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The Complete 11+ Guide for Parents (2026–27): What's in the Exam & How to Prepare

The short answer to your biggest question: the 11 plus is a selective entrance exam that children sit in the autumn term of Year 6, when they are 10 or 11 years old. Grammar schools use the results to decide which children get a Year 7 place.

If you're reading this, you're probably somewhere between curious and daunted. Maybe your child is in Year 3 or 4 and you're wondering whether grammar school is even on the table. Maybe they're in Year 5 and the test is suddenly close. Or maybe you're a tutor looking for a thorough reference.

Whatever your starting point, this guide is for you.

Here's why this topic matters: the 11 plus is unlike any test your child has taken before. It covers subjects they may not have met at school (verbal and non-verbal reasoning are not taught on the national curriculum), it's sat in a formal exam hall, and the score can determine which secondary school your child attends. The good news? The test is predictable, and children who prepare steadily — not frantically — do well.

This guide walks you through everything: what the test actually is, who takes it, what's on it, how it's scored, the key dates, how much preparation costs, and exactly how to support your child at every stage — whether you're starting in Year 3 or Year 5.

Who this article is for: parents of children in Years 3–6 considering grammar school; children looking for friendly study tips; tutors wanting a complete reference on the 11+ system.

What is the 11 plus exam?

The 11 plus is an academic selection test used by grammar schools to choose which children to admit in Year 7.

Grammar schools are state-funded secondary schools — free to attend — that select pupils based on ability rather than home address. Around 163 grammar schools operate in England, teaching roughly 176,000 pupils. Because places are limited and demand is high, schools need a fair, consistent way to choose, and for most, that's the 11 plus.

The name comes from the age at which children move to secondary school: 11. The exam itself is taken when children are 10 or 11, in the autumn term of Year 6.

Three things to know straight away

1. The 11+ only exists in England. Scotland and Wales don't select pupils at age 11, and Northern Ireland replaced its 11+ with a separate Transfer Test in 2008.
2. The test varies by school. Two grammar schools in the same county can use different providers, different subjects and different scoring. There is no single national 11+ paper.
3. It's designed to stretch children. The 11+ identifies pupils working towards the top of their year group. An average primary school test and the 11+ are very different beasts.

Does my child have to take it?

Only if you want them to attend a grammar school. If you're happy with your local comprehensive, your child doesn't need to sit the test at all. Many families enter their child for the 11+ simply to keep the option open — there's no obligation to accept a grammar school place if one is offered.

How grammar school admissions work

Applying to a grammar school is a two-stage process, and this is where many first-time parents get confused.

Stage 1: the exam. You register your child for the school's 11+ test — usually through the school's website — during the spring or summer of Year 5. Your child sits the test in the autumn of Year 6. If they score at or above the school's qualifying level, they are deemed "selective" (eligible for a grammar school place).

Stage 2: the application. Passing the exam does not automatically give your child a place. You must also list the grammar school as a preference on your common application form (CAF), which your local council makes available from September of Year 6. The deadline is usually 31 October. Schools then rank eligible children (using the test score, and sometimes distance or other criteria) and offers are made on National Offer Day — 1 March.

The 11+ timeline at a glance

What's on the 11+ exam?

The 11+ assesses some or all of four subjects, depending on the school and exam provider:

English

11+ English tests two things: whether your child can understand what they read, and whether they can write accurately. The comprehension section presents a passage followed by multiple-choice questions on meaning, inference, vocabulary in context and the writer's technique. The SPaG section checks punctuation, spelling and grammar in short exercises.

Some tests — particularly the CSSE 11+ in Essex and several independent school exams — include a creative writing task, which is marked by examiners rather than machines. Children are given a prompt (a title, an opening line or a picture) and roughly 30 minutes to write.

Maths

11+ maths follows the Key Stage 2 national curriculum, so most of the content should look familiar. The difference is depth and presentation: questions are wordier, multi-step, and designed to test problem-solving rather than recall. Children may also meet Year 6 content early, since the test is sat in September.

Core topic areas include: number and place value, the four operations, fractions/decimals/percentages, ratio and proportion, measurement, geometry (angles, shapes, coordinates), statistics and — crucially — word problems.

