What does your 11+ score actually mean?
Enter a West Midlands 11+ score and see it against the thresholds the schools have actually published. Birmingham and Walsall are different, and where a figure is not published at all, this tells you that rather than guessing.
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What this cannot tell you
Being straight about the limits, because they matter more than the number:
- Clearing a threshold is not an offer. It makes your child eligible to be considered. Catchment, distance and each school's own oversubscription criteria decide what happens next, and they decide more outcomes than the score does.
- There is no published maximum and no published range. The King Edward VI Foundation states it does not release raw scores or the number of available marks, so nobody can tell you what the test was "out of" or what the highest possible score is.
- This is not a percentile. The distribution of scores is not published, so no one can honestly tell you what percentage of children you beat.
- Thresholds are reset every year, after results are in. The figures below are the most recent published ones, not a permanent pass mark.
Every threshold we can actually source
These are the numbers the checker uses. Each one is attributed, because the three bodies below set them separately and conflating them is the most common mistake families make.
Birmingham: King Edward VI Foundation, 2027 entry
| Threshold | Score | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Qualifying score | 205 | The minimum to be considered for a Foundation place at all |
| Priority score | 224 | A higher bar, used in the Foundation's allocation |
Source: King Edward VI Foundation, results and offers. These apply to the Foundation's Birmingham grammar schools and nowhere else.
Walsall: Queen Mary's Grammar School (boys), 2026 entry
| Figure | Score | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum Qualifying Score | 180 | The eligibility threshold set by the school |
| Lowest score offered a place | around 200 | An outcome of oversubscription, not a threshold. Marked provisional by the school |
| Lowest score on the waiting list | 225 | How far down the list moved |
Source: Queen Mary's Grammar School, September 2026 entry. The MQS and the lowest score offered are two different things, and writing "Walsall's qualifying score is 200" is wrong.
The scale itself, partnership-wide
Results across all 19 partnership schools use an age-weighted standardisation around a median of 200. That is why local thresholds are numbers like 180, 205 and 224 rather than figures in the 100s. If you have read about a mean of 100 with entry around 111, that is the generic national GL model and it does not apply here. See our guide to the standardised score.
Where no figure is published
| School or area | Position |
|---|---|
| Queen Mary's High School (girls, Walsall) | Publishes no equivalent score on its admissions pages. Do not assume it matches the boys' school |
| Warwickshire grammar schools | A Committee of Reference sets each Automatic Qualifying Score after the test, so there is no figure to check against in advance |
| Newport Girls' High School | Qualifying score set by panel after the test |
| Wolverhampton Girls' High School | No catchment area; places allocated on test score, with no threshold published in advance |
Frequently asked questions
What is a good 11+ score in the West Midlands?
It depends which schools you are applying to, because each body sets its own. For the Birmingham King Edward VI schools, 205 was the qualifying score and 224 the priority score for 2027 entry. Queen Mary's Grammar School in Walsall published a Minimum Qualifying Score of 180 for 2026 entry. Results across the partnership are standardised around a median of 200, so a score above 200 is above the midpoint.
What is the 11+ out of, and what is the highest possible score?
Neither is published. The King Edward VI Foundation states that it does not release raw scores or the number of available marks, and no scale range is published anywhere by the partnership. Anyone quoting a maximum score or a range such as 69 to 141 is describing a different test on a different scale.
Is 205 a pass mark?
No. It is a qualifying score, which means the minimum needed to be considered at all. Clearing it does not get a child a place: catchment, distance and each school's own oversubscription criteria decide that, and they decide more outcomes than the score does.
Does the Birmingham qualifying score apply in Walsall?
No. These are set by different bodies. The 205 and 224 figures are King Edward VI Foundation figures for its Birmingham schools. Walsall schools set their own, and Queen Mary's Grammar School published a Minimum Qualifying Score of 180 for 2026 entry, which is a long way below Birmingham's.
What percentile is my child's score?
Nobody can tell you honestly, because the distribution of scores is not published. What is published is that the scale is standardised around a median of 200, so a score above 200 is above the midpoint of the cohort and a score below it is not.
Will the thresholds be the same next year?
Not necessarily. Both the Foundation's figures are reset annually once results are in, and Warwickshire sets its Automatic Qualifying Scores after the test each year. Treat any published figure as the most recent benchmark rather than a permanent pass mark.
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