Is 70% enough to pass the 11+?

Why do parents ask about 70%?

It is a very understandable question. Practice papers are marked out of a total, so the natural way to describe a result is as a percentage. Parents then hear figures such as "you need 80%" or "70% is safe" from other parents or online forums, and want to know where their child stands.

The difficulty is that these figures are not published by any test provider or council that we know of. They are rules of thumb, and they mix up two different kinds of number:

• A percentage of marks: how many questions your child answered correctly on one paper.
• A standardised score: where your child's marks place them compared with everyone who sat the same real test, often adjusted for age.

The 11+ decision is made on the second kind of number, not the first.

Why can't a percentage be turned into a qualifying score?

Because the same percentage can lead to very different standardised scores. Several things sit between the raw mark and the final score.

1. How everyone else did. A standardised score measures a child's marks against the average and the spread of marks in that year's group. CSSE in Essex and Southend publishes its method, which shows this clearly: Standardised score = (((raw - mean) / SD) x 15) + 100 per paper; Total = 1.5 x [(std Maths + days younger x Maths age adj) + (std English + days younger x English age adj)]; days younger = d-o-b minus 01/09/2014; average candidate born 01/09/2014 = 300Source for Essex and Southend (CSSE): Total score formula 2026 entryEssex and Southend (CSSE): Total score formula 2026 entryCloseChecked 9 Oct 2026 against Consortium of Selective Schools in Essex (CSSE).The source says: Standardised score = (((raw score - μ) ÷ σ) × 15) + 100 Total score = 1·5 × [(standardised Mathematics + “days younger” × Maths age adjustment) + (standardised English + “days younger” × English age adjustment)] where “days younger” is calculated as d-o-b minus 01/09/2014. Thus a candidate, born on 01/09/2014, with average marks on each paper will obtain a total of 300View the official source. In plain words, each raw mark is compared with the average mark ("mean") and how spread out the marks were ("SD"). If the paper is hard and most children score low, a modest raw mark can lead to a good standardised score. If the paper is easy, the same raw mark can lead to a lower one.

2. How hard the paper was. Every year's paper is different. A raw mark of 70% on a hard paper and 70% on an easier paper do not mean the same thing.

3. Your child's age. Many 11+ tests adjust for age, so two children with the same raw mark can receive different scores. Our guide on age standardisation explains how.

4. How the sections are weighted. Some tests count some sections more than others. In Buckinghamshire the sections are weighted verbal 50%, maths 25%, non-verbal 25%Source for Buckinghamshire Secondary Transfer Test (STT): How the test sections are weightedBuckinghamshire Secondary Transfer Test (STT): How the test sections are weightedCloseChecked 9 Oct 2026 against The Bucks Grammar Schools (TBGS).The source says: verbal – 50%; mathematical – 25%; non-verbal – 25%View the official source. In Medway the weighted score is English x 2 + maths x 2 + reasoning x 1 (standardised scores)Source for Medway Test (GL Assessment, written for Medway Council): Weighted scoreMedway Test (GL Assessment, written for Medway Council): Weighted scoreCloseChecked 9 Oct 2026 against Medway Council.The source says: English test standardised score | x 2 |View the official source. So a child's overall percentage across all sections does not show how the final score will be built.

5. The standard itself may be set after the test. At some schools, nobody knows the required standard in advance. Churston Ferrers Grammar School says: School-set standardised pass mark; the exact threshold changes year on year depending on the cohort.Source for Churston Ferrers Grammar School entrance test: Pass mark methodChurston Ferrers Grammar School entrance test: Pass mark methodCloseChecked 13 Oct 2026 against Churston Ferrers Grammar School.The source says: There is a standardised pass mark, but the exact threshold changes year on year depending on the cohort.View the official source Stroud High School says: No pre-defined pass mark; the Qualifying Standard is set each year by the School's Admissions Committee having regard to all candidates' standardised scoresSource for Stroud High School entrance test: Pass mark methodStroud High School entrance test: Pass mark methodCloseChecked 9 Oct 2026 against Stroud High School.The source says: The Qualifying Standard is not a pre-defined pass mark, but is determined each year having regard to the standardised scores achieved by all candidates taking the Gloucestershire Grammar School test that year. The Qualifying Standard is ultimately determined by the School’s Admissions Committee.View the official source.

Put together, these mean there is no fixed number of marks "needed to pass", even for one test in one year.

Is a qualifying score a percentage?

No, although it can look like one. In Buckinghamshire the qualifying score is 121Source for Buckinghamshire: Qualifying scoreBuckinghamshire: Qualifying scoreCloseChecked 9 Oct 2026 against The Bucks Grammar Schools (TBGS).The source says: The qualifying score for Buckinghamshire grammar schools is a Secondary Transfer Test Score (STTS) of 121 or above.View the official source, but a child's standardised score falls between 60 and 170Source for Buckinghamshire Secondary Transfer Test (STT): Standardised score rangeBuckinghamshire Secondary Transfer Test (STT): Standardised score rangeCloseChecked 9 Oct 2026 against Buckinghamshire Council.The source says: A child's ‘standardised score' will be between 60 and 170.View the official source. A score above 100 is possible because the scale is not out of 100 at all.

