SEAG Practice Papers 2026: How Parents Should Use Them Properly

If your child is preparing for the SEAG Transfer Test 2026, downloading a stack of practice questions is easy.

Using them properly is where the real preparation happens.

SEAG provides official Practice Paper 1, Practice Paper 2, separate answer sheets and a Parents’ Guide containing the answer keys free through its website. These materials are designed to help pupils become familiar with the format of the Entrance Assessment.

But there is one mistake parents should avoid:

Do not rush through both official papers simply to get a score.

Used carefully, a practice paper can reveal exactly what needs fixing before November.

First: understand what your child is practising for

The 2026 SEAG Entrance Assessment consists of two papers.

Each paper contains an untimed introductory practice section followed by the main assessment.

The main section contains:

28 English questions 28 Maths questions * 60 minutes

Paper 1 and Paper 2 follow the same format.

The official papers should therefore be used for more than checking whether your child “knows the work”.

They should also develop:

accuracy timing question selection concentration answer-sheet technique confidence moving between English and Maths

Do not use the first practice paper as a final exam

If your child has not yet completed an official SEAG practice paper, consider using Practice Paper 1 as a diagnostic.

That means the score is not the most important part.

Afterwards, look at every incorrect answer and ask why it happened.

Was it:

A knowledge problem?

Perhaps your child does not understand fractions, punctuation or a particular vocabulary concept.

A reading problem?

They knew the topic but misunderstood what the question was asking.

A careless mistake?

They used the correct method but made a small error.

A timing problem?

They began rushing because too much time had already been spent on earlier questions.

Once you know the reason behind the mistakes, revision becomes much more targeted.

Keep an SEAG mistake notebook

This is one of the simplest ways to make practice papers useful.

After every paper or practice session, record:

Question type | What went wrong | What needs practising

For example:

Fractions | Forgot to simplify | Revise simplifying fractions

Comprehension | Chose answer from memory | Return to passage for evidence

Vocabulary | Did not understand word in context | More vocabulary-in-context practice

Maths problem | Used addition instead of multiplication | Practise identifying operations in word problems

After two or three weeks, patterns usually become obvious.

Those patterns should determine what your child studies next.

Practise with the actual answer sheet

Do not ignore the SEAG answer sheets.

SEAG provides separate official answer sheets alongside its practice papers, and children should become comfortable using them before assessment day.

A pupil can understand every question and still create problems by:

marking the wrong answer number skipping a row changing an answer unclearly rushing the transfer of answers at the end

Practising with the correct format removes one more source of unnecessary stress.

When should you introduce timing?

Do not make every practice session a race.

Early on, allow your child enough time to understand unfamiliar questions and correct weaknesses.

Then gradually increase timed work.

You might begin with:

10 questions with comfortable timing

Then:

20–30 mixed questions under a time limit

Eventually:

a complete 60-minute practice paper

By the final few weeks before SEAG, sitting a full paper under realistic conditions should feel familiar rather than frightening.

Do not mark the paper and move on

This is probably the biggest waste of a practice paper.

A parent marks the test.

The child gets 43 out of 56.

Everyone discusses whether that is “good”.

Then another paper appears.

Instead, spend time on the 13 questions that went wrong.

Those questions contain more useful information than the 43 that were already correct.

For each mistake, your child should be able to explain:

What was the correct answer?

Why was my answer wrong?

What will I do differently next time?

That is where improvement happens.

Should parents buy lots of unofficial SEAG papers?

Extra question practice can certainly be useful.

However, parents should understand that SEAG itself states that the free materials on its website are the official SEAG Practice Papers, and SEAG does not endorse other commercial materials.

So use the official materials to understand the genuine format first.

Additional resources can then be used for topic practice and repetition without assuming that every commercially labelled “SEAG paper” perfectly represents the official assessment.

Save one official paper for later

If possible, do not use every official paper immediately.

Use one earlier in preparation to identify weaknesses.

Then keep another for a later stage when your child is ready to sit it:

in one sitting with the official answer sheet under a 60-minute limit without help * in a quiet environment

That second result gives you a much clearer picture of progress.

What should happen after a full practice paper?

Do not immediately give another one.

The following few study sessions should be built from the mistakes in that paper.

For example:

If comprehension was weak, work on comprehension.

If calculation accuracy was poor, strengthen number work.

If your child ran out of time, practise shorter timed sets.

If they rushed at the beginning, work on pacing.

The paper should create the revision plan.

Not the other way around.

Remember the real SEAG dates

For 2026, Paper 1 takes place on Saturday 14 November and Paper 2 on Saturday 21 November.

That means there is still time to use practice materials strategically.

Parents do not need to force children through paper after paper between now and November.

A smaller number of papers that are carefully analysed and corrected can be far more useful.

Preparing your child for SEAG 2026?

At OTA Learning Studio, we support P7 pupils preparing for SEAG in both English and Maths, including topic revision, comprehension, problem-solving, timed practice and detailed correction of practice-paper mistakes.

If your child is completing papers but their scores are not improving — or you are unsure which areas should be prioritised before November — you can book a free parent or student consultation.

We can identify where marks are being lost and turn practice-paper results into a focused preparation plan before the SEAG Entrance Assessment 2026.