The 13+ Common Entrance English exam is a key milestone for students applying to top independent schools. It assesses reading comprehension, creative writing and analytical skills. In this guide, Keystone's experienced 13+ Common Entrance tutor, Ben, breaks down the exam’s key components and shares his preparation strategies and top tips to help students feel confident approaching the exam.
What is included in the 13+ Common Entrance English exam?
The 13+ English Common Entrance exam is a multi-format test that allows schools to gauge a student’s ability in both reading and writing. Reading skills are tested via a comprehension task, with questions which are easier at first and then increase in difficulty. Writing skills are tested via a choice of single writing prompts which require candidates to construct an organised response in careful and creative prose. These exams are usually around 90 minutes long, around 45 minutes per question.
13+ English comprehension tasks
Comprehension tasks in the 13+ Common Entrance English exam are typically based on complex texts, most often prose. These passages are usually drawn from 20th-century works, such as those by Daphne du Maurier or Yann Martel. The style and complexity of these extracts are comparable to those found in GCSE English Language papers. More competitive schools often set more demanding passages, allowing their English departments to challenge candidates rigorously. As these institutions can be highly selective, students should expect texts that test their analytical and interpretative skills. Additionally, some schools might include poetry instead of prose, so it is advisable to practice comprehension exercises of both forms.
You may have to answer multiple questions. Recent ISEB English tests contain thirteen separate shorter questions on the passage. The questions get harder as the exam progresses. They often start by asking students to offer a direct analysis of given words from the passage (“What does the narrator mean here” or “How is this description effective?”) for a mark or two; and then building to multi-mark questions that may require you to write a mini-essay (‘Using quotations from the poem and analysing the effects of language and other poetic devices, explain the significance of..’).
13+ English writing tasks
Writing tasks at 13+ generally fall into one of five areas or types:
- Imaginative (story) writing
- Factual writing or personal description
- Discursive writing – that requires you to frame a discussion, point of view or memory
- A review of a book
- A written response to a given picture stimulus.
If the school you are applying to uses the ISEB tests, you will be given a choice of five questions from the areas mentioned above. The tasks are designed to be accessible and include helpful prompts, such as “Write a speech for your school assembly encouraging pupils to participate in team sports” or “Write a description of a garden.”
Schools that create their own tests may provide only two options. The most competitive schools, can sometimes set particularly challenging or unconventional tasks, such as: “Using the photograph and paragraph above as a starting point, write a story from the perspective of this drinking cup about an experience it has had in its lifetime.”
When do I need to start preparing?
Your current school will be preparing you as matter of course, as the kind of reading and writing skills required at 13+ will be familiar to all students of this age. Schools will always teach reading through the study of rich and diverse whole class books, but in general the more diverse your reading diet the better prepared you will be. Because the 13+ English exam presents extracts from literary texts, which could be both fiction and non-fiction, it is worth supplementing any reading done at school with ambitious reading of your own.
It is never too early to start the broader reading work required to become good English student – and a good candidate at 13+. As to when to start the specific business of preparing for the 13+ English test, I would recommend a regular diet of past papers – once or twice a week – for a couple of months in the run up to your particular entrance exam session.
You will not be learning any new skills as such, but the papers can be quite specific in their demands on your timing and ability to process and plan things quickly, and it will take you a while to get up to speed.
Preparation tips for 13+ English
The key is wide reading. It is never too early to start and reading should hinge around a flexible understanding of what a ‘literary text’ might be. The following is a very selective suggestion of the variety of this term.
- Emily Bronte, Wuthering Heights
- Susan Hill, I’m the King of the Castle
- Yann Martell, Life of Pi
- William Golding, Lord of Flies
- Daphne du Maurier, Rebecca
- Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe
- Joe Simpson, Touching the Void
- Short stories by Isabelle Allende, Rudyard Kipling, Barbara Blenheim, Jean Rhys, Meg Rosoff
The exam board AQA provide a GCSE anthology of short stories that may suggest the kind of reading level required in the most challenging 13+ English exams.
Other tips:
- Pay attention to the marks given for each question; pay attention to how long you have to answer each question. Using a past paper, it’s worth doing the simple maths of dividing the total time you have (minus any reading time given) by the number of marks. This will give you a sense of how long in minutes you have to get a mark, and so how many marks/minutes per question.
- Work on past papers without time pressure, so at your leisure to begin with. Gradually build in time pressure until you are working under ‘exam condition’ i.e. if you run out of time.
- Give yourself enough time to get to the writing part of the exam (papers are usually divided into reading and writing sections). Move on at the half way point and give yourself the best opportunity to write.
- Plan writing carefully. Brainstorm, sequence events, build key phrases and vocabulary into your plan; scramble your plan to have a flashback sequence; would you writing work better in the third or the first person? Is it best to have a character narrate your story? Don’t include too many mad details; keep it streamlined.
- Read questions very carefully as they are often quite specific, in terms of what they require and where you are required to look for your answer. Do you have to re-tell, explore or explain? Be sure to know what these terms mean. Use a highlighter and get used to highlighting key words and references.
Where can I find past papers for 13+ English?
Most schools operate a transparent application process at 13+ and are not trying to catch you out. You can find real examples of the specific papers used in past 13+ exams on most school websites.
The ISEB very helpfully provide both a suggested syllabus for 13+ English and have a host of past papers available to download, which is an excellent place both to begin and to practise more widely.
Tutors for 13+ Common Entrance English
Keystone Tutors provide specialist English tutors who are experts at providing the sort of structured support that ensures students are best prepared for 13+ English entrance. We have over a decade of experience providing tuition to families who wish to send their children to some of the leading UK independent and boarding schools at 13+. View our 13+ Common Entrance tutors or book a free consultation.