PEP Jamaica

Overview

The Primary Exit Profile (PEP) is Jamaica's national assessment for students finishing primary school, run by the Ministry of Education, Skills, Youth and Information. It replaced the Grade Six Achievement Test (GSAT) from the 2018/2019 school year, as part of a broader move away from a single recall-based exam sat only in Grade 6 toward a set of assessments spread across Grades 4 to 6 that also look at reasoning and problem-solving skills. GSAT itself had replaced the old Common Entrance Examination in 1999. PEP results are used to place students into government secondary schools for Grade 7.

Who can apply

Every student enrolled in Grade 6 at a Jamaican primary or preparatory school sits PEP as part of moving on to secondary school. Because PEP is not a single Grade 6 sitting, students in the same school also complete PEP components in Grade 4 (a literacy and numeracy test) and Grade 5 (a performance task), building up to the Grade 6 components that are combined for placement.

Students at public primary and preparatory schools are normally registered for PEP by their own school. Students at private primary or prep schools, students who are home-schooled, and any student not automatically registered through a public school need to register directly with the Ministry's Student Assessment Unit.

Exam pattern

For the Grade 6 profile used in secondary placement, the Ability Test and the combined Curriculum-Based Tests and Performance Tasks have been reported as weighted roughly 30% and 70% respectively, though the Ministry has adjusted the administration and content of individual components from year to year (for example, trimming the number of Mathematics objectives tested at Grade 4 from the 2026 sitting onward).

Marking and results

PEP does not produce a single pass or fail mark. Each subject or skill area is reported against four achievement levels: Beginning (limited evidence of the required competence), Developing (partial evidence), Proficient (adequate evidence), and Highly Proficient (advanced evidence), each tied to a recommended level of follow-up support for the student. For the 2022 Grade 6 sitting, the Ministry reported that over half of students were ranked Proficient or Highly Proficient overall, with Language Arts results typically stronger than Mathematics and Science. For the 2026 sitting, the Ministry reported that 79% of exiting students demonstrated mastery of literacy and 75% mastery of numeracy on the Grade 4 test.

The combined Grade 6 profile, together with the secondary-school choices parents submit, is what determines placement rather than a single cut-off score.

Important dates

PEP's Grade 6 components are typically administered over several weeks between February and May each year, with Grade 4 and Grade 5 components usually following later in the school year. For the 2025 sitting, the published Grade 6 schedule was:

The 2026 cycle was adjusted because of disruption from Hurricane Melissa: Grade 6 students sat a modified, combined Curriculum-Based Test and Ability Test sitting on 29–30 April 2026, Grade 5 students sat their Performance Tasks on 10 June 2026, and Grade 4 students sat the literacy and numeracy test on 24 June 2026. Grade 6 placement results for the 2026 sitting were released on 22 June 2026. Because dates and the exact format can change from year to year, always check the Ministry's current-year bulletin rather than assuming the schedule above repeats.

How to apply

There is no fee to sit PEP. Students at public primary and preparatory schools are registered by their school as part of a Ministry-run registration window announced each school year; parents are asked to confirm the child's details and supply supporting documents (birth certificate, Tax Registration Number if available, passport-sized photographs, and a parent or guardian ID) rather than register the child themselves. Students at private primary/prep schools, home-schooled students, and students with special needs who may require accommodations are advised to register directly with the Ministry's Student Assessment Unit, and the Ministry has asked that students with special needs be registered early so accommodations can be arranged in time.

After the exam

As part of registration, parents complete a school-choice form ranking up to seven secondary schools: five choices from anywhere in Jamaica, plus two "cluster" choices drawn from schools within about ten miles of the child's primary school. Placement works through each candidate's list in order, checking the student's results profile against a school's intake criteria, the student's gender where relevant, and the number of places that school has reported as available, until every registered student is placed. In recent sittings, around 90% of students have been placed in one of their chosen schools (for example, 89.5% for the 2024/2025 cycle and roughly 90% for the 2026 cycle), with the remainder placed elsewhere by the Ministry. Students who are not satisfied with their placement, or whose circumstances change, can raise this with the Ministry through the published school-transfer process rather than by approaching a secondary school directly.

Preparation tips

• Treat the Performance Task as ongoing work across Grades 4, 5 and 6, not a one-off exam to cram for near the end of Grade 6.

• For the Ability Test, practise general verbal and quantitative reasoning items rather than Grade 6 syllabus content, since it is deliberately not curriculum-based.

• For the Curriculum-Based Tests, work systematically through the Grade 6 Language Arts, Mathematics, Science and Social Studies content in the National Standards Curriculum.

• Confirm each year's exact dates and any changes to component content through the school and the Ministry's PEP bulletins, since both have shifted from year to year.

• When completing the school-choice form, research the intake pattern and space at each preferred school rather than listing only the most sought-after options, since placement works through the list in order.

FAQs