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TONBRIDGE, KENT — Thousands of Year 6 pupils across Kent and beyond will sit down this month for the Kent Test, the entrance exam that decides admission to the county's grammar schools — and among the most fiercely contested destinations is The Judd School in Tonbridge, a boys' grammar whose recent offer rounds have closed above 96 per cent.
Registration for this year's test closed on 1 July, with the exam itself due to take place in the second week of September — a window that, for out-of-Kent families invited to sit the paper at a Kent grammar school venue, falls on the weekend of 12–13 September. Results are scheduled to reach parents on 15 October, ahead of the Common Application Form deadline on 31 October and National Offer Day the following March, when successful applicants learn they have secured a place starting in September 2027.
A School in High Demand
The Judd School offers 180 places each year, split between 157 reserved for the Inner Area and 23 for the Outer Area — a division that shapes the odds significantly depending on where a family lives. In the most recent entry round, offers to Inner Area applicants went down to a score of 389, while Outer Area offers closed at 403, with the school noting that not every tied applicant at those marks was ultimately offered a place. The figures underline a pattern seen across Kent's most sought-after grammars: catchment status can matter as much as raw exam performance.
What the Test Involves
Like other Kent grammar schools, Judd selects through the Kent Test, set by GL Assessment and run over roughly two hours and forty minutes in total. Candidates sit an English and maths paper lasting one hour, split into two 30-minute sections each preceded by five minutes of practice questions ahead of 25 minutes of timed assessment, followed by a separate one-hour reasoning paper.
A less well-known element of the process is a short creative writing exercise, lasting 40 minutes including 10 minutes for planning. The task is not marked as part of the main aggregate score, but education consultants note it can be drawn on by headteacher panels reviewing borderline cases or appeals — meaning families are advised not to treat it as an afterthought, even though it carries no formal weighting in the initial result.
Advice for Families in the Final Stretch
With the test now imminent for this year's cohort, and pass thresholds at Judd running well above 90 per cent, preparation specialists are urging pupils to prioritise timed practice in the remaining weeks rather than introducing new content. Consistency under exam conditions, they say, tends to matter more in the closing stretch than covering additional ground, particularly for a test that rewards speed as well as accuracy across both English, maths and reasoning components.
For families still weighing whether to apply, the Outer Area threshold — some 14 marks higher than the Inner Area cutoff in the last cycle — is cited as a reminder to confirm catchment status early, since it can materially change the score a candidate needs to be competitive.
Figures cited reflect the most recent published entry round and are subject to change. Families should confirm current requirements with Kent County Council and The Judd School directly.
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