CEM 11+ guide: What happened to it and what replaced it

If you've been digging through 11+ forums and Facebook groups, you've probably seen long arguments about "CEM-style" preparation and warnings that the CEM test is unpredictable. Most of that advice is now out of date. CEM stopped offering 11+ tests for grammar schools after the 2022 admissions round, and the areas that used it have since moved on.

This guide explains what CEM was, why it left the 11+ market, what replaced it in each former CEM area, and where Cambridge Select Insight fits in. If your child is sitting an exam in autumn 2026, the practical question isn't "how do we prep for CEM?" but "what does my child's specific area use now?"

CEM stands for the Centre for Evaluation and Monitoring, an assessment research group founded at Durham University. From the mid-2000s onward, CEM ran an 11+ entrance test used by a sizeable minority of grammar school areas in England. At its peak it was the second-biggest 11+ provider after GL Assessment.

The test was deliberately designed to resist heavy tutoring. CEM didn't publish past papers, the format of each section changed slightly year to year, and questions were mixed within shorter timed segments rather than presented as one long paper per subject. The marketing line was "closer to the national curriculum, harder to coach". Whether it really worked is a long debate among tutors and parents, but the intent shaped how the test looked and felt.

CEM coverage shifted over the years, but in the test's final few years the regular CEM areas included Bexley, the Birmingham consortium (King Edward VI schools and others), Walsall, Wolverhampton, Wirral, parts of Berkshire (notably Slough), Gloucestershire, Shropshire, and Henrietta Barnett School in Barnet, alongside a handful of independent schools using CEM Select.

The other big 11+ areas (Kent, Medway, Buckinghamshire, Lincolnshire, Trafford, most of Essex) stayed with GL Assessment throughout, so for those families the CEM transition isn't relevant. Sutton sits outside both: The five Sutton consortium grammars (Sutton Grammar, Wilson's, Wallington County, Nonsuch and Wallington Girls) use their own bespoke Selective Eligibility Test (SET), two multiple-choice papers in maths and English set by the schools themselves rather than by GL or CEM. If you're not sure which provider your child's area used historically, the simplest check is the local authority's 11+ admissions page.

The CEM 11+ tested four areas in total: verbal reasoning, non-verbal reasoning, numerical reasoning and English. Most areas ran two papers, each about 45 to 50 minutes long, with the four subject areas split across the two papers in shorter timed sections of five to ten minutes each.

Four features made CEM distinctive in practice. Vocabulary carried a heavier weight than in most GL papers. Questions used a mix of multiple-choice and standard-format answers, written in a separate booklet. Section timings were tight and announced section by section, so children couldn't pace themselves across the whole paper. And papers were not released afterwards, so familiarisation relied on third-party practice books rather than past papers.

Durham University sold CEM to Cambridge University Press & Assessment around 2019. After the sale, Cambridge reviewed the business and the 11+ side was wound down in late 2022. The last full CEM 11+ season for state grammar schools was the autumn 2022 round (for September 2023 entry).

Cambridge has kept and developed the CEM Select test (used by a small group of independent schools) and rebranded it as Cambridge Select Insight in early 2025, sitting under the broader Cambridge Insight umbrella of assessments. The state grammar 11+ papers, though, are not coming back. Areas that wanted to continue with a similar style of test had to either switch provider or commission a bespoke paper.

Most former CEM areas moved to GL Assessment papers for the 2023 round onward. A few areas commissioned bespoke local papers, sometimes written by other assessment providers. The table below shows where the larger CEM areas landed. Always check the local authority's current admissions page before relying on this, because providers can change.

Not for state grammar schools. Cambridge Select Insight (the rebrand of CEM Select, sitting under the wider Cambridge Insight family of assessments) is a separate test used by around 20 to 25 selective independent schools, including a handful of London girls' schools and a few academically selective day schools. It's run by the same Cambridge team that took over CEM, which is why the names sometimes get confused.

The practical differences matter. Cambridge Select Insight is a one-hour computer-based test split into six sections, covering verbal, numerical and non-verbal ability. It's not adaptive, and children can review answers within each section. The old CEM 11+ was paper-based, longer, included a separate English paper, and was used by state grammar areas. If your child is sitting an independent school assessment, our Cambridge Select Insight guide goes into more detail; if they're sitting a state grammar entry, this isn't the test you're preparing for.

The headline is that you can let go of CEM-specific advice. Old practice books labelled "CEM-style" aren't useless, because the underlying skills (vocabulary, comprehension, reasoning, mental maths) overlap heavily with GL papers. But the test format your child will sit is almost certainly GL Assessment now, and that's what daily practice should mirror.

GL papers are multiple-choice, with answers on a separate sheet, and section timings are predictable. The main shifts from CEM-style prep are: less emphasis on changing-format curveballs, more emphasis on neat answer-sheet technique, and a steadier pace because each subject paper runs for its full 45-50 minutes rather than being chopped into short timed bursts.