Kendrick School

Kendrick School is a highly selective girls' grammar school in Reading that uses CEM as its exam provider. The school does not publish detailed information about the exam structure, timings, or question counts — this is intentional, as CEM deliberately keeps these details private to prevent teaching narrowly to the test. You'll find some familiarisation materials on the school's admissions pages, but these are limited, so preparation does require some exploration of what CEM papers are like more broadly.

This is a significantly harder exam than a standard 11+ paper. The vocabulary in particular is very demanding — children encounter sophisticated words well beyond typical Year 6 level, so wide reading from an early age really does make a difference. The maths is challenging too, with multi-step word problems and reasoning questions that sometimes feel more like early secondary level. Reading comprehension passages are longer and more complex than you'd expect, with a strong focus on inference and working things out between the lines rather than simple fact-finding.

The biggest practical challenge is time pressure. CEM papers mix different question types together (verbal, numerical, and English all interleaved), which means children can't settle into a rhythm, and many don't finish all sections. Timed practice is absolutely essential — far more important than trying to cover every possible question type. Children who've only practised GL-style papers often find themselves caught off guard by CEM's varied format, so it's worth getting familiar with how CEM papers actually work, not just standard grammar school papers.