Kent Test scores, explained
Results for the September 2026 test arrive on 15 October 2026. Enter your child's three scores to see what they mean.
Check the three scores
What the scores are
- Each score is age-standardised: it compares your child with the whole group and allows for age in months.
- English, maths and reasoning each run from 69 to 141, so the highest total is 423.
- The qualifying rule changes by test year. KCC publishes each year's rule itself.
What a score cannot tell you
- It is not a raw mark. Practice-paper percentages cannot be turned into a standardised score.
- Qualifying is not a place. Each grammar school ranks or allocates places by its own policy.
- Name your chosen schools on your home council's application, even if you are waiting for results.
The headteacher assessment
Kent's second route to grammar school for children just below the standard.
How it works
- Kent's writing task is not routinely marked, but a local headteacher panel can read it as part of the headteacher assessment.
- The case goes to the panel from your child's primary school, not from parents. Schools describe using work in books and earlier results as evidence.
- If your child is close to the standard, ask the school whether it put your child forward, and when you will hear.
Questions to ask the school
- Did you ask for a headteacher assessment for my child?
- What work are you sending: books, writing, earlier test results?
- When will we hear the outcome?
- If it is not successful, do you support an appeal, and what evidence would help?
The writing rule comes from Kent County Council's Kent Test preparation page. How schools put a case forward comes from Kent primary schools' own 2026 guidance to parents, for example Upton Junior School. Ask your child's school how it runs this.
The writing can matter. Practise the Kent writing task.