Puzzles & Problem-Solving and Creative Comprehension – What are they testing?

Many schools are now including one or both of these new tests in their entrance exams. Both tests are designed to test a child’s critical thinking skills rather than assessing learned knowledge. The tests assess how a child works through a problem, their ability to adapt their strategy and persevere with challenging problems.

Puzzles & Problem-Solving
This section tests the child’s ability to use maths and logical reasoning to solve multi-step problems. Questions will encourage children to think about a scenario and apply mathematical techniques to solve a problem.

• Questions may include:
• Problems which require trial and error e.g. combinations and permutations.
• Number problems which require logical thinking e.g. number squares.
• Sequences and patterns e.g. finding missing digits in arithmetical calculations.

Try a Puzzles & Problem-Solving demo test here.

Creative Comprehension
Some admissions exams may refer to the Creative Comprehension element as the Analysis component. This section tests the child’s ability to extract information from a variety of different sources to answer questions. The child will need to The information is provided in a range of different formats, and the child may have to look at several different sources simultaneously to answer questions. Sources may include written text, graphs, maps with grid references, and tables, all centred around a theme. This section is likely to be the least familiar to children. The test is designed to assess how a child accesses their reading, reasoning and creative thinking skills to process information.

Try a Creative Comprehension demo test here.

Last review: October 2025