Verbal reasoning

Verbal reasoning tests thinking with words: letter sequences, hidden words, codes, antonyms and synonyms, analogies, and logic puzzles with a verbal twist. None of this appears on the national curriculum, which is why children who only follow school work find these sections hardest. The good news: it's highly learnable. Once a child understands the question types, their speed and accuracy improve quickly with practice.

Non-verbal reasoning

Non-verbal reasoning asks the same kind of thinking — spotting patterns, sequences and relationships — but with shapes and diagrams instead of words. Children might be asked which shape completes a sequence, which figure is the odd one out, or which cube matches a net. It's a pure test of visual logic, and like VR, it responds well to practice.

What do the papers actually look like?

Most 11+ papers are multiple choice. Your child gets a question booklet and a separate answer sheet, and shades their answers with a pencil. The sheets are marked by machine using Optical Mark Recognition (OMR), so neat, fully-shaded answers matter — an untidy or half-filled bubble can be read as no answer at all.

Exam boards and test formats

Understanding who sets your child's test tells you what to practise. There are four main situations:

Two myths worth clearing up:

• "CEM vs GL" is outdated. CEM is no longer providing standard paper-based 11+ exams. If an old guide talks about preparing for CEM, treat it as historical — see our full CEM vs GL Assessment guide for the timeline and what replaced it.
• "One 11+ fits all" is wrong. Your neighbour's child in the next county may sit a completely different test. Always prepare for the specific test your target school uses.

Regional tests you may hear about

How is the 11+ scored?

This is the section that confuses almost every parent, so let's make it simple.

Your child's raw score (the number of correct answers) is converted into a standardised age score. Here's why: a child born in September can be almost a full year older than a child born the following August. Older children have had more time to learn, so a raw-score comparison would be unfair. Standardisation adjusts for age — younger children receive an uplift, and older children are not penalised.

Standardised scores are set so that the average is 100, with most children scoring between roughly 85 and 115. What counts as a "pass" varies by school and region — and it isn't always a fixed number. Some areas (like Kent) publish a qualifying threshold; others rank children and admit the highest scorers until places run out.

What a good score looks like depends on where you live. In a competitive area, children may need a score well above 115; in a gentler region, 110 may be plenty. The score alone doesn't decide anything — your child also needs the school to be listed on your common application form.

What happens with the result?

• Selective: your child scored at or above the qualifying level. You can now list grammar schools on the CAF and be considered for a place.
• Not selective: your child missed the threshold. You can still list the school (some councils allow it) but it won't be considered in the first round. You also have options: an appeal against the decision, or a place on a waiting list — places do move, sometimes well into the summer.
• Unsure: ask the school or council exactly what your child's score means. You're entitled to the score and, in many areas, to a breakdown.

When should you start 11+ preparation?

There's no magic starting date, and every family's circumstances differ. But the research — and the experience of thousands of families — points to a clear pattern:

The honest answer for most families: Year 4 is ideal, Year 5 is fine, Year 3 is optional.

Why not earlier? Formal test preparation before Year 3 is rarely necessary and can sour a young child on learning. The best "Year 3 prep" is invisible: reading together, playing word and number games, building the habit that school work gets done. Children who arrive in Year 4 with strong reading habits and solid times tables are already ahead.

Why not later? The 11+ is a test of both knowledge and speed. Reasoning question types take time to become automatic, and vocabulary is accumulated over months, not weeks. Starting in the final summer before the test puts enormous pressure on a 10-year-old to compress years of reading into eight weeks.

How to prepare for the 11+ at home

You don't need a tutor to prepare your child for the 11+. Thousands of families do it successfully with a book, a routine and a library card. Here's a step-by-step system that works.

Step 1: secure the curriculum subjects (English and maths)

The 11+ maths and English papers are built on Key Stage 2 content. Before any test-specific practice, make sure the basics are solid:

• Times tables to 12 × 12, recalled instantly, not counted out
• The four operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication, division) with confidence
• Fractions, decimals and percentages — the single most common maths gap
• Reading at their level (or slightly above) for at least 20 minutes a day
• Spelling and punctuation accuracy in their own writing

Step 2: introduce reasoning gently

Verbal and non-verbal reasoning feel alien at first — to parents as much as children. Don't panic if your child struggles with the first few pages; that's normal. Work through the question types slowly: letter sequences, codes, analogies, odd-one-out, shape rotations. A little every few days, with you explaining the method (not just the answer), is the fastest route to fluency.

