CEM 11 Plus: The Complete Guide for Parents (2026)

What is CEM 11 Plus?

CEM 11 plus stands for the Centre for Evaluation and Monitoring 11 plus. The Centre for Evaluation and Monitoring is a research unit within Durham University that has specialised in educational assessment and measurement for several decades. Durham University developed its own 11 plus papers as a direct response to concerns about the GL Assessment format — specifically, concerns that GL Assessment's consistent, predictable question types were enabling wealthy families to coach their children intensively in ways that inflated scores beyond what those children's genuine ability would otherwise produce.

The CEM exam is therefore built around a core philosophy: test genuine reasoning ability rather than learned exam technique. This is reflected in two design choices that set CEM apart from GL Assessment. First, subjects are interleaved within the same paper rather than separated — a child cannot simply shift into 'Maths mode' for a paper, because the next question after a maths problem might be a verbal reasoning one. Second, the format changes from year to year. Durham University does not publish a fixed specification for what will appear in any given year's test, which means that preparation materials for CEM are always somewhat speculative.

Despite this deliberate unpredictability, CEM does test consistent underlying skill areas: English comprehension (including a distinctive question type called cloze passages), Mathematics, Verbal Reasoning, and Non-Verbal Reasoning. The difference is how these skills are assessed and presented, not whether they matter. Children with strong underlying reading skills, mathematical fluency, and well-developed reasoning ability will always perform well on CEM, regardless of whether they have specifically drilled CEM-format papers.

Which Schools Use CEM 11 Plus?

CEM is used by several significant grammar school regions in England. Below is a breakdown by area with named schools.

**Birmingham and West Midlands** Birmingham operates one of the largest grammar school selection systems in England, using CEM for the King Edward VI Foundation schools — six highly prestigious grammar schools. These include: King Edward VI Aston School, King Edward VI Camp Hill Boys' School, King Edward VI Camp Hill Girls' School, King Edward VI Five Ways School, King Edward VI Handsworth School (girls), and King Edward VI Sheldon Heath Academy. Other selective schools in the broader area include Handsworth Grammar School for Boys and Sutton Coldfield Grammar School for Girls.

**Gloucestershire** Gloucestershire uses CEM for its selective secondary admissions. The grammar schools in the county include: Pate's Grammar School (Cheltenham, consistently ranked among England's top state schools), Sir Thomas Rich's School (Gloucester), Marling School (Stroud, boys), Stroud High School (girls), Ribston Hall High School (Gloucester, girls), and Denmark Road High School (Gloucester, girls).

**Wolverhampton** Wolverhampton has selective secondary schools that use CEM-style assessments, including Wolverhampton Girls' High School and various schools in the surrounding area.

**Shropshire** Shropshire schools use a mixture of CEM and bespoke testing. Key schools include Priory School (Shrewsbury), Adams' Grammar School (Newport), Newport Girls' High School, and Shrewsbury High School (independent, uses own assessment). Families should confirm the current format with each specific school.

**Wiltshire** Some Wiltshire schools use CEM; others use GL Assessment or their own papers. Bishop Wordsworth's School (Salisbury) and South Wilts Grammar School have historically used CEM-style assessments, while Highworth Warneford uses its own format. Always verify with the school directly.

**Hertfordshire (Watford Grammar area)** Watford Grammar School for Boys and Watford Grammar School for Girls use CEM for their selective admissions process.

**Yorkshire and Berkshire** Some schools in Yorkshire and parts of Berkshire also use CEM, though the situation is more fragmented and families should check directly with target schools for the current year's confirmed format.

EdifyPod Nexus covers all of these CEM regions through its school finder tool, allowing parents to confirm which format applies to their specific target school.

How Does CEM Differ from GL Assessment?

