Tradition Or Revision: Is This The End For The 13+ Common Entrance Exam?

May 8, 2020

• Advice for Parents
• / Common Entrance
• / Guest Blog Series

One of our interns Kate writes her view about the 13+ Common Entrance exam. Read on to find out more…

The 13+ Common Entrance (CE) Exam is under scrutiny amid calls for greater diversity within private educational institutions. The exam, usually taken by students aged 12-13 in order to receive a place at leading private schools, is due to be phased out in just eighteen months. Designed to test academic abilities in core subjects such as Maths, English, Modern Languages and History, they form a central part of the selection process for the UK’s top private schools. The prominence of CE in the press has led to many to ask whether tradition should be favoured above revision?

Introduced in 1904, the Common Entrance Exam has been an accepted component of the private education system – until now. Claims that the exams cause unwarranted stress on students, by exposing them to GCSE style questions and the pressures of constant revision, has become salient in recent years. According to the Independent Schools Examinations Board (ISEB) there are over 180 private schools that continue to value the system. The arguments for tradition rely on maintaining intellectual rigor and preparing students for subsequent examinations. Revisionists, on the other hand, celebrate revisions to an antiquated and outdated method of testing. 

In an article entitled RIP Common Entrance, the final nail in education’s coffin (October 2, 2019) Chris McGovern calls for the scrapping of the 16+ GCSE examinations in favour of preserving the CE at age 13. Recognising the complexity of the ‘CE Debate’ raises important questions about the future of selective schools and the processes they implement. 

The need to prep? 

Preparatory Schools were founded in order to prepare students for their Common Entrance exam. Without the focus on continued assessment, the purpose of preparatory schools has also been brought into question. Some have claimed that the scrapping of the CE exam will allow ‘prep schools’ to have greater flexibility. Pursuing a new direction beyond exam technique could lead to a more diverse curriculum, which relates to the second point;

 The diversity drive

Phasing-out the Common Entrance Exams is intended to promote greater diversity and attract students from a range of academic, social and economic backgrounds. Attracting students from state primaries appears to be at the core of the changes. Designed to reduce the pressure to perform consistently from a young age, changes in the system are hoped to promote a shift in attitudes towards vigorous testing in the future. Linked with the ‘tradition/revision’ debate, many embrace what changes to the academic programme could mean for diversity within the UK’s oldest educational establishment. 

Does this mean the end for testing? 

Put simply, no. Pre-tests taken by Year 6 students will continue as a way of selecting students. By removing the +13 Common Entrance Exam, renewed emphasis will be placed on +11 performance. This shift has been observed in many of the top private schools in England, with Westminster and St. Paul’s dropping the CE in October 2018. Uppingham, Marlborough College and Harrow have subsequently moved away from the 13+ CE in favour of a baccalaureate-style system common in Europe. These moves were made to reduce the pressures on teachers, pupils and parents. Despite such changes, testing is set to continue as a method of recruiting the students with the strongest capabilities and potential. 

Examinations continue to be valued within the private education system. With recent changes to the GCSE grading system and a movement towards linear qualifications, there has been an attempt to reduce the pressures around examination processes. The evolution of the way the CE has been perceived and scrutinised in the last few decades is indicative of wider changes within the national curriculum. The merits of both tradition and revision presented above reveal the complexity of this debate. That said, with a large number of schools still favouring the system, this does not herald the immediate end of the Common Entrance Exam.