Dartford Grammar School 11 Plus (11+) Exam Information

Key Information

Address: Dartford Grammar School, West Hill, Dartford, Kent, DA1 2HW

County: Kent

School Website: www.dartfordgrammarschool.org.uk

School Type: Boys

Number of pupils: 918

Number of Places in Year 7: 180

Open Day Date: Contact school

Exam Date: September

Exam Board Type: GL

About Dartford Grammar School

Dartford Grammar School was founded in 1576 and is one of the oldest schools in England. The school was last inspected by Ofsted in 2022 and was graded ‘Outstanding’.

Dartford Grammar School provides a broad, balanced international education, following the principles of The International Baccalaureate both in the Middle Years and the Sixth Form. Every student studies either Mandarin Chinese or Japanese from Year 7 and an additional European language from Year 8.

How to Prepare for the Kent 11+ Exam

Your child will need to develop the following skills:

Non-Verbal Reasoning

Verbal Reasoning

Creative Writing

English

Maths

Kent 11+ Exam Format

The tests are multiple-choice with a separate answer sheet. They are marked by an automated marking machine.

The first test will be an English and maths paper and will take 1 hour. Each section will involve a 5-minute practice exercise followed by a 25-minute test. The English section will involve a comprehension exercise as well as some additional questions drawn from a set designed to test literacy skills.

The second test will be a reasoning paper. It will take about 1 hour, including the practice sections and questions. It will contain a verbal reasoning section and a non-verbal reasoning section of roughly the same length. The non-verbal reasoning will be split into short sections, administered and timed individually.

There will also be 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.

Kent 11+ Familiarisation Paper

This document explains the Kent Test papers for children who will take them.

Familiarisation Paper

Kent 11+ Application Process

In the first instance, parents must register their child to sit the Kent Test, which can be done online via Kent County Council. Once students have taken the test in September, parents will receive their results in October and must then submit their Secondary School Common Application Form (SCAF) via the Kent local authority website.

Kent 11+ Standardised Scores

Your child will get 3 standardised scores, one for English, one for maths and one for reasoning, and a total (aggregate) score.

Standardisation is a statistical process which compares your child's performance with the average performance of other children in each test. A slight adjustment is made to take account of each child's age so that the youngest are not at a disadvantage.

The grammar school threshold for the test will not be published until the results have been sent out.

In order to calculate a standardised score the company producing and marking the tests will create a reference table – called a “look-up table” – for each test paper that is written, and the table is specific to that test paper, because it takes account of the difficulty of the paper. The minimum standardised score is derived from the look-up table and the actual number will vary depending on the average score of all those taking the test and the number of applicants.

Below is an example look-up table. The vertical axis is the “raw score”, i.e. the number (percentage) of actual questions that a child gets right on a paper. The horizontal axis represents the age of the child at the time of taking the exam, shown as years + months.

Kent 11+ Pass Mark

In 2025, children needed a total score of 332 or more, with no single score lower than 108 to be allocated a place at a Kent grammar school. Test scores ranged from 68 to 141. The highest possible total score is 423.

Kent 11+ Appeals

If your child did not reach the threshold score and their primary school referred their case to the local Head Teacher Assessment Panel, the panel will have looked at their achievement in school and examples of their work, including the writing task completed on the day, before a final decision was made.

If your child does not qualify, the Head does not seek a review or if the review is unsuccessful, you still have the right to have your child’s case heard by an Independent Appeals Panel. You are only able to appeal a decision after school allocations have been sent out to parents in March.

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