Winchester College 13+ entry guide

Are you thinking about applying to Winchester College for 13+ entry? Find out everything you need to know about the admissions process and how to prepare for the entrance exam.

Key information for Winchester College

• School type: co-educational independent school (day and boarding — boarding currently for boys only, with girls' boarding houses under construction)
• Location: Winchester, Hampshire
• Admissions contact: admissions@wincoll.ac.uk
• 13+ exam: ISEB Common Pre-Test, followed by the Winchester Entrance Exam or Election in Year 8
• Financial assistance: means-tested bursaries, plus golf, maths and Northern Irish student bursaries
• Scholarships: academic, music and sport

Important dates for 2027 entry

• July, Year 6: registration closes
• October–November, Year 6: ISEB Common Pre-Test taken
• January–March, Year 6: interviews
• April–May, Year 8: Winchester Entrance Exam or Election Exam
• June, Year 8: offers of places
• Check the school's website to confirm exact dates for 2027 entry

How to apply to Winchester College

Winchester College is selective. This means your child will need to complete an entrance assessment to be eligible for a place.

Weekly tours and termly open days are available for children from Year 5 onwards. Registration closes in July of Year 6.

What will my child be tested on?

All Winchester applicants start with the ISEB Common Pre-Test, followed in Year 8 by either the Winchester Entrance Exam or, for particularly strong candidates, the Election Exam.

Stage 1: ISEB Common Pre-Test

The ISEB Common Pre-Test is an online, adaptive assessment, meaning the questions get harder or easier depending on how your child is performing. It's taken in the autumn term of Year 6. It assesses:

• Maths
• English
• Verbal reasoning
• Non-verbal reasoning

Stage 2: Interview

Successful Pre-Test candidates are invited to an interview between January and March of Year 6, exploring your child's skills and personality — this may include a practical academic task or a show-and-tell element.

Winchester Entrance Exam (Year 8)

Most candidates take the Winchester Entrance Exam, either at their own school or an approved centre. This consists of English and maths papers (1 hour 30 minutes each), aligned to the Key Stage 3 and Common Entrance syllabus. Children from independent schools also take written papers in science, geography, history, and a language; these are optional for children from state schools.

Election Exam (Year 8)

Particularly strong candidates are invited to take the Election Exam instead, leading to an academic scholarship, an exhibition, or a headmaster's nomination. Independent school candidates take compulsory papers in English, maths 1, science, and general paper 1, plus at least three papers from Latin, French, Greek, history, geography, maths 2 and general paper 2. State school candidates take compulsory papers in English, maths 1 and general paper 1, with additional papers optional.

How are places decided?

• your child's performance in the ISEB Common Pre-Test
• their interview
• their result in the Winchester Entrance Exam or Election Exam

Offers of places are made in June of Year 8.

Financial information

Winchester College is a fee paying school. Take a look at the school's website for a full breakdown of fees for day and boarding pupils.

Financial assistance

When exploring independent schools for your child, scholarships and bursaries are worth considering. They can ease the pressure of school fees and open doors to opportunities that might otherwise feel out of reach.

Scholarships

Scholarships are awarded for a child's talent or achievement. At Winchester, the 13+ academic scholarship exam is known as Election, sat instead of the standard Entrance Exam over three days in April or May of Year 8. Successful candidates become Scholars (boarding in College) or Exhibitioners (recognised publicly, joining their existing house). An Academic Scholarship or Exhibition doesn't automatically carry a fee reduction — financial assistance is available separately through the bursaries programme.

Visit Winchester's academic scholarship page to see the scholarships available and how to apply.

For more information, read: Your guide to independent school scholarships.

Bursaries

Bursaries are means-tested awards (based on a family's financial situation) designed to make independent education more accessible. Winchester's bursary programme is one of the largest in the country, supporting more than 140 pupils each year, with some paying no fees at all.

Families provide financial information to qualify, and awards are reassessed each year. For many families, bursaries make an excellent education possible that might otherwise seem out of reach.

Visit Winchester's financial support page to find out what's available and how to apply.

For more information, read: Bursaries: a parents' guide.

Financial support for independent school fees is more available than most families realise.

This free guide is an honest look at how scholarships and bursaries work in practice: what they cover, how the timeline unfolds from Year 4 to Year 6 and how to approach admissions with confidence.

How can I help my child prepare for the test?

One of the hardest parts of exam preparation is knowing what to focus on, when, and how to make steady progress without it taking over family life.

A clear, structured plan helps your child feel less overwhelmed and more in control. It ensures they build skills in the right order, cover everything they need, and avoid last-minute cramming.

Atom's exam plan makes this easier. Enter your child's target schools and exam dates, and we'll create a personalised weekly plan tailored to the topics they'll be tested on. It shows them what to work on and when, adapts as they improve, and helps them build progress in a calm, manageable way — little and often.

That means less guesswork for you, less stress for them, and a clearer path all the way to exam day.

Build smart exam technique

As your child's knowledge grows, practice tests can help them feel more comfortable with the real exam format.

Atom's mock tests are exact replicas of real entrance exams. They're also unlimited — your child can take the same test repeatedly and see new questions each time. This helps them practise without repeating the same content.

Atom's mock tests are automatically marked. You'll see your child's standardised age score (SAS), where they're doing well, and what they should focus on next. You'll also learn how they compare to other children applying to the same school.

Encourage regular reading

Strong reading skills play a big role in preparation for entrance exams.

Encourage your child to read every day, even for just 10–15 minutes. The key is variety. Mix fiction and non-fiction, different genres, and a range of authors. This helps them become more confident in understanding tone, purpose, and meaning across different texts.

Over time, regular reading will:

• broaden their vocabulary
• improve comprehension and inference
• build confidence in tackling unseen texts

And just as importantly, it can help them enjoy reading — not just see it as exam preparation.

Celebrate progress, not just scores

When you're supporting your child through exam preparation, what really matters is knowing they're moving in the right direction — not just how they scored on a single test.

Atom's progress tracking gives you a clear, simple picture of how your child is doing in each topic and the direction they're moving in. You can see where they're on track, where they might need more practice, and spot progress as it happens.

That makes it easier to give meaningful encouragement, keep motivation steady, and focus on what matters most: consistent improvement, not just one-off results.