SEAG

Overview

SEAG (the Schools' Entrance Assessment Group) is a not-for-profit company set up by Northern Ireland's academically selective post-primary schools — controlled and voluntary grammar schools, and some integrated schools — to run a single, common Entrance Assessment for transfer from primary school into Year 8. All 63 schools in Northern Ireland that use academic selection for some or all of their Year 8 intake belong to SEAG, so a child only has to sit one test to be considered by any of them, rather than the separate AQE and PPTC tests that different grammar schools used until 2022. GL Assessment is contracted to write, deliver and mark the papers. SEAG is a private company, independent of the Department of Education and the Education Authority (EA): it reports a child's outcome to schools, but it does not run the wider school-application process itself.

Who can apply

The Entrance Assessment is for children in P7, the final year of primary school in Northern Ireland, who are transferring into Year 8 the following September. Each year's cycle is normally open to children born within a set 12-month window for that transfer year, with a small number of exceptions for children moving up a year early or starting a year late. Sitting the assessment is entirely optional: it is only needed for a child applying to a post-primary school that uses academic selection, so families not considering a grammar or other selective school do not need to register. Papers are available in English or in Irish (Gaeilge).

Exam pattern

Children sit two Entrance Assessment papers, on two separate Saturdays about a week apart in November of P7. Both papers share the same structure and test English (or Gaeilge) and mathematics together.

The main test (English and maths together) runs for 60 minutes from when pupils are told to start; children granted access arrangements for extra time typically receive around 75 minutes instead. Children with literacy difficulties, special educational needs, a medical condition, or English as an additional language can apply for access arrangements as part of registration, under SEAG's published access arrangements policy.

Marking and results

Raw marks are converted into an age-standardised score, so a child's result accounts for exactly how old they were on the day of testing. Families receive a Statement of Outcomes online through SEAG's secure parent portal, giving a Total Standardised Age Score, an overall band, separate standardised scores for English/Gaeilge and maths, and the child's percentile position within that year's cohort. SEAG does not itself set a pass mark: each member school decides how to weigh these outcomes, alongside its own published admissions criteria (such as feeder-primary links, siblings, or distance), when places are oversubscribed. Outcomes are normally released online in the second half of January, roughly two months after the November sitting.

Important dates

For the 2026 Entrance Assessment (sat by P7 children for Year 8 entry in September 2027): registration and the pupil application opened at 8am on Monday 18 May 2026 and closed at 11:59pm on Friday 18 September 2026; the two assessment papers were sat on Saturday 14 November 2026 and Saturday 21 November 2026. Requests for access arrangements must be submitted by the same registration deadline, not separately. Outcomes for this cycle are expected online in late January 2027, following the pattern of earlier years. Registering for and sitting SEAG's test is separate from the Education Authority's own Year 8 post-primary transfer application, where every family ranks its preferred post-primary schools; that EA process opens later, around February, and must be completed by every family regardless of whether their child sat the SEAG assessment.

Fees

For the 2026 Entrance Assessment, registering a child costs a non-refundable £20 administration fee, paid online during the pupil application. The fee is waived for children with a Free School Meal Entitlement, selected during registration. Where SEAG opens a late-registration window after the normal deadline, the non-refundable fee for registering in that window rises to £50.

How to apply

Registration is online, through SEAG's own website, in two stages: a parent or guardian first creates a personal account, then submits a separate Pupil Application for the child. The pupil application records the child's details and current primary school, any special educational needs, medical condition, English-as-an-additional-language need, or access-arrangement request, and takes payment of the fee (or the Free School Meal Entitlement exemption), all before the published deadline. This registration only books the child onto the Entrance Assessment; it is not the same as, and happens months ahead of, the Education Authority's separate Year 8 transfer application, which every family in Northern Ireland must still complete in order to be offered any post-primary school place, selective or not.

Preparation tips

Because the main test's three sections (punctuation, grammar and spelling exercises, then comprehension, followed by mostly multiple-choice maths) and its fixed 60-minute time limit are specific to this assessment, working through SEAG's own official practice papers and answer keys — published free on its website — is the most direct way to get used to the format before relying on general-purpose test-preparation material. Practising within the time limit matters as much as knowing the content, since the main test is timed strictly from when pupils are told to begin.