City of London Entrance Exam: What to Expect and How to Prepare

City of London School assesses its 11+ candidates in two parts taken on the same day: an online assessment covering maths, English and reasoning, followed by a creative writing task. Boys who do well are invited back for a second round, an interview and a group activity. Knowing exactly what each part involves, and how the day is structured, is the difference between calm, well-judged preparation and effort spent on the wrong thing. This guide explains the assessment and how to prepare.

The two-part assessment

City of London School's 11+ entrance assessment is taken on a single day and has two parts: an online assessment first, followed by a creative writing task. Boys are on site for about two and a half hours in total, with breaks between the two parts, so the day is manageable rather than gruelling. The two parts together give the school a rounded measure of academic ability, the online assessment covering core skills and reasoning, and the writing task showing how a boy expresses himself. Boys who perform well are then invited back for a second round, an interview and a group activity, usually in January or early February. Understanding that the written assessment comes first and the interview is a separate, later stage helps you prepare for each in turn. Our guide to the City of London interview covers the second round in detail.

The online assessment

The first part is an online assessment lasting around ninety-five minutes, made up of several short timed sections. These cover Maths and English, each lasting around twenty minutes, Non-Verbal Reasoning and Verbal Reasoning, each around ten minutes, a puzzles and problem-solving section of around fifteen minutes, and a creative comprehension section of around twenty minutes. Most questions are multiple choice, with only a few requiring a typed word or number, so a boy needs to be comfortable working quickly and accurately on screen. The breadth of the sections means the assessment rewards a boy with secure maths and English and a generally able, flexible mind, rather than one drilled narrowly on a single type of question. Familiarity with the on-screen, timed format helps, so some realistic practice is worthwhile.

The creative writing task

The second part is a creative writing task lasting thirty minutes. Candidates are given a prompt, which may be a piece of writing to continue, a short story or persuasive piece to compose, or an image to use as a starting point. The writing is assessed for qualities such as creativity, vocabulary, organisation and cohesion, punctuation and sentence structure, so it rewards a boy who reads widely, writes with imagination, and can organise his ideas clearly under time pressure. This part is hard to drill, because it depends on a genuine facility with words built up over time. The best preparation is plenty of reading and regular writing for pleasure, so that producing an organised, imaginative piece in half an hour feels natural rather than daunting.

The second round

Boys who perform well in the assessment are invited back for a second round, usually in January or early February, made up of an interview and a group activity. The interview is a short, friendly, one-to-one conversation, and the group activity lets the school see how a boy works and thinks alongside others. This round is about more than academic ability: it explores how a boy communicates, how he reasons aloud, and whether he and the school are a good fit. The school says no specific preparation is required, and its interviewers are experienced at putting boys at ease. A boy who can talk clearly about his interests and join in readily with others is well placed.

How to prepare

Because the assessment combines an online test and a creative writing task, preparation should match both. For the online assessment, secure maths and English at the level expected at the start of Year 6 is the foundation, supported by some familiarity with the on-screen, timed format and with reasoning and problem-solving questions so the style holds no surprises. For the creative writing, the best preparation is wide reading and regular writing for pleasure, so a boy can produce an organised, imaginative piece quickly. For the second round, a boy who is used to talking about his interests and working with others will engage naturally, and no special interview coaching is needed. Throughout, aim for a genuinely able, well-read and confident boy rather than a narrowly drilled one.

What to avoid

The first thing to avoid is neglecting the creative writing in favour of drilling the online sections, when in fact the writing carries real weight and depends on reading that cannot be crammed. The second is treating the assessment as the whole process, when the second-round interview and group activity also matter for shortlisted boys. The third is over-coaching, since the school looks for genuine ability and clear thinking rather than rehearsed answers, and an over-prepared boy can come across as less natural than a curious one. Prepare for both parts of the assessment, keep reading and writing at the heart of it, and let your son's genuine ability show.