CEM 11+ explained

The story of CEM

The Centre for Evaluation & Monitoring (CEM) grew out of an evaluation project at Newcastle University, where its first monitoring system, COMBSE, was set up in 1983. It moved to Durham University in 1996, which is where most people came to know it. Alongside its main business in formative assessment, it supplied entrance-test papers to a number of English grammar-school areas through the 2010s and into the early 2020s. Its papers were designed to be hard to coach: where GL Assessment papers had a predictable structure, with one paper per subject and repeatable question types, CEM papers mixed question types within a paper and varied which forms appeared from year to year.

The ownership story is often told wrongly, so it is worth being precise. CEM was not bought by GL Assessment. Durham University sold CEM to Cambridge Assessment and Cambridge University Press in June 2019, and it has been part of Cambridge ever since. In 2025 the CEM name was retired in favour of a new one: the business now trades as Cambridge Insight.

What ended was not the company but the paper-based local-authority contracts. Through 2022 to 2024, the consortiums that had used CEM papers put their testing out to tender as contracts expired, and most moved to GL Assessment. Warwickshire, explaining its own switch, put it plainly: the change followed "a joint procurement exercise with The Schools of King Edward VI Foundation, which took place when the previous contract with CEM came to an end". So there is no single date on which "the CEM 11+" was withdrawn. It went region by region.

Cambridge has not left admissions testing either. It still sells a computer-based entrance assessment, Cambridge Select Insight, aimed at grammar schools, partially selective state schools and selective independents. It is a different product from the old paper CEM 11+, but the claim that CEM simply disappeared into GL is not accurate.

Why CEM papers were different

CEM's design intent, as the tests were described at the time, rested on a few ideas.

Mixed-question papers

Rather than a full paper devoted to one subject, a CEM paper interleaved verbal reasoning, comprehension, vocabulary, and shape-pattern questions. Children had to switch question types and manage time across the whole paper rather than within one subject block.

Varying question types

CEM introduced and dropped question types between years, which made "memorise these specific question patterns" a less reliable prep strategy.

Tighter time pressure

CEM papers had a reputation for being harder to finish in the time allowed than GL papers.

The subject coverage itself was not exotic. Warwickshire, describing the GL papers that replaced its CEM ones, noted they would "test the same four competencies of Maths, English, Verbal and Non-Verbal Reasoning as the CEM papers have in previous years".

Where CEM was used, and what those areas use now

The former CEM areas have not moved as a bloc, and this is the single most important thing to understand if you are prepping today. They have gone in different directions.

The West Midlands consolidated. Birmingham's King Edward VI grammar schools, Walsall's Queen Mary's Grammar and Queen Mary's High, and Wolverhampton Girls' High now sit in one partnership, the West Midlands Grammar Schools group, sitting a single GL test. Birmingham City Council describes it as "one entrance test (made up of two papers provided by GL assessment)", multiple-choice, with no writing sections and answers on a separate answer sheet.

Berkshire split. Reading School now uses tests from FSCE Ltd (Future Stories Community Enterprise) and warns that "there are no commercially available practice test papers for the FSCE Ltd tests". Kendrick School uses GL. The Slough Consortium also contracted with GL. Slough's own guidance spells out the consequence: score-sharing between Reading and Slough has ended, because the schools no longer sit the same test.

Henrietta Barnett uses GL familiarisation material for its first-round test, which covers verbal reasoning, non-verbal reasoning and English, followed by a second-round English and Maths test.

A third provider now matters: Quest

The landscape is no longer GL versus a memory of CEM. Quest Assessments, a brand of Atom Learning Ltd, now holds consortium contracts of its own and states it is trusted by more than 130 schools. The Dorset Consortium (Bournemouth School, Bournemouth School for Girls, Parkstone Grammar and Poole Grammar) uses Quest, and Wirral's non-faith grammar schools have moved to it as well. Trafford, meanwhile, has announced a move from GL to FSCE for 2028 entry.

The practical consequence is that "which provider does my area use" is a question you have to answer for your own consortium, in the current admissions round, rather than inferring from what was true a few years ago.

Did the "tutor-proof" claim hold up?

Mostly no. CEM papers were genuinely less responsive to rote practice of specific question forms, but tutoring in CEM areas adapted, moving towards broader vocabulary work and mixed-paper drills run at pace. What CEM left behind is a legacy of mixed-question practice papers and broader vocabulary expectations, plus a generation of tutors who learned to prep for question variety rather than question repetition. Those habits transfer well to any current format.

What if you are prepping in a former CEM area?

Start by confirming who writes your test this cycle. Your council's determined admission arrangements set out the structure, though they often do not name the supplier; the schools' own admissions pages and the consortium site usually do. Then work from the current familiarisation booklet for that test, which is the most accurate guide to what your child will actually sit.

CEM-style practice books still have residual value: the mixed-question format teaches a useful skill, namely maintaining focus across rotating question types under pressure. Treat them as supplementary, and prioritise materials matched to your consortium's current provider.