The differences between CEM and GL Assessment are fundamental enough to affect how a child should prepare. The table below summarises the key distinctions:

| Feature | GL Assessment | CEM | |---|---|---| | Provider | GL Assessment Ltd (private company) | Durham University / Centre for Evaluation and Monitoring | | Subject delivery | Separate paper per subject | Subjects interleaved in same booklet | | Format consistency | Consistent question types year to year | Format deliberately changes annually | | Predictability | High — specific question types are learnable | Low — format variation limits specific drilling | | Coaching advantage | Moderate to high | Low to moderate | | Key preparation strategy | Question-type drilling, timed papers | Wide reading, genuine fluency, broad maths | | Unique question type | N/A (standard multiple choice) | Cloze passages (fill-in-the-blank comprehension) | | Scoring | Standardised Age Score (SAS), 60-142 scale | Standardised scores, region-specific thresholds | | Past papers available | No official release | No official release | | Schools that use it | Kent, Bucks, Barnet, Trafford, Lincolnshire, Wirral | Birmingham, Gloucestershire, Shropshire, Wolverhampton, some Wiltshire |

The most important practical implication of these differences is preparation strategy. For GL Assessment, targeted drilling of specific question types (particularly the 20+ VR question types) produces measurable score improvement. For CEM, drilling specific question types is less reliably effective because the format may not repeat those types in the same way. CEM rewards children who have developed genuine reading comprehension depth, mathematical reasoning fluency, and broad vocabulary — skills that develop over years, not weeks.

What Subjects Does CEM Test?

CEM tests the same four broad subject areas as GL Assessment — English, Mathematics, Verbal Reasoning, and Non-Verbal Reasoning — but with a crucial structural difference: these subjects are not delivered in separate papers. Instead, they are interleaved within one or two combined test booklets.

A typical CEM test might consist of two papers, each lasting around 45 to 50 minutes, with each paper containing a mix of question types drawn from across all four subject areas. A child might work through a comprehension passage with vocabulary questions (English), then encounter a block of number problems (Maths), then face a section of verbal reasoning questions, then return to reading-based questions.

This interleaving creates a cognitive demand that is different from GL Assessment. Children cannot mentally 'switch off' one subject and 'switch on' another — they must maintain broad engagement throughout the test. It also means that the familiar exam strategy of 'if you find a subject easy, you will race through that paper and bank marks' does not apply. Each section within the interleaved paper must be approached fresh.

The weighting given to each subject area can also vary year to year. In some years, a CEM paper may include a longer or more demanding comprehension section; in other years, there may be a greater proportion of mathematical reasoning. This is another deliberate feature of the CEM design: because parents and tutors do not know in advance which areas will receive greater weighting, it is impossible to selectively over-prepare for the 'easy' sections.

CEM has not published a fixed syllabus. The best available guidance is to ensure solid coverage of all four subject areas at Year 5 to Year 6 level, with particular emphasis on reading comprehension depth and mathematical reasoning rather than speed.

What are CEM Question Types?

While CEM's format changes annually, the broad categories of question types it has used consistently enough to prepare for include the following.

**Cloze passages**: This is the most distinctive and CEM-specific question type. A passage of text is presented with certain words removed, replaced by blanks. The child must select (from multiple choice options) the word that best fits each blank, based on the meaning and grammar of the surrounding text. Cloze tests assess reading comprehension, vocabulary knowledge, and grammatical awareness simultaneously. They require a child to hold the meaning of a whole sentence or paragraph in mind while choosing the correct word — shallow decoding is not enough.

**Standard comprehension**: Traditional reading comprehension questions asking about a prose or poetry passage. These include literal retrieval, inference, language analysis, and structural questions similar to those in GL Assessment English.

**Vocabulary questions**: Synonym and antonym identification, word-in-context questions, and questions about the precise meaning of unusual words. Wide reading is the best preparation.

**Maths reasoning problems**: Multi-step word problems requiring children to extract and apply mathematical operations. These are not straightforward calculation questions — they require reasoning about what to calculate and in what order.

**Number and arithmetic**: Standard KS2 maths content: fractions, percentages, ratio, algebra basics, geometry, measurement. Calculator not permitted.

**Verbal reasoning**: Questions involving word relationships, analogies, codes, and letter patterns. While the specific question types may vary from GL Assessment VR, the underlying skill of identifying logical relationships in language is the same.

**Non-verbal reasoning**: Shape pattern recognition, matrices, analogies using shapes, series completion. Again, broadly similar to GL NVR in underlying skill, though the specific presentation may differ.

Because CEM does not fix its question types, the most robust preparation is to develop genuine ability in each area rather than learning to recognise a specific stimulus format.

