A free 32-question Medway-style sample of English, Maths and Verbal Reasoning, including choose-TWO comprehension and hidden-word questions. It comes with worked answers and a separate answer sheet.
It is not a full-length Medway Test: Spatial and Non-Verbal Reasoning, part of the real Reasoning paper, are not in this PDF.
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Use this Medway-style sample to see where your child hesitates, then practise that English, Maths or Verbal Reasoning skill with fresh Pip questions and immediate feedback. Pip also offers Non-Verbal Reasoning, which the real Medway test includes but this PDF does not.
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Set by GL Assessment on behalf of Medway Council, the test decides grammar school suitability for children in the Medway area. Three papers, always sat in the same order.
| Paper | Time | Covers |
|---|---|---|
| English | 30 min | Comprehension, punctuation, grammar |
| Mathematics | 50 min | KS2 content through Year 5, with application questions |
| Reasoning | 45 min | Spatial + Non-Verbal (20 min) and Verbal Reasoning (25 min) |
Format, weighting and dates taken from Medway Council's own published test information and familiarisation booklet.
The punctuation section asks which word group contains a mistake, or to mark N if there is no mistake at all. Verbal reasoning also includes opposite-meaning word pairs and odd-two-out questions, using broad formats illustrated in the council's booklet.
The booklet cautions that its examples may not all appear in the live test.
A short English, Maths and Verbal Reasoning sampler based on Medway Council's familiarisation material, with mark schemes and a separate answer sheet. Eleven pages; visual reasoning is separate.
An original passage with five questions, including a genuine choose-TWO combination question.
Find the word-group with the mistake, or mark N. Plus sentence completion.
Ten questions including a decimal scale reading and a distance-time graph, mirroring the booklet's own worked examples.
Five questions to find the word pair, with each answer explained.
Six further verbal reasoning questions in Medway's own two remaining formats.
Every answer explained, with the maths working shown in the key.
Medway's Reasoning paper gives 20 minutes to Spatial and Non-Verbal Reasoning. Both need carefully built figures to be worth practising, so rather than reproduce them badly here, we point you to the real thing:
| Skill | Where to practise it |
|---|---|
| Non-verbal reasoning | Free 24-question Non-Verbal Reasoning paper |
| Spatial reasoning | Spatial reasoning practice hub |
| Date | What happens |
|---|---|
| 18 May 2026, 9am | Registration opens on the Medway Parent Portal |
| 12 June 2026, 5pm | Registration closes, a firm deadline |
| 15 and 16 September 2026 | Test days for children at Medway maintained primary and junior schools |
| 19 and 20 September 2026 | Test days for children outside Medway |
| 14 October 2026 | Results released |
Dates from Medway Council's own published admissions timetable for September 2027 entry. Always confirm against medway.gov.uk before relying on them.
The Medway Test is the entrance test used to decide grammar school suitability for children applying in the Medway area. It is set by GL Assessment on behalf of Medway Council.
Children sit three separate papers: English (30 minutes), Mathematics (50 minutes) and Reasoning (45 minutes, covering Spatial, Non-Verbal and Verbal Reasoning). Every question is multiple choice, marked on a separate computer-read answer sheet.
Medway Council publishes the weighting: each paper's score is standardised for age, then combined as (English standardised score × 2) + (Maths standardised score × 2) + (Reasoning standardised score × 1). Reasoning counts for half the weight of English or Maths.
This 32-question sample cannot be used to calculate a child's actual Medway selection score.
There is no fixed pass mark published in advance. Medway Council says the test is designed to assess the highest-scoring children equivalent to 26% of those attending Medway maintained schools as suitable for grammar.
Its published minimum weighted scores were 481 for 2026 admissions and 482 for 2025 admissions. Those are past results, not a target for the 2026 test.
Check Medway Council's current marking guidance for your child's entry year.
Medway Council's own familiarisation booklet shows comprehension (including a genuine choose-TWO question, where a candidate must select exactly two correct statements from five to score any marks), punctuation (finding which underlined group of words contains an error, or marking N for no mistake), and grammar sentence completion.
The booklet shows four formats. In a hidden-word question, a word is hidden spanning the end of one word and the start of the next in a sentence, for example "Maya found a slim envelope", where the hidden word is LIME, spanning slim and envelope.
In an opposite-meanings question, two groups of three words are given and the task is to find the pair, one from each group, that means the opposite of the other. In an odd-two-out question, three of five words share a category and the task is to find the two that do not.
A fourth format, restoring three removed letters to complete a word, also appears in the official booklet.
Yes. The Reasoning paper gives 20 minutes combined to Spatial and Non-Verbal Reasoning, and 25 minutes to Verbal Reasoning.
Spatial reasoning includes finding a hidden target shape within a more complex figure, matching the style used in several other GL-based 11+ tests. Pip publishes dedicated, separately verified free practice for both skills.
For September 2027 entry, children at Medway maintained primary and junior schools sat the test on Tuesday 15 and Wednesday 16 September 2026. Children from outside Medway sat it on Saturday 19 or Sunday 20 September 2026.
Registration on the Medway Parent Portal opened at 9am on Monday 18 May 2026 and closed at 5pm on Friday 12 June 2026. Results are due on Wednesday 14 October 2026.
No. This is an original 32-question Pip sample of English, Maths and Verbal Reasoning question types from Medway Council's familiarisation booklet.
It is not a past paper or a full-length Medway Test, and omits Spatial and Non-Verbal Reasoning. Pip is not affiliated with, endorsed by or connected to Medway Council or GL Assessment.
The neighbouring GL-based format, and how its scoring differs from Medway's weighted total.
Read the guideThe reasoning strand this paper does not cover, built and verified as its own resource.
Download freeEvery free Pip paper in one place, including the Bucks, CSSE, Tiffin and Sutton style papers.
See all printablesPip is not affiliated with, endorsed by or connected to Medway Council or GL Assessment. These practice papers are original material written in the style of the published format and contain no official questions.
The comprehension passage is our own writing.
