How to Get into Buckinghamshire Grammar Schools

Buckinghamshire still runs a full grammar school system for their 11 Plus. They have thirteen Grammar schools and 21 upper (non selective) schools.

The Buckinghamshire Grammar schools are:

Each of the thirteen grammar schools in Buckinghamshire is its own Admission Authority. However, the purposes of Secondary Transfer Testing, the thirteen schools work together as The Buckinghamshire Grammar Schools (TBGS).

Passing the Buckinghamshire Grammar Schools test

GL Assessment provide the Secondary Transfer Test for September 2021.

The test has three parts – verbal, mathematical and non-verbal problems. This gives your child the chance to show their skills in different ways – using words, numbers and pictures or diagrams.

The test does not have a pass mark. Instead there is a qualifying score for admission to grammar school. The qualifying score for Buckinghamshire grammar schools is a Secondary Transfer Test Score (STTS) of 121 or above. The STTS is calculated by age-standardising the three section scores and then adding them using the following weightings: verbal – 50%; mathematical – 25%; non-verbal – 25%. The total is the STTS.

All children in Buckinghamshire are entered unless they opt out of the exam. Practically speaking, around 80% of children take the test. Around 30% of these pass the test.

Preparing for the Buckinghamshire Grammar Schools test

People will have you believe that you cannot prepare or be tutored for this exam. This is not true and can be shown by the results from within Buckinghamshire. Some areas of Buckinghamshire have only 17% pass rates and others have 37% pass rates – the difference is in the preparation provided for the exam.

We have extensive experience of preparing for the GL assessments both generically and for the Buckinghamshire tests. Do not believe that preparation will not help. It is absolutely critical.

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