made by the prep school in consultation with the senior school the child is moving to.
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The ISEB Common Pre-Test is an online assessment sat in Year 6 to help senior schools decide which children to invite forward to interview and assessment. Common Entrance is a set of written subject exams sat in Year 8 to confirm the place that has already been offered. The Pre-Test is selective; Common Entrance is generally qualifying. Both are administered by ISEB but serve different functions at different stages.
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No. Some major schools – including Wellington College and Sevenoaks – do not use Common Entrance at all and instead confirm offers via a positive school report at the end of Year 8. Eton offers it as one of three options. Many other schools still require it. Always confirm with the specific senior school what their qualifying requirement is.
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CASE stands for the Common Academic Scholarship Exam, a more demanding version of Common Entrance designed to identify pupils with exceptional academic ability. It is sat in the same windows as CE, but only by candidates who have been invited by their target senior school to sit for an academic scholarship. Some schools – such as Eton with its King's Scholarship – run their own scholarship exams instead of using CASE.
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The most useful home support is usually small and consistent: a quiet routine for revision in the months before exams, past papers under timed conditions in the final term, attention to sleep and wellbeing during the exam fortnight itself and a willingness to support without taking over. ISEB sells past paper bundles for each subject through its online shop. Avoid the temptation to over-tutor – children who arrive at CE rested and confident often do better than children who arrive exhausted.
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ISEB sells printed past paper packs through its online shop for families, currently covering papers from Spring 2022 to Spring 2025 across English, Maths, Science, French and Spanish. Senior schools that run their own qualifying exams – such as Eton, Winchester or St Paul's – may publish specimen papers on their admissions pages.
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Our mentors work one-to-one with children through every stage of CE preparation – subject-specific work across English, Maths, Science and additional papers; exam technique and time management; the broader study habits that sustain children through a multi-day exam fortnight; and the wellbeing and confidence that make a real difference on the day. Speak to the team to discuss your child's situation.