How is CEM Scored?

CEM uses a standardised scoring system similar in principle to the GL Assessment Standardised Age Score, in that a child's raw marks are adjusted to account for their exact age at the time of sitting. This ensures that children who sit the test earlier in the school year (and are therefore younger) are not disadvantaged relative to older children who sit the same test.

However, CEM does not publicise the precise mechanics of its standardisation process in the same detail as GL Assessment. CEM scores are reported as standardised scores rather than using the specific 'SAS' label, and the scale and interpretation can vary by region and by year.

The pass mark for CEM-using schools is, like GL Assessment, set by the school or local authority rather than by CEM itself. Durham University provides scores; the admissions decisions are made at school or consortium level. This means:

**Birmingham (King Edward VI schools)**: The KEVI Foundation schools are highly competitive. Historically, children need to be among the top scorers in the region to secure a place. The King Edward VI schools are regularly ranked among the highest-performing state schools in England, reflecting the very high ability of the intake.

**Gloucestershire**: Pate's Grammar is one of the most selective grammar schools in England. The effective threshold is competitive, with scores needing to be significantly above the standardised average. The other Gloucestershire grammar schools are also competitive, though slightly less so than Pate's.

**Wolverhampton and Shropshire**: Pass marks are generally more accessible than in Birmingham or Gloucestershire, though still competitive.

Because CEM does not publish fixed pass marks and because the competitive threshold shifts each year based on the applicant pool, parents should focus preparation on maximising genuine ability rather than targeting a specific score number. Strong performance across all areas, rather than a strategy of maximising marks in certain sections, is the most reliable approach.

Why is CEM Harder to Prepare for?

The honest answer is that CEM is not necessarily harder than GL Assessment in absolute terms — the skills tested are broadly similar. What is harder is the process of preparing for it through conventional exam-technique drilling, and this is deliberate.

Durham University's CEM was designed in direct response to research showing that intensive coaching for GL Assessment was producing inflated scores that did not reflect genuine reasoning ability. Wealthy families who could afford daily private tutoring for two or three years were able to teach their children to recognise and respond to specific question patterns, boosting their scores significantly. This coaching advantage was creating a socioeconomic skew in grammar school admissions that was at odds with the stated purpose of selecting on ability.

CEM's design directly targets this dynamic. By changing the format annually and interleaving subjects, it makes specific drilling less reliably useful. A child who has spent a year learning to identify 'letter code' VR questions will not necessarily encounter that exact format on the CEM paper. A child who has spent a year reading widely and developing genuine vocabulary depth will perform well regardless of exactly how the comprehension questions are framed.

This has two implications for families. First, preparation for CEM should prioritise genuine skill development over technique drilling. Second, children who are genuinely strong readers and confident mathematical reasoners will naturally tend to perform better on CEM than on GL Assessment relative to their coached peers — CEM is a fairer test of underlying ability.

This does not mean CEM preparation is impossible or pointless. Familiarity with the interleaved format reduces the surprise factor on test day. Practice with cloze passages prepares children for a question type they will almost certainly see. Wide exposure to maths reasoning problems builds the fluency needed for the maths sections. The difference is emphasis: genuine ability first, format familiarity second.

How to Prepare for CEM 11 Plus: A Reading-First Strategy

Because CEM rewards genuine ability over learned technique, the most effective preparation strategy is one that builds real skills from the ground up, with format familiarity added on top rather than built first.

**The reading-first principle** Every expert on CEM preparation agrees on one thing: reading is the single most important preparation activity. Not reading exam comprehension passages — reading for pleasure, reading widely, reading above your current comfortable level. Children who read fiction and non-fiction regularly develop the vocabulary breadth, inferential reading confidence, and contextual comprehension that CEM tests directly. A child who has read widely across history books, novels, poetry anthologies, and quality journalism will find CEM comprehension passages and cloze tests significantly easier than a peer who has only practised exam-format passages.

The target should be at least 30 minutes of self-chosen reading per day throughout Years 4, 5, and 6. Keep a reading log if it helps, but do not let the log become the point. The reading itself is what matters.

