Quest Assessment vs GL Assessment Differences for 2027 Entry
Real 2026 test dates, format, scoring and school-by-school differences for the 2027 entry 11+ cycle
Book a Free ConsultationReal 2026 test dates, format, scoring and school-by-school differences for the 2027 entry 11+ cycle
Book a Free ConsultationQuest Assessments and GL Assessment are two entirely separate testing organisations that both produce 11+ entrance exams for UK grammar and independent schools, and for 2027 entry — the cohort sitting tests in September 2026 for a September 2027 school start — the two are not interchangeable. They differ in delivery (GL Assessment lists paper; Quest says its assessments can be taken online or on paper), in whether a test is adaptive, in subject combinations, and in scoring detail, and which one your child faces depends entirely on the specific school or local authority you are targeting. This guide sets out what changes for your child depending on the provider, using the 2026 test dates published by Bexley Council, Buckinghamshire Council, Poole Grammar School and Quest Assessments.
Checked October 2026
Bexley Council emailed Selection Test results from 4pm on Friday 2 October 2026, and Quest's own pages also list the Tiffin, Wirral and Plymouth tests for 2027 entry.
Poole Grammar School says its own 11+ assessments will be provided by Quest from September 2027, for 2028 entry, and Quest's Dorset Consortium page lists a September 2027 test.
GL Assessment describes itself as the largest provider of 11+ tests to schools in England; Buckinghamshire Council says the Secondary Transfer Test papers are marked by GL Assessment, and Poole Grammar School's website says all four BCP grammar schools use entrance tests provided by GL Assessment. Quest Assessments, by contrast, describes Quest Admissions as an exam provider used by UK independent schools, and its own parent guidance pages show it also providing the tests for several state-school groups, listed in this guide. For the 2027 entry cycle specifically, Bexley Council names Quest Assessments as the provider of the single Bexley Selection Test used for admission to all four of its grammar schools, one of several state-school tests Quest provides.
| Council / School Group | Provider for 2027 Entry (Sept 2026 test) | Test Window |
|---|---|---|
| Buckinghamshire (Secondary Transfer Test) | Papers marked by GL Assessment | 8 & 10 September 2026 |
| London Borough of Bexley | Quest Assessments (paper-based) | 2–10 September 2026 |
| Dorset Consortium (Bournemouth, Bournemouth School for Girls, Parkstone Grammar, Poole Grammar) | GL Assessment (Quest starts Sept 2027 test, i.e. 2028 entry) | Poole Grammar School and Bournemouth School: Saturday 26 September 2026 |
| Independent schools using Quest Admissions | Quest Assessments (adaptive or non-adaptive, online or paper) | Check each school's website |
| Grammar schools using GL Assessment | GL Assessment | Poole Grammar School and Bournemouth School: Saturday 26 September 2026; Buckinghamshire: 8 and 10 September 2026 |
Source: Bexley Council, Buckinghamshire Council, Poole Grammar School and Quest Assessments' parent guidance pages, retrieved 3 October 2026.
The Dorset row matters more than it looks. Poole Grammar School's website says that from September 2027 (for 2028 entry) its 11+ assessments will be provided by Quest Assessments, and that the entrance test for Poole Grammar School and Bournemouth School, provided by GL Assessment, was held on Saturday 26 September 2026. Quest's Dorset consortium page gives the Quest test date as September 2027 and National Offer Day as Wednesday 1 March 2028. If your child is in Year 6 in the 2026/27 school year and applying to Bournemouth School, Bournemouth School for Girls, Parkstone Grammar or Poole Grammar for September 2027, the entrance test is provided by GL Assessment, not Quest; Poole Grammar School's website says its Late Entrance Test, for families who missed the original registration date, is due to be held in February 2027. Children in Year 5 in the 2026/27 school year will be the first Dorset cohort to sit the new Quest format, in September 2027. For more general school-by-school detail on which providers grammar schools use, see our complete GL Assessment parent guide.
GL Assessment's own site lists the format of its admissions tests as paper with multiple-choice questions. Buckinghamshire Council says the Secondary Transfer Test papers are marked by GL Assessment, and that each child's score is standardised to account for their age when the test was taken and then weighted according to the different sections of the test. Because the papers are printed, every child sitting a given paper answers the same questions, with no adjustment for how well a child is doing as the test progresses.
Quest assessments are delivered in more than one way, and the difference matters for preparation. Quest's own guidance for children describes two kinds of assessment: non-adaptive tests, where a child can go back and check answers at the end, and adaptive tests, where a child cannot go back to questions already tried; Quest also says its assessments can be taken online on any device or printed for paper-based use. But the state-school tests Quest provides are different: its own pages describe the Bexley, Tiffin, Plymouth and Colyton tests as non-adaptive paper assessments, and the Dorset consortium test as a paper-based, multiple-choice test on which children mark answers on an OMR answer sheet by drawing a clear horizontal line through a box next to their chosen answer. In other words, whether a Quest test is adaptive depends on the assessment a school uses, which matters for how a family should prepare.
