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Kent Test 2027: a Year 5 guide for September 2028 entry

If your child is in Year 5 this year and you're looking at Kent selective schools, the test falls in the autumn of 2027 and the secondary place starts in September 2028. This page covers the 37 schools we hold data for in the area, what they test, and how to use the year ahead.

Kent 11+ at a glance

What this means for a Year 5 child

Kent runs the largest selective system in England, and the Kent Test is sat right at the start of Year 6 - September, within days of the new school year beginning. That is the detail that reshapes the whole timetable: your child's preparation effectively has to be finished by the end of the summer holidays of 2027, not by Christmas of Year 6.

Registration closes well before the test, in the summer term of Year 5. Check Kent County Council's admissions pages in the spring term of 2027.

Schools in our data

A term-by-term plan

How much practice is enough

Fifteen to twenty minutes on a school day is a realistic target for the autumn term of Year 5, done at a consistent time so it stops being a negotiation. Consistency matters more than volume at this stage - a child who does twenty minutes five days a week covers far more ground over the year than one who does two hours every other Sunday, and hates it.

Keep at least one day a week clear. Reading for pleasure counts for more than another worksheet, especially for the English and verbal reasoning papers, where vocabulary is doing most of the work.

Watch what's actually going wrong rather than the raw score. A child getting 60% because they're rushing needs something different from a child getting 60% because they haven't met the topic. Any decent practice tool should show you which of those it is.

Try four real Year 5 questions

Pulled straight from PipPrep's own question bank, from the questions tagged for Year 5 - not written for this page.

Question 1
A train travels 100 km in 2 hours. What is its average speed?
Answer: 50 km/h. Speed = Distance ÷ Time = 100 ÷ 2 = 50 km/h.
Question 2
Choose a synonym for "modern".
Answer: current. "current" is a synonym of "modern".
Question 3
Which word does not belong with the others? walnut cashew peanut onion
Answer: onion. Walnut, cashew, and peanut are nuts. Onion is a vegetable.
Question 4
A dotted square transforms into a striped square. By the same rule, a dotted arrow transforms into a ?
Answer: striped arrow. Fill rule: dotted → striped. Applied to arrow: striped arrow.

Start the prep year properly

PipPrep adapts to your child's target school with 80,000+ questions across maths, English, verbal and non-verbal reasoning. Free to start, no card needed.

Start free →

Not sure where they actually stand? Take the free 11+ readiness check - 10 questions matched to your exam board, and a scored report on their weak topics. No account needed.

Frequently asked questions

When will my Year 5 child sit the Kent 11+?

In the autumn or winter of 2027, at the start of Year 6, for a secondary place beginning in September 2028. Exact dates are published by the admissions authority closer to the time.

Which subjects are tested in Kent?

Across the 37 schools in our data for the area, the subjects tested are English, maths, verbal reasoning, non-verbal reasoning. Individual schools differ, so check each school you are applying to rather than assuming the area-wide pattern applies everywhere.

When do we need to register?

Generally in the summer term of Year 5, well before the test itself. Check the admissions authority's pages in the spring term of 2027 so the window does not pass unnoticed.

Is it worth starting now rather than in Year 6?

For most families, yes. The reasoning papers use formats that are not taught in primary school and take months rather than weeks to become familiar, and spreading the work across Year 5 turns it into fifteen minutes a day instead of a lost summer.

More practice: All practiceStarting in Year 5The 2027 timeline