**Mathematical fluency over speed** CEM Maths questions reward reasoning over arithmetic speed more than GL does. Ensure your child is completely secure in times tables and number bonds, but spend most preparation time on multi-step problem solving where the challenge is deciding what to calculate, not just executing the calculation.

**Cloze passage practice** Cloze passages (fill-in-the-blank texts) are a CEM-specific question type worth practising specifically, because many children have never encountered them in school. Cloze exercises are widely available in GCSE English Language materials and specialist CEM preparation books. Practice helps children develop the habit of reading for meaning at the sentence and paragraph level before committing to an answer.

**VR and NVR: broad practice, not deep drilling** For Verbal and Non-Verbal Reasoning, practise a wide range of question types to build general reasoning fluency, but do not invest in memorising the specific presentation of every GL-style question type, because CEM may not present them identically. Focus on the underlying skill: pattern recognition, logical deduction, word relationships.

CEM 11 Plus Preparation Timeline (Year 3 to Year 6)

Effective CEM preparation follows a different rhythm from GL Assessment preparation, with even greater emphasis on long-term skill building and less on last-minute technique drilling.

**Year 3: Language and curiosity** At this stage, the most valuable preparation is entirely informal. Read every day. Visit libraries. Encourage a love of words — play word games, do crosswords, use a dictionary for unfamiliar words. Begin to develop mathematical confidence through games, puzzles, and informal problem solving. There is no need for any structured exam preparation in Year 3.

**Year 4: Widen the reading diet and strengthen maths foundations** By Year 4, ensure your child is reading across genres — not just the books they love, but stretching into unfamiliar territory. A child who reads only fantasy novels is building vocabulary in one register; exposure to history books, science non-fiction, and newspaper articles builds the broader comprehension range that CEM rewards. Ensure times tables are fully secure by the end of Year 4.

**Year 5: Introduce structured practice and format familiarisation** In Year 5, begin some structured practice. Introduce cloze passage exercises, as this format is unlikely to be familiar from school. Work through verbal reasoning and non-verbal reasoning question types to build familiarity, without committing to deep drilling of any single type. Begin timed practice sessions — initially without time pressure, then gradually introducing time limits. EdifyPod Nexus adapts its question delivery to this philosophy, building reasoning skills progressively.

**Year 6 (Michaelmas term): Simulate and consolidate** In the final term before the test, move to full simulated test conditions. Complete timed mixed-subject practice papers (to simulate the interleaved CEM format) two to three times per week. Focus reviews on comprehension depth and maths reasoning rather than VR technique. In the final two to three weeks, ease the volume and focus on rest, confidence, and reviewing the specific question types your child finds most surprising.

Common CEM Mistakes to Avoid

Even well-intentioned CEM preparation can go wrong. These are the most common mistakes families make.

**Treating CEM like GL Assessment**: The biggest mistake is applying a GL-style preparation strategy — intensive question-type drilling, memorising formats, building speed on specific patterns — to CEM preparation. Because CEM changes its format, this approach has diminishing returns and can actually build the wrong habits, leaving children over-reliant on pattern recognition rather than genuine comprehension.

**Neglecting reading in favour of practice papers**: Many families, understandably eager to feel like they are 'doing something', replace or drastically reduce reading time in favour of practice papers in Year 5 and 6. This is counterproductive for CEM specifically. A child who reads a novel a fortnight and completes two practice sessions per week will often outperform one who does four practice sessions but has stopped reading for pleasure.

**Using GL Assessment materials for CEM preparation**: Not all 11 plus preparation materials are format-appropriate. Materials labelled as '11 plus practice' are often built around GL Assessment question types. For CEM, use materials that specifically include cloze passages and interleaved mixed-subject practice.

**Panicking about format changes**: Every year, forums and social media fill with parents alarmed by reports that 'CEM has changed again'. This is by design, and it is not a reason to panic. A child with strong genuine ability will handle format variation; a child over-drilled in a specific format may be more unsettled.

**Starting Maths preparation too late**: While reading is the top priority for CEM, maths reasoning ability matters enormously and develops slowly. Leaving maths preparation until Year 6 does not allow enough time to build genuine reasoning confidence. Maths work should begin in Year 4 at the latest.