Quest or ISEB? What a former prep school head would tell you
Around this time of year, the first thing many Year 5 and Year 6 parents ask me is which test their child will actually be sitting, and whether the difference matters. The names get swapped around freely at the school gate. Much of what's written online is out of date or, in a few cases I'll come to, simply wrong. I've spent years on both sides of the admissions process, and this is how I explain it to parents.
What the two tests share
There's a lot of overlap. Both are computer-based and cover English, maths, verbal reasoning and non-verbal reasoning. Both also produce an age-standardised score. That means 100 is average and the result is adjusted for your child's age in years and months, so a summer-born child isn't penalised for being among the youngest.
Both also use adaptive questions, at least in part: As a child answers questions correctly, the system can move them towards more difficult questions. I always make sure children know this before the day. Otherwise a run of difficult questions can feel like failure, when it's often the opposite. Adaptive tests also call for a different approach from paper ones, which I've written about in paper vs digital adaptive exam strategy.
How they differ
The ISEB Common Pre-Test is sat once. A child can only take it once in an academic year, and the result can be shared with every school you've applied to. Most children sit it at their own school, which ISEB recommends as less unsettling than an unfamiliar building. The official window runs from September to late May, but individual schools set much tighter deadlines, often October or November of Year 6, so it's each school's date that counts.
Most children sit the ISEB in Year 6 for entry at 11+. Some schools also use it as the first step towards 13+ entry, which is why it's mentioned in the same breath as Eton and Harrow.
Quest is different in that each school arranges its own sitting, and the format isn't the same everywhere. Some schools use only the first part, covering the four core areas. Others add a second part, such as puzzles and problem solving, or comprehension drawing on maps, charts and timetables as well as prose. If you're applying to more than one Quest school, check which parts each uses, and do the familiarisation tests the schools point you to. They're the best guide to the real thing. I've also set out the common Quest question types and how to approach them.
The Essex schools example: why it pays to check
Essex is a good example of why I always tell parents to check with the school directly.
Chigwell uses Quest for Year 7 entry: two online parts, then a separate piece of creative writing, alongside an interview and a report from your child's current school. I've prepared pupils for Chigwell's assessment. The families who do best get familiar with the second part early, because it feels quite unlike anything children meet in school.
Brentwood's own website has described its Year 7 test as GL Assessment's Adaptive Admissions Test, while its more recent admissions policy describes maths, English and a writing task. Several tutoring websites, meanwhile, state confidently that Brentwood uses the ISEB. They cannot all be right. I'd rely on the school's admissions team and nobody else.
Felsted offers 13+ pre-testing in Year 6 or Year 7, with successful candidates given an assured place for Year 9. The school describes its online assessments as adaptive and says they need no advance tutoring. It also looks carefully at interviews, school reports and the confidential reference from the current school. I would take that statement at face value. It tells you a great deal about how the school sees the test.
Wherever you are in the UK, similar differences will almost certainly exist, so checking with the school admissions team is the best advice I can offer you.
What I'd want you to know
When I was a head, I wrote many of those confidential references myself. Senior schools treat the test score as one part of a much bigger picture: they ask the child's prep head for a reference, usually hold some form of interview, and look at the whole child. A strong score matters, but at many schools it is only one part of the decision.
Familiarity matters more than volume
A child who has seen the format a few times, understands how adaptive questions behave and can work at a steady pace is well prepared. Piling on extra papers in the final weeks rarely adds much, and it often costs a good deal of confidence.
Don't automatically sit every test available
Plenty of families enter a child for everything to keep their options open, and sometimes that's the right call. One pupil I worked with recently sat three different tests in the same year: the Essex grammar school test, the ISEB Pre-Test for one independent school and a CEM assessment for another. She secured her first-choice grammar place and scholarship offers from three independent schools. Her mother told me she never once had to persuade her daughter to come to a session. It worked because the family genuinely wanted every option, and because we prepared for each format properly rather than simply doing more. But each extra test is another morning of pressure on a ten-year-old. Before registering, it's worth asking honestly whether you'd accept the place.
Pay attention to how your child is coping
If practice is making them anxious, something in the preparation needs to change, whatever the scores say. My Reverse Jenga approach explains how I build confidence rather than chip away at it.
"As parents, we have really valued being able to discuss school options with David and hear his perspective on what routes might best suit each child."Parent of three pupils
If you're unsure which test your child faces, or whether sitting more than one makes sense for your family, that's exactly what we work through in an Academic Audit.
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