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Book a Free Consultation Message us on WhatsAppGL Assessment's own site lists the areas covered by its admissions tests as verbal reasoning, non-verbal reasoning, spatial reasoning, English and maths, and the combination differs by area: the GL Assessment-provided entrance test for the four BCP grammar schools has mathematics, English and verbal reasoning papers, while Buckinghamshire weights its results across verbal, mathematical and non-verbal sections. That is why families must always check their specific council's or school's format rather than assume a national standard.
Quest's subject mix is set school by school: Quest's guidance for parents says the grammar school decides the subjects, timings and number of questions, and its own pages show different combinations, from English and mathematics at Tiffin School and Plymouth to mathematics, verbal reasoning and non-verbal reasoning at the Wirral Consortium and English, mathematics and writing at Colyton Grammar School. The paper-based Quest test used for Bexley consists of two papers, each roughly 50 minutes long. The format Quest publishes for the Dorset consortium test (September 2027, for 2028 entry) is three papers of 40 minutes each — Maths, English and Verbal reasoning — all multiple choice, usually with five options (A, B, C, D or E) and marked on an OMR answer sheet, and Quest's guidance for parents says its 11+ is designed to assess what children have covered in school up to the end of Year 5.
Bexley Council says whether a child meets the selective standard is based on the total weighted age-standardised score, and Buckinghamshire Council says each child's score is standardised to account for their age when the test was taken; without age standardisation, a child born in September would have a significant natural advantage over a child born the following August simply from being up to eleven months older on test day. Qualifying scores are set locally rather than by the test provider: Buckinghamshire Council says children who achieve a standardised score of at least 121 are eligible to be considered for a Buckinghamshire grammar school place, while Bexley Council says it determines the selective score in conjunction with the four grammar schools, so the Buckinghamshire figure has no direct read-across to Bexley or any Quest-tested area.
GL Assessment says it has been supporting schools and local authorities with admissions decisions for 50 years, and describes itself as the largest provider of 11+ tests to schools in England, delivering over 300,000 papers every year. Quest Assessments describes itself as part of the education company Atom Learning. For 2027 entry, Bexley Council names Quest Assessments as the Bexley Selection Test provider, and Quest's own pages list Quest tests in September 2027, for 2028 entry, for the Dorset consortium, the Slough Consortium, The Latymer School and Bishop Wordsworth's School.
Exact dates vary by local authority and school, so families must always confirm directly with their target school or council; the dates below come from Bexley Council, Buckinghamshire Council, Poole Grammar School and Quest Assessments. Buckinghamshire's Secondary Transfer Test, whose papers are marked by GL Assessment, was sat on 8 and 10 September 2026, and Buckinghamshire Council says most parents will be told the result by email after 4pm on 9 October 2026. Bexley Council's Selection Test, provided by Quest Assessments, was sat between 2 and 10 September 2026, and Bexley Council emailed results from 4pm on Friday 2 October 2026. Poole Grammar School's website says the entrance test for Poole Grammar School and Bournemouth School, provided by GL Assessment, was held on Saturday 26 September 2026, with results to be emailed to parents on Friday 16 October 2026; secondary school applications, made through your home local authority, are due by 12 noon on Saturday 31 October 2026. Independent schools that use Quest Admissions: check each school's own website for its test dates. For a fuller regional breakdown of 2027-entry dates, see our 11+ Exam Dates 2026–2027 guide.
Bexley Council names Quest Assessments as the Bexley Selection Test provider and describes two timed multiple-choice papers, each lasting approximately 50 minutes, while Quest's own Bexley page describes them as non-adaptive paper assessments. Quest's own guidance for parents leans on curriculum alignment: it says the Quest 11+ is designed to assess what children have covered in school up to the end of Year 5. Whether that approach changes outcomes in practice will only become clear as results data from the areas using Quest builds up over several admissions cycles.
Start with content, not format. English, Maths, Verbal Reasoning and Non-Verbal Reasoning fundamentals overlap heavily across both providers, so strong core subject knowledge transfers directly regardless of which test your child eventually sits. Once content is solid, layer in format-specific practice, because the two formats reward different exam behaviours.
For paper tests — GL Assessment papers and paper-based Quest sittings such as Bexley's — practise working to time, because every child answers the same paper and, at Bexley, each section has a set time allocated to it. Timed practice with format-matched materials is sensible, and both GL Assessment and Quest publish free familiarisation materials.
