How to prepare for the ISEB Pre-Test

As demand for school places rises from within the UK and further afield, the ISEB-Pre-test is widely regarded as a respectable digital, academic sift for its users.

If you’re still unsure as to what the ISEB Pre-test is, then I encourage you to peek at the companion article I wrote entitled (unsurprisingly) ‘What is the ISEB Pre-test?’.

If, however you’re up to speed on this, then I’m going to get straight to the juicy bits: How to help your child prepare for these upcoming assessments.

How to prepare for ISEB Verbal and non-Verbal reasoning:

Reasoning skills may be relatively new to your child. Hopefully this is something that has been covered in your child’s prep school but if they attend a state school, this not likely to be the case. A good place to start is to familiarise yourself with the types of questions that get asked in these elements of the test. There is a range of questions that can be asked and certain ways to learn how to approach them. Children in years 3, 4, 5 find Bond books useful. For older children in mid-year 5/year 6 Galore Park’s Non-VR and VR books are good resources.

How to prepare for ISEB English:

In terms of English, your child will face a comprehension task containing a difficult text and will be asked to select a multiple-choice answer to various questions. They will also face grammar and spelling activities. When it comes to grammar, it’s important that your child has a solid understanding as questions can be very specific and detailed e.g., Highlight the ‘article’ in the sentence or highlight the spelling or grammatical error in a piece of text. Targeted revision of spelling and grammar will support this.

Many tutors recommend reading as a good way of preparing for the comprehension element. But I don’t agree that this is the best way to prepare for the ISEB Pre-test.

Yes, of course encourage your child to read and choose books that they love reading!

But specific to pre-test prep they really need to be reading complex texts, (think classics and non-fiction articles from the guardian), being able to make attempts at understanding unfamiliar words and answer questions about a text meaning.

Also key, is the systematic learning of high-level vocabulary because there is quite a large focus on understanding the words in the text. Pupils that I work with for example explicitly learn high level 11+ vocabulary that typically appears in exams.

How to prepare for ISEB Maths:

Once again, the best preparation for the pre-test maths component will be to gain a clear understanding of your child’s progress in their schoolwork and work at plugging the gaps in their skill and knowledge. Preparation books referenced above also cater for maths, so these are helpful resources.

Once knowledge is secure, there are several digital platforms that will help pupils feel prepared going into the Pre-Test. ISEB have their own familiarisation test on their website. This is useful purely to see your child what to expect on the day – and get used to the fact that once an answer is submitted, they cannot go back and change an answer. But it’s not helpful for ongoing rehearsal. Online resources useful for ongoing preparation are ‘Atom learning’ or ‘Bofa’. Both platforms use adaptive questions (much like the real thing), give your child feedback on their performance and familiarisation with the digital format.

Key Thoughts

Now, I’ve share a lot of information here, so I wanted to leave you with the edited, busy-parent-friendly version of how to prepare for the ISEB Pre-test:

• Speak your child’s teachers about areas of development and work on those at home or with a tutor
• Access specific 11+ Pre-test workbooks (ISEB or Galore Park)
• Use the ISEB familiarisation test; Access Bofa or Atom Learning to practise the online digital format

Best of luck – I hope it is a smooth and successful process! Please get in touch if you would like further assistance.