Cambridge Select Insight Practice Tests (CEM Select)

• 320 Cambridge Select Insight style questions across 2 mock tests
• Real exam timing for each section as in Cambridge Select Insight
• Computer-based practice, on-screen experience as test day
• Verbal ability questions including Reading Comprehension, Missing Words, Shuffled Sentences, Anagrams, Related Words
• Numerical ability questions including Arithmetic, General Mathematics, Data Problems
• Non-verbal ability problems including Pictures (figure matrices)
• Detailed answer explanations for every question 
• Score report by section after each test 
• Access: 3 months (Essential) or 6 months (Extended)
• Dedicated customer support: Our team is available to answer questions about the test and our preparation materials. You can contact us here. 

CEM Select is an admissions test that helps schools compare applicants fairly. It assesses verbal, non-verbal and maths skills, the foundations of further learning. The focus is on how well a child understands and applies these skills, not on how much they have memorised, which gives every child the chance to show their academic potential. Children take the test on a computer, following on-screen instructions.

Yes, they are the same assessment. The test was created by the Centre for Evaluation and Monitoring (CEM) at Durham University. In 2019 CEM joined Cambridge University Press & Assessment, and in 2025 Cambridge renamed its assessments, so CEM Select became Cambridge Select Insight.

For parents this raises one practical question: is older material still valid? It is. The rebrand changed the name and the administering organisation, not the format, the skills assessed or the question styles. Preparation built around CEM Select remains entirely appropriate for Cambridge Select Insight.

Most children who take Cambridge Select Insight are in Year 6 and applying for a Year 7 place, but the test can also be used for places in Years 8 to 10. It is not only used by independent schools: grammar schools, some state schools with partly selective admissions and schools that use fair banding rely on it too. Each school decides when and where its candidates sit the test, so the school's own admissions page is the best place to confirm the details.

Taken one at a time, Cambridge Select Insight questions are not unusually hard. Most sit comfortably within the Key Stage 2 curriculum. The difficulty comes entirely from volume against the clock, and the test is designed that way: it separates candidates by how quickly and accurately they work, not by how much they know.

This has two practical consequences for your child: they are not expected to finish every section, and because there is no negative marking, they should never leave a question blank.

The assessment draws from a pool of question styles across three skill areas. Not every style appears in every sitting, so preparation should cover the full range rather than a favourite few.

There is no published national pass mark for Cambridge Select Insight, and no school publishes its own threshold. Each school sets its own standard, and that standard moves every year depending on how many places are available and how strong the applicant field is. Any specific figure you find quoted online is an estimate, not official data.

What is known about how the test is scored:

• Scores are age-standardised. A child's raw score is adjusted for their age in years and months at the time of testing, so a September-born child is not advantaged over a July-born one in the same year group.
• There is no negative marking. Wrong answers are not penalised, so guessing is always better than leaving a blank.
• The test is not adaptive. Unlike the ISEB Pre-Test, questions do not get harder or easier in response to your child's answers. Everyone sees the same questions in the same order.
• Results reach schools in about 72 hours and are not released to parents. You will not see a score,  only the school's decision.
• The score is one input among several. Most schools weigh it alongside a school report, an interview and sometimes written papers, so it is rarely decisive on its own.

The practical implication is that there is no target number to aim at. The goal is to score as highly as your child comfortably can, which in a test built around speed means working accurately at pace rather than mastering harder content.

Cambridge states that the assessment is designed to be taken without coaching, and it's true that there is no syllabus to revise. But familiarity with the format, the interface and above all the pace is a genuine advantage. The most effective preparation combines six habits: practising on a computer, training pace, reading widely, building mental arithmetic, learning to guess smartly and taking full-length timed mock tests.