CEM Select Entrance Assessments
Helping you select the right pupils for your school with CEM select entrance assessments
Avg Duration: 60 minutes
Assessment: Digital (download)
Sections: Numerical, Verbal and Non-verbal ability
Price: Costs
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What is CEM Select?
CEM Select computer assessments are designed for selective independent schools, partially selective state schools, Grammar Schools and schools with fair banding admissions. They enable children to demonstrate their academic potential, ensuring a fair admissions process.
- Assessments that enable children to demonstrate their academic potential without the need for excessive preparation
- Suitable for 11+, 13+, late transfer and fair banding
- Easy to run computer assessments, with quick turnaround of results
Robust information to help schools identify suitable candidates
CEM Select Entrance Assessments can help you identify students likely to succeed in an academic secondary school. They measure verbal, non-verbal and mathematical skills that form the foundations of further learning. The assessments enable children to demonstrate their academic potential and ability without coaching and excessive preparation. The assessments support developed abilities in reading and maths that rely on genuine understanding rather than learning through repetition.
Easy to set up and run
Every school has a secure account to access the assessment and the feedback reports. The school must download the assessments to the local network or computer. Candidate details are optional in advance as candidates complete their details at the start of the assessment. We provide step-by-step guidance to help you set up and run the assessment.
How it works
Each student completes the assessment independently, working at a computer and guided by on-screen instructions. You can carry out the assessment with as many candidates as you can cater for in a sitting. Feedback is available to download from the secure website within 72 hours.
Pupil support
CEM Select Entrance Assessments come with 25% extra time versions for candidates with special educational needs.
Mitigating against advantages of test-specific tuition
We introduce new assessment paradigms to reduce the predictability of assessment content. We develop content independently from all other Cambridge CEM assessments to ensure that candidates using our other systems do not gain an advantage through familiarity with existing assessments.
Fairness
We strive to ensure a fair selection process for all candidates, and we design our assessments to enable children to demonstrate their academic potential and achievement. To maintain the fairness of our assessments, we do not provide any commercially available practice materials (including practice or past papers) nor endorse any other commercially available resources or tuition services.
All candidates receive standardised familiarisation materials designed to prevent undue anxiety for candidates sitting the assessments.
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How do other schools use CEM Select?
"The move to CEM Entrance Assessments was an unqualified success. The administration was straightforward, inspiring confidence (and gratitude!) in the staff responsible for supervising the whole process. Most important of all for us, the assessments seemed to produce the right results: a cohort both eager and able to take on the challenge of high academic expectations."
"With regard to the outcomes in terms of the quality of our intake, there has been a marked improvement measurable through both MidYIS data and prior attainment at KS2. In school we have also noticed a difference in attitude and approach with students selected using CEM assessments."
"I wanted a test that delivered the brightest boys regardless of whether they could afford to be tutored – and that’s clearly what we’ve got."
Which CEM Select Assessment is suitable for your school?
11+ and 13+ Assessments for Independent Schools
There are two versions of CEM Select for independent schools looking for an 11+ or 13+ assessment:
- CEM Select Evaluate provides year-on-year comparability; results are age-standardised and included.
- CEM Select Challenge offers several versions of the assessment. This allows using the same test each year to provide year-on-year comparability or to select a different one. We report raw scores, including sub-sections and total scores, to enable you to rank your candidates.
Late Transfer Entrance Assessments for Grammar Schools
CEM Select Mid-Year Transfer is designed explicitly as a late-transfer test for Grammar schools and is suitable for entry into years 8, 9 and 10. We age-standardise and benchmark the results against your existing pupils. Raw scores, including sub-sections and total scores, are reported to enable you to rank your candidates.