What is the 11 plus exam?

What is the 11 plus? The 11 plus is a selective secondary school entrance examination, used by state-funded grammar schools and many selective private schools, to identify the most academically...

What is the 11 plus?

The 11 plus is a selective secondary school entrance examination, used by state-funded grammar schools and many selective private schools, to identify the most academically capable pupils. 

The exact dates of the 11 plus examinations do vary between schools, therefore it is important to check directly with the schools you apply to. For state grammar schools, the application deadline tends to be around the July of year 5 and your child will often take the exam in the September of year 6. 

For independent schools, their 11 plus examinations tend to happen between November and January of year 6. They typically release their results shortly after, around February. 

What 11 plus exam board will my child be taking?

Some independent schools in London have formed a type of 'partnership' where your child takes one examination to be used as an application to a whole group of schools. Others require you apply separately to their school and take their specific exam. 

For state funded grammar schools, there are two main exam boards for the 11 plus exam: 

CEM (Durham University) and  GL (Granada Learning)  Assessment.

The exam board used will depend on the location of the school. It is important to note that some schools may be in the same locality but still use different exam boards, so make sure you check. 

GL Assessment: Dorset, Kent, Lancashire & Cumbria, Lincolnshire, Northern Ireland, Wiltshire, Buckinghamshire, Plymouth. 

CEM Assessment: Berkshire, Bexley, Birmingham, Gloucestershire, Shropshire, Walsall, Warwickshire, Wirral, Wolverhampton, Medway. 

These regions use a combination of both the GL and CEM Assessments: Devon, Essex, Hertfordshire, Trafford, Yorkshire. 

Grammar schools located in Surrey, write their own 11 plus exam papers known as the Selective Eligibility Test (SET). 

What is tested at 11 plus level?

Whilst the exact content of the 11 plus will vary across the country, it generally targets the following areas:

• English

• Maths

• Verbal Reasoning

• Non-verbal reasoning

The english and maths components tend to be based around content covered in the National Curriculum. However, the verbal and non-verbal elements are not strictly taught in school. The best way to strengthen your child's reasoning skills is through regular practise. 

How can I prepare my child for their 11 plus exam?

As with any exam taken at primary level, small amounts of practise, regularly and consistently is the best way to prepare. Timed practise is also important using past papers, in order to ensure your child can still work to the same high standard given the time pressure of the exam. These will also allow progress over time to be measured, highlighting strengths and weaknesses. ​

English

The main areas tested in the 11 plus are comprehension and creative writing skills. 

Comprehension

Strong comprehension requires a developed vocabulary. When reading, children are often challenged by words they do not understand for example, words that are not part of their spoken vocabulary; unfamiliar technical vocabulary; and words that have more than one meaning. Encouraging your child to look at words in different contexts deepens their understanding of the nuances in vocabulary. You could ask your child to record challenging words in a dedicated notebook, where they can write definitions using their own words. ​

Successful comprehension also requires readers to use their knowledge, to fill in gaps in meaning, this is known as inference. To develop this skill, you could ask your child to make predictions about characters and events in stories. 

To fully understand a text, readers must use both their long-term and working memory. Children can find this a challenge, due to their limited long-term memory and overloaded working memory. To develop your child's comprehension skills, you could introduce some background information to a story, before your child reads and encourage them to take their time, re-reading any sections they find difficult. 

Your child should be reading above the national average. Graphic texts are an excellent way to support your child in accessing higher level reading, developing inference skills and critical thinking. This is because they have to understand the interplay between the words and the pictures to make sense of the text. Gradually building up the amount of comprehension work set for your child, will develop their speed and stamina with challenging texts in addition to answering questions within a tight timeframe. 

Creative writing

To be successful with the creative writing component, it is imperative that your child's response is directly linked to the question rather than a memorised, well rehearsed piece of writing. Schools have been known to ask children to continue the story from the comprehension section or to write a story in response to a given picture, idea or other prompt. ​

Schools typically allocate marks for creativity, a wide use of vocabulary, sentence structure, logical organisation, handwriting and spelling. You should ask your child to regularly practise writing around 10 lines a day on a topic they know and love. This can then be used as a springboard to improving their vocabulary, by seeing what adjectives, similes, adverbs, metaphors and other techniques can be added. You could even have a day out at a zoo or museum and ask them to write an account of the days events, before turning it into a story. 

Spelling, punctuation and grammar

Schools may assess grammar, by asking your child to correctly add punctuation to a text. A verbal spelling test may also be given, to assess your child's spelling ability. Students could also be asked to complete a dictation test, where they are required to write down spoken sentences (usually read once and then repeated twice). Schools may also assess memory, by reading a short paragraph (two or three times) and then asking pupils to summarise what they have heard. All of these skills can be developed through practise, using age appropriate resources.  

Mathematics

The 11 plus exam often includes content from the full year 6 mathematics curriculum and in top schools, expectations are well above the national curriculum level expected for this age group.  Mental arithmetic is a key area tested in the exam and can be assessed verbally or as a written exam. The exam will also include extended multi-step worded problems, including money and change, time, arithmetic or a combination of each. There will also be mathematical logic puzzles, that could involve number, shape or time. They test your child's ability to think critically and apply their knowledge to abstract questions. 

Reasoning

The reasoning part of the 11 plus exam will often include a verbal and non-verbal component. 

Non-verbal reasoning

Questions in the non-verbal reasoning assessment, are often centered around mathematical concepts such as symmetry, rotation and size. Often, your child will be expected to determine a particular pattern and correctly choose the next component in the sequence.

Other common questions in this section include:

• Identifying which shape is the "odd one out"

• Working out cube nets or what shapes will look like when folded

• Working with mirror images or reflections

• Correctly identifying what a shape will look like when rotated by a certain number of degrees. 

Typically students will have to select the correct answer from a selection of 4 or 5 multiple choice options. 

Verbal reasoning

Verbal reasoning is essentially a form of problem solving based around words and language. These tests are designed to test your child's ability to understand and reason using words. This is a test of skill rather than learned knowledge. Schools use these tests to assess your child's potential to problem solve and think critically. 

Typical questions in this component include:​

• Identifying the odd one out or two words with the same meaning from a list of words

• Finding antonyms (opposites) from lists of words

• Spotting a hidden word inside another word 

• Adding one missing letter to complete two words

• Codebreaking, where each letter of the alphabet is coded for by a number or different letter. (For example if A becomes C, B becomes D, C becomes E then "fqi" would code for "dog".  

Making the decision to receive tuition for the 7 plus exam, requires careful evaluation and you must have clear goals in mind. It is often said that, tuition at 7+ level most importantly requires a teacher qualified to teach this age group.