Frequently Asked Questions

The SEAG (South Eastern Area Grammar) transfer test is a selective entrance exam sat by P7 pupils in Northern Ireland. It determines eligibility for grammar school places. The exam tests English literacy and Maths across 56 scored questions (44 multiple choice and 12 written free-response) sat over 60 minutes, plus 10 unscored warm-up questions.

The SEAG exam is typically held in November of the P7 year. Check the official SEAG website or your child's school for the exact date each year.

The English section covers comprehension, punctuation, spelling, grammar and vocabulary. The Maths section covers number, algebra, shape & space, measures, and data handling. Most questions are multiple choice with five options (A–E), with N used for "none of the above" on some Maths questions. The English section also includes a free-response written component where pupils write their own answers rather than selecting from options.

The SEAG is sat by P7 pupils. Some families begin preparation in P6 to build familiarity with the format and identify areas for improvement early. SEAG Success supports both P6 and P7 pupils.

The 2026 SEAG transfer test is sat on two Saturdays: Paper 1: Saturday 14th November 2026, and Paper 2: Saturday 21st November 2026. Results are expected to be released in late January 2027. Your child's primary school will communicate the arrangements in advance.

For several years, NI grammar schools used two separate transfer test systems: SEAG (using GL Assessment papers) and AQE (run by the Association for Quality Education). Many pupils sat both. AQE has now been retired, and SEAG is the transfer test used for NI grammar school admissions. If you have older siblings or family who prepared for AQE, that is why you may still hear both names. For the current format, dates and how to prepare, see our SEAG transfer test guide.

The SEAG can only be sat once per year group. There is no resit option. However, a result below Band 1 does not automatically rule out grammar school. Individual schools set their own minimum band requirements, and some accept Band 2 pupils, particularly if places remain after Band 1 applicants are processed. If the result wasn't what you hoped for, we'd encourage you to check the admissions criteria for every school on your list and contact them directly. See our guide: If the SEAG Doesn't Go to Plan.

The SEAG does not give letter grades. It uses a 6-band system. Your child's raw score is converted into a TSAS (Total Standardised Age Score), which accounts for their age on test day. That score is then given a CPR (Cohort Percentile Ranking), showing how they performed relative to every child in Northern Ireland who sat the test that year. The CPR determines their band:

Band 1: top 40% of all pupils (CPR 60th percentile and above), the highest band
Band 2: CPR 50th–59th percentile
Band 3: CPR 40th–49th percentile
Band 4: CPR 30th–39th percentile
Band 5: CPR 20th–29th percentile
Band 6: below 20th percentile

Each grammar school sets its own minimum band requirement and oversubscription criteria. Most grammar schools require Band 1 for a guaranteed offer, though this varies by school and year.

SEAG Success is an online practice platform built specifically for the Northern Ireland SEAG transfer test. Created by experienced NI teachers, it provides full-length practice papers in the real SEAG format, question-by-question feedback, topic lessons, progress tracking, and parent dashboards, all in one place.

Every question, every lesson and every feature has been built around the actual SEAG exam, not adapted from generic content. The papers match the exact SEAG format: same question types, same structure, same style. The people who built it have helped hundreds of P7 pupils through the real exam.

SEAG Success was created by two Northern Ireland teachers with over 20 years of combined experience across primary and secondary education. Between them they've prepared hundreds of pupils for the transfer test and built this platform to fill the gap they saw in available resources.

SEAG Success works on any modern device with a browser: desktop, laptop, tablet or smartphone. No app download is needed. The practice papers are designed to work well on tablets, which is the closest experience to doing the test on paper.

Very close. Every paper on SEAG Success is built to the same format as the real test: 56 questions, the same English and Maths topics, the same structure (44 multiple choice with five options each, plus 12 written free-response questions), and calibrated to the same level of difficulty. The platform was built by people who have taught and prepared pupils for the real SEAG, and accuracy to the real exam was a core design requirement from the start.

No, and we'd be suspicious of any platform that made that claim. The SEAG result depends on how your child performs on two papers relative to every other child in Northern Ireland who sits the test that year. What SEAG Success does is give your child the best possible preparation: practice papers in the real format, detailed question-by-question feedback, topic lessons targeting known weak areas, and progress tracking so you can see where improvement is happening. Consistent, quality preparation improves outcomes. It doesn't guarantee them, and nothing honest can.

Yes, you can start a 7-day free trial with no credit card required. You get full access to the platform during your trial. You'll only be asked for payment details when you choose to subscribe.

Monthly plans start at £14.99 per month for the first child, with annual plans from £60 per year. Additional children are available at increasing discounts. See our full pricing page for the complete breakdown.

Yes, and it's generous. Your 2nd child gets 20% off, your 3rd gets 30% off, and your 4th gets 40% off. Discounts apply automatically; you don't need to do anything special. Visit the pricing page to see exactly what you'd pay for your family.

Yes. You can add up to 4 children to your parent account and track each child's progress separately. Each additional child is billed at the next sibling discount tier.

Get in touch at admin@learningsuccess.co.uk and we'll sort something out.

If your child's school has a SEAG Success licence, your child can access the platform through school without a separate home subscription. If you'd like to set up your own parent account to monitor progress, assign additional practice at home, or access the full parent dashboard independently, you can subscribe separately. Get in touch at admin@learningsuccess.co.uk if you're unsure which arrangement suits your family.

Yes. You can cancel your subscription at any time from your account settings. No phone calls, no forms. You keep full access until the end of your current billing period, and no further payments are taken after that.

Each full practice paper mirrors the real SEAG exam. It begins with warm-up questions (not scored), then moves into the main 56-question paper covering English and Maths. You can set a timer in soft mode (a warning when time runs out) or hard mode (the paper ends at time). After completing a paper, your child receives detailed feedback on every question.

Topic lessons are focused mini-lessons on specific exam topics. Each lesson includes teaching content, a short warm-up, and a practice quiz. They're ideal for targeted revision on areas where your child needs more practice.

As a parent, you can assign practice papers and lessons, set deadlines, view detailed results and progress charts, track strengths and weaknesses by topic, and mark any written questions. You can also invite a co-parent or guardian to share access.

Yes. Some questions require a free-response written answer. These are flagged in your parent dashboard for you to review and mark. Until marked, those questions are excluded from the score to keep it accurate.

No. After completing a paper or lesson, your child receives question-by-question feedback showing the correct answer and an explanation of why. The parent dashboard also shows topic-level breakdowns so you can see where your child is strong and where they need more practice.

There's no single right answer, but as a rough guide: two to three full papers per month across the P7 year builds solid familiarity without burning out your child before November. As the exam approaches, the quality of review matters more than the number of papers completed. Going back over wrong answers, understanding why, and approaching similar questions again is where real progress happens. A child who has done eight papers thoughtfully is better prepared than one who has rushed through twenty.

For topic-based practice and lessons, 20–30 minutes is usually the most productive window for P6 and P7 pupils. Long enough to make progress, short enough to maintain focus. Full practice papers (60 minutes) should be done under timed conditions occasionally to build stamina and exam familiarity, but not so frequently that they become a source of dread. Two or three focused sessions per week, mixing shorter topic work with occasional full papers, tends to work better than long daily sessions.

Yes. The platform's topic lessons are designed exactly for this. Rather than doing another full paper, your child can work through a lesson focused specifically on the area where they're struggling, for example fractions, or reading inference, or punctuation rules. The parent dashboard shows topic-level breakdowns of your child's results, making it straightforward to identify which areas need the most attention and assign relevant lessons accordingly.