GL vs CEM 11-Plus: What the Differences Mean for Your Child

Parents researching GL vs CEM 11-plus in 2026 usually find a comparison written for a world that no longer exists. The two exam boards did once split the country between them, and the difference genuinely mattered. It matters much less now, because CEM withdrew from supplying the paper-based grammar school 11-plus and almost every area that used it has moved across to GL Assessment. This guide explains what each board is, what actually changed, and what you should be preparing for instead of an out-of-date board comparison.

The short version: if your child is sitting a state grammar school test in England, it is very likely a GL paper. Check with the admissions authority, prepare for the papers your area actually sets, and treat anything written before 2023 about "the CEM style" with caution.

Who the two boards are

GL Assessment, originally Granada Learning and now part of Renaissance, is the long-standing supplier of admissions tests to grammar schools and selective areas. Its admissions testing range covers verbal reasoning, non-verbal reasoning, spatial reasoning, English and maths, is offered in both digital and paper formats, and produces age-standardised results.

CEM was the Centre for Evaluation and Monitoring, founded at Durham University and later part of Cambridge University Press and Assessment. Its 11-plus was designed as the anti-coaching option: format that shifted year to year, subjects mixed inside one timed paper, and no published past papers. Cambridge still sells an entrance assessment, but it is a different product. The current one, Cambridge Select Insight, is a computer assessment of around 60 minutes covering verbal, non-verbal and mathematical skills, offered for entry into Years 7 to 10 and aimed at selective independent schools, partially selective state schools, grammar schools and schools using fair banding.

What actually changed

CEM stopped supplying the paper-based grammar 11-plus and moved to digital-only delivery. Grammar consortia that had used it needed a provider that could run a paper test for several thousand children on one morning, and they moved to GL. The Birmingham and wider West Midlands consortium is the best-known example, but the same shift happened across most former CEM areas.

The consequence for parents is not that the test got harder or softer. It is that the test got more knowable. CEM's whole design principle was unpredictability. GL's is a large, evolving question bank drawn from defined question types, with familiarisation material published. That does not make a place easier to win, because scores are standardised and ranked: if preparation lifts everyone, the qualifying mark rises with them.

Where the differences used to show up

• Question types. GL uses recognisable, named types across verbal reasoning, non-verbal reasoning, spatial reasoning, English and maths. CEM mixed subjects inside a single timed paper and varied the mix.
• Timing. GL papers tend to be sectioned with a clear time per section. CEM used short, individually timed sub-sections, so children could not go back, and pacing was itself part of the test.
• Vocabulary. CEM leaned heavily on breadth of vocabulary and comprehension. That is the one piece of "CEM-style" advice worth keeping: wide reading is still the best long-run preparation for any 11-plus.
• Past papers. GL publishes familiarisation material. CEM published none, on purpose.

What your area actually sets

There is no national 11-plus. Each admissions authority chooses its own papers, and two GL areas can look nothing alike. Kent is a good illustration: the county council sets out that the Kent Test is two papers, both multiple choice with a separate machine-marked answer sheet. The first is an English and maths paper lasting an hour, with each section running a five-minute practice exercise followed by a 25-minute test. The second is a reasoning paper of about an hour containing a verbal reasoning section and a non-verbal reasoning section of roughly the same length, with the non-verbal split into short, individually timed parts. There is also a 40-minute writing exercise, including 10 minutes of planning, which is not marked but can be used by a local headteacher panel at the headteacher assessment stage.

Kent has published its 2026 dates: pupils at Kent primary schools sit the test on Thursday 10 September 2026, pupils who do not attend a Kent primary sit it over the weekend of 12 and 13 September 2026, and results day is Thursday 15 October 2026. Other areas run to entirely different calendars, which is why the registration deadline, not the exam date, is the one to write down first.

By contrast, the West Midlands consortium sets two papers of roughly 50 minutes, each mixing English, maths, verbal reasoning and non-verbal or spatial reasoning, with answers on an optical mark reading sheet. Same provider, different shape. Prepare for the shape your child will meet.

How to find out for certain

1. Identify the admissions authority for the schools you want. For a county-run test that is the council; for a consortium of grammar schools it is the consortium.
2. Read its published admissions arrangements for the year your child enters, not last year's.
3. Note four things: the provider, the papers and timings, the registration window, and the test date.
4. Download whatever familiarisation material the authority itself publishes, and use that as the reference for format.

Tutoring sites, forums and revision publishers are often a year or more behind on this, and some still describe the old CEM paper test as though it were live. If a source does not link to the admissions authority's own document, do not rely on it.

What to prepare, now that the board question is mostly settled

With the board question largely answered, preparation returns to fundamentals: reading widely for vocabulary and comprehension speed, secure number work and times tables, timed practice so pacing does not come as a shock, and enough familiarisation with the answer sheet that filling it in is automatic. Machine-marked sheets punish a child who loses their place in the numbering more than they punish one who gets a question wrong.

Bear in mind too that the test is only part of the decision. Scores are age-standardised, qualifying marks move each year with the cohort, and in many areas a qualifying score still has to be followed by an application and an oversubscription ranking. Our guides on how 11-plus pass marks work and grammar school admissions in England cover that side, and how to prepare for the 11-plus deals with timing and workload. For the wider system, start from the complete guide to school admissions in England or the Schools Insight homepage.

Frequently asked questions

Do grammar schools still use the CEM 11-plus?

Not in the form parents remember. CEM stopped supplying the paper-based grammar school 11-plus and moved to a digital product, now sold as Cambridge Select Insight. Almost every English grammar area that used CEM has since moved to GL Assessment, so for the large majority of families the practical question in 2026 is which GL papers their area sets, not GL versus CEM.

What is the difference between GL and CEM 11-plus papers?

The historic difference was predictability. GL draws on a published, well-defined bank covering verbal reasoning, non-verbal reasoning, spatial reasoning, English and maths, and it publishes familiarisation material. CEM deliberately varied its format year to year and mixed subjects inside a single timed paper to make coaching harder. Cambridge Select Insight keeps that broad verbal, non-verbal and mathematical coverage but runs as a single computer assessment of about 60 minutes.

Which subjects does the GL 11-plus test?

GL Assessment says its admissions tests cover verbal reasoning, non-verbal reasoning, spatial reasoning, English and maths. No area sets all five in full: each consortium or council picks the combination it wants, so the paper your child sits in Kent is not the paper sat in Birmingham.

Is the GL 11-plus easier than CEM was?

Neither is easier, because both are age-standardised and both rank children against the others sitting the same test. What changed is preparability. GL is a more known quantity, which tends to raise everyone's scores and therefore the pass mark, rather than making a place easier to win.

How do I find out which test my child will sit?

Ask the admissions authority that runs it, not a tutoring site. That is the county council in areas such as Kent, or the grammar school consortium in areas such as Birmingham. Their published admissions arrangements name the provider, the papers, the timings and the registration deadline, and those documents are the only source that is definitely current.

Is the 11-plus moving online?

Slowly, and unevenly. GL supplies both digital and paper tests, and Cambridge's current entrance assessment is computer-based only. Most large state grammar consortia still sit paper papers with optical mark reading answer sheets, so do not assume a screen test until the admissions authority says so.