The same applies to scores in the 200s or 300s in other areas. Those are usually totals of two or three standardised scores added together, not a percentage of anything.

What do the percentages councils publish mean?

Some areas do publish percentages, and this is often where the confusion starts. These percentages are about the share of children who reach the standard, not the share of marks a child needs.

So a published share such as Slough's top 35%Source for Slough: Expected qualifying shareSlough: Expected qualifying shareCloseChecked 9 Oct 2026 against Herschel Grammar School.The source says: Pupils who score 111 or above will be in the top 35% of the cohort sitting the examination and will be considered eligible for consideration for a grammar school place should their parents apply on their behalf.View the official source does not mean a child needs that share of the marks. It means the child's standardised score is among the higher scores in that group. Two children could both be in that group with quite different raw marks, depending on their ages and the paper.

How many marks does a child need to reach the qualifying score?

There is no published number of marks for any area we cover, and there cannot be one in advance. The number of raw marks that leads to a given standardised score is only known once all the papers are marked.

Many results letters do not show raw marks at all. In Slough, what parents receive is the standardised score across both papers; raw scores are not availableSource for Slough: Results contentSlough: Results contentCloseChecked 9 Oct 2026 against Slough Consortium of Grammar Schools.The source says: The 11+ result notified to you will be the standardised score across both papers. The raw scores attained by candidates are not supplied to the Consortium by GL Assessment and therefore are not available to parents.View the official source. In Essex and Southend, results are emailed to every candidate, with the raw score for each subject and an overall standardised scoreSource for CSSE (Essex and Southend): how results are sentCSSE (Essex and Southend): how results are sentCloseChecked 9 Oct 2026 against CSSE (Consortium of Selective Schools in Essex).The source says: You will be notified of the raw scores for each subject as well as the overall standardised score.View the official source, so you can see raw marks there, but only after the test, and they apply only to that year's paper.

Even the size of the test does not help much. In Northern Ireland, for example, the SEAG test has 56 English and 56 maths questions in totalSource for SEAG (Northern Ireland): Question countSEAG (Northern Ireland): Question countCloseChecked 9 Oct 2026 against SEAG (Schools' Entrance Assessment Group).The source says: based on the 56 English (or Gaeilge) Questions in Papers 1 and 2 and the 56 Maths questions in Papers 1 and 2.View the official source. Knowing the number of questions does not tell you how many correct answers will lead to any particular score.

Why do different practice papers give such different percentages?

Parents often notice that a child scores well on one set of practice papers and much lower on another, sometimes in the same week. This is normal. Practice papers are written by different people, to different levels of difficulty, and with different mixes of question types. Some may be harder than the real test and some may be easier.

So a drop from one book to another may say more about the papers than about your child. If you want to track progress, compare results on papers from the same series, taken in similar conditions and with the same timing. Even then, treat the trend as a rough guide rather than a measure of whether your child will reach the qualifying score.

So what is a practice-paper percentage useful for?

Practice percentages are still useful, as long as you use them for the right job.

• Spotting trends. Is your child's score on similar papers broadly steady, rising or falling over several weeks? One paper on its own says very little.
• Finding gaps. Look at which questions were missed, not just how many. Sometimes a few topics account for many of the lost marks.
• Checking timing. Unanswered questions at the end of a paper usually point to pace, which can be practised calmly.
• Building familiarity. Knowing the question types and the answer sheet helps children feel settled on the day.

What a practice percentage cannot do is predict the result. Published practice papers are not standardised against the real group of children, and they may not match the difficulty of the real test. Mock tests with their own "standardised" scores have the same limits, as our guide on how to read mock results explains.

Our 11+ score checker works only with the standardised score on an official results letter. It does not convert raw marks or percentages, for all the reasons above. How our score checker works explains where its qualifying scores come from and what it cannot tell you.

How should you talk about this with your child?

Children often pick up on targets they hear adults mention. A child who believes they "need 80%" may feel they have done badly after a solid 72% on a hard paper, even though that may be a perfectly good result.

Some gentler alternatives:

• Talk about what they learned from a paper, not the percentage.
• Praise effort and improvement, such as finishing on time or getting a tricky question type right.
• Avoid comparing marks with friends' marks. The papers, the conditions and the ages are rarely the same.
• If practice is making your child anxious, it is fine to slow down or take a break. Our guide on how much 11+ practice is enough may help.

Related pages

• What is a good standardised score?
• Standardised scores explained
• Age standardisation: how the 11+ adjusts for age
• How to read mock results
• 11+ score checker

Sources

Facts on this page come from archived official sources checked on 13 October 2026: the Consortium of Selective Schools in Essex (CSSE), Churston Ferrers Grammar School, Stroud High School, The Bucks Grammar Schools, Buckinghamshire Council, Medway Council, the Slough Consortium of Grammar Schools, Herschel Grammar School, the Lincolnshire Consortium of Grammar Schools and SEAG (Schools' Entrance Assessment Group).

ExamKind is independent and is not connected with any test provider. How we make our content.