West Midlands Grammar Schools, Paper 1, Exam 3
Most 11+ tests cluster subjects. The West Midlands partnership doesn't. Both papers in the West Midlands Grammar Schools Entrance Test put English Comprehension, Verbal Reasoning, Mathematics and Non-Verbal Reasoning (including Spatial) into a single 50-minute booklet, four sections back-to-back, each with its own internal timer.
Paper 1 is one of the two halves of that test, written to the partnership's locked GL format and pitched at the difficulty level of the live exam. It covers 19 selective state grammar schools across Birmingham, Warwickshire, Shropshire, Walsall and Wolverhampton. Member schools include King Edward VI Aston, King Edward VI Five Ways, both Camp Hill schools, Queen Mary's Walsall, Haberdashers' Adams and Ashlawn.
The two papers are sat together on a single morning, with a short break between.
The structure:
English opens with a single fiction passage of around 500 words. Twelve multiple-choice questions follow, tilted toward inference, vocabulary in context and figurative language, with one item in the partnership's distinctive Choose TWO format (five options, each naming a pair of answers, single mark on the right option).
Verbal Reasoning moves through four type-blocks in order of pace, fastest first: Vocabulary Opposites (in the partnership's dual A-B-C plus X-Y-Z format), Word Production (a 4-letter word hidden across a word boundary), Word Relationships (find the two outliers in a group of five), and Letter Codes.
Mathematics is tested mentally, no calculator, no ruler, no scrap paper, drawing on four KS2 strands:
number and place value, the four operations, measurement (length, mass, capacity, money, time), and statistics. The four strands are interleaved rather than blocked.
Non-Verbal and Spatial Reasoning closes the paper: NVR Codes, Hidden Shapes, Figures Alike, then Cube Nets for the spatial slot. Paper 1 carries the 3D spatial type; Paper 2 carries the 2D rotation type.
Together with our Paper 2 the two papers cover eight Verbal Reasoning types, eight Non-Verbal types and the full KS2 maths curriculum without a single question type or strand appearing in both.
All multiple choice, all on a GL-style OMR answer sheet. Answer key with explanations included.
