Secondary Entrance Assessment

The Language Arts section of the exam is divided into three sections, testing respectively Grammar Skills, Vocabulary and Comprehension.

The Mathematics section of the exam is divided into three sections of general mathematics content, with the difficulty and value of the questions increasing with respect to section. For example section one is usually one(1) mark per question, section two(2) is two(2) or three(3) marks and section three(3) is four(4) marks

In the Creative Writing section, students must choose to write either a narrative or a report, from a small choice subject material. The themes chosen usually reflect some aspect of Caribbean life, such as picking fruit or apologizing to a neighbor for a broken window. Creative writing is assessed in grades four and five. In grade four students are to write factual passages and in grade five students are to write narrative descriptive passages

Parents and Students both find preparing for this exam a difficult task, mainly due to the emphasis placed on passing for the First Choice school. Many students attend after-school Private Lessons. Leading towards the exam, most students will prepare via Practice Tests and Past Papers from previous years; these are usually sold by private organizations; Local newspapers also regularly offer free tests on set days. As of 2010, a free to use website has been available for all students within Trinidad and Tobago; pennacool.com offers exercises for 24 Topics in both Mathematics and Language Arts.