For adaptive Quest assessments, Quest's guidance for children says a child cannot go back to questions already tried, so the advice is a best guess and then move on, whereas in a non-adaptive test a child should try every question and use any spare time to go back and check. Comfort working on-screen as well as on paper needs deliberate practice — Quest says its assessments can be taken online on any device or printed for paper-based use, and a child who has only ever practised paper GL papers should not assume that preparation transfers directly to an online Quest assessment. Families with children applying to a mixed portfolio — for example a Bexley grammar school and several independent schools — should budget time for both formats separately, starting structured preparation well before the earliest test date. Families also weighing up 13+ options in parallel may find our Quest vs ISEB Common Pre-Test comparison useful. For the detailed structure of Quest's Part 1 test, see our Quest Assessment Part 1 guide, and for Bexley-specific paper Quest preparation, see our Bexley grammar schools Quest Assessment guide. Families wanting to understand what score their child needs can also read our Quest Assessment scoring guide. For the official test-provider specifications referenced throughout this guide, see GL Assessment's own 11+ pages and Quest Assessments' official site.
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Quest's own parent guidance pages list these state-school tests for 2027 entry, which is joining Year 7 in September 2027 and so Year 6 in the 2026/27 school year.
For 2028 entry, which is joining Year 7 in September 2028 and so Year 5 in the 2026/27 school year, Quest's pages list a September 2027 test for these groups.
Quest also has a guidance page for the London 11+ Consortium Assessment, which Quest describes as designed to identify the girls who will thrive at London 11+ Consortium schools; check the consortium's own website for its dates.
Reviewed October 2026: dates, figures and rules checked against Bexley Council's Selection Test page, Buckinghamshire Council's Secondary Transfer Test pages, Poole Grammar School's Year 7 admissions page, Quest Assessments' consortium and parent guidance pages and GL Assessment's admissions page.
GL Assessment and Quest Assessments are two separate testing organisations that both produce 11+ entrance exams, but they differ in three practical ways. First, delivery: GL Assessment's site lists a paper format with multiple-choice questions, while Quest says its assessments can be taken online or on paper, and its Bexley and Dorset tests are paper-based. Second, difficulty: Quest's pages describe the Bexley, Tiffin, Plymouth and Colyton tests as non-adaptive, whereas Quest also offers adaptive assessments in which a child cannot go back to earlier questions. Third, coverage: GL Assessment describes itself as the largest provider of 11+ tests to schools in England, while Quest provides the Bexley Selection Test and, on its own pages, the Tiffin, Wirral and Plymouth tests.
For the 2027 entry cycle, tested in September 2026, the London Borough of Bexley uses Quest Assessments (paper-based), as do the other Quest-run state-school tests listed in this guide, while Buckinghamshire's Secondary Transfer Test papers are marked by GL Assessment and the Dorset consortium uses entrance tests provided by GL Assessment. Poole Grammar School's website says its 11+ assessments will be provided by Quest from September 2027 (for 2028 entry). Beyond state-school groups, Quest describes Quest Admissions as an exam provider used by UK independent schools, so check each school's own admissions information.
Some Quest assessments are adaptive and others are not: Quest's own guidance for children describes adaptive tests as ones in which a child cannot go back to questions already tried, and its Bexley, Tiffin, Plymouth and Colyton tests are described as non-adaptive. GL Assessment's paper tests, and Quest's own non-adaptive paper sittings such as Bexley's, do not change with a child's answers: every child sits the same paper regardless of performance. Practice should match the format: Quest's guidance for children says to try every question in a non-adaptive test and use spare time to go back and check, and to give a best guess and move on in an adaptive test.
Bexley Council says whether a child meets the selective standard is based on the total weighted age-standardised score, and Buckinghamshire Council says each child's score is standardised to account for their age when the test was taken, so that a child born in August is not disadvantaged against a child born the previous September, since younger children in the same year group are compared fairly against peers of a similar age. Qualifying scores are set locally rather than by the test provider: Buckinghamshire Council uses a standardised score of at least 121, while Bexley Council says it determines the selective score in conjunction with the four grammar schools.
Build core subject knowledge first, since English, Maths, verbal reasoning and non-verbal reasoning content overlaps heavily across both providers, so strong fundamentals transfer directly. Once content is solid, layer format-specific practice: full timed GL-style paper mocks for fixed-difficulty tests, including paper Quest sittings like Bexley, and separate timed on-screen practice if any target school uses an online Quest assessment. Do not assume GL practice alone prepares a child for an online or adaptive Quest assessment, since the on-screen format and the rule that a child cannot go back in an adaptive test call for distinct practice. Families targeting a mixed portfolio of schools should start structured, dual-format preparation well before the earliest test date.
Leading Tuition's specialist 11+ tutors prepare children for both GL Assessment and Quest Assessments, including the paper-based Quest format used by Bexley and the online and adaptive Quest formats. We build a diagnostic plan around your target schools' exact provider and format, covering GL-style timed papers, Quest's adaptive question style, and the specific subject combinations each school requires. Our tutors track which councils and schools change test provider, so preparation matches the format each school publishes for its entry year. Book a free consultation at leadingtuition.co.uk/consultation or message us on WhatsApp.
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