Step 3: practise with real papers

From around six months before the test, start using practice papers that match your child's actual test — same provider, same subjects, same timing. Work up to doing them:

• In one sitting (like the real exam)
• With a timer (children must learn to move on from a hard question)
• On a separate answer sheet, with a pencil (this sounds obvious, but children routinely lose marks to sloppy shading)

Step 4: use mock tests strategically

A full mock test in exam conditions — a few times in the final months — does three things: it reveals gaps, it builds stamina, and it normalises the experience so the real day feels familiar rather than frightening. After each mock, review every wrong answer together. The review is where the learning happens, not the test itself.

Step 5: build vocabulary all day long

The 11+ rewards a wide vocabulary, and the only honest way to build one is through words: reading, talking, audio books, word games, a family "word of the day". Flashcards of random "11+ words" have their place, but words encountered in stories stick far better than words memorised in lists.

A sample weekly rhythm (Year 5)

Golden rule: if your child is tired, angry or tearful, stop. One bad session teaches nothing. Come back tomorrow.

How much does 11+ preparation cost?

11+ preparation spans a huge range — from entirely free to several thousand pounds. Here's the honest landscape:

What the numbers actually look like: many families using a private tutor run weekly sessions for roughly a year — about fifty hours. At a typical UK rate of around £55 an hour, that's roughly £2,750 for the year. Families in competitive areas, or those starting in Year 4, frequently spend £3,000–£5,000, and some report £5,000–£8,000 over two years. These are illustrative, not guaranteed, figures — actual costs vary widely by region and tutor.

What money does and doesn't buy: a tutor or platform can't manufacture vocabulary or motivation — those come from home. What they buy is structure, feedback and accountability. If your budget is £0, you can still prepare effectively with a reading habit, a practice-paper book and a consistent routine. If your budget is £5,000, the marginal return on the third hour of weekly tutoring is far lower than the first.

Parent advice: what to do, when, and what to avoid

The parent's checklist

• Choose target schools and one backup plan (a comprehensive school you'd genuinely be happy with)
• Put the registration dates in the calendar the day they're published — schools rarely extend deadlines
• Attend open days in Year 5 so your child has seen the school and wants to go there
• Set a simple weekly routine and protect it from being squeezed out
• Review every practice paper with your child, not just mark it
• Check your child's sleep, screen time and stress levels in the final term
• Fill in the common application form before the 31 October deadline — even if you're still unsure
• Have the appeal and waiting-list information ready in case the result isn't what you hoped

Mistakes parents make (and how to avoid them)

1. Treating the 11+ as a verdict on their child. It isn't. Children who "fail" the 11+ go on to brilliant things constantly — including many who were tutored for two years.
2. Over-testing. A child who does two full papers a week in the final months is being trained to dread exams. One well-reviewed mock a month is plenty; quality of review beats quantity of tests.
3. Comparing their child to others. You'll meet families who "started in Year 2" and families who claim their child "did no prep at all". Both are usually exaggerations. Run your own race.
4. Doing the work for them. If you're the one reading the question aloud and explaining every step, your child is learning that they can't do it alone. The goal is independence.
5. Forgetting the rest of life. The 11+ is one year of a childhood. Swimming, friends, birthday parties and boredom all matter more than one extra practice paper.

Student tips: how to do well (written for you, not your parents!)

Here's the truth from children who've sat the test: the children who do best aren't the cleverest — they're the calmest. Here's how to make that you.

During the year

• Be a detective about question types. There are only a limited number of "tricks" in reasoning — sequences, codes, odd-one-outs, patterns. Once you spot the trick, the question becomes easy. Practise spotting them.
• Learn to love the timer. Time is the real challenge. When you practise, always time yourself, and learn to skip a question that's eating your time. You can come back to it.
• Explain it to a teddy bear (or a parent). If you can explain how you solved a problem out loud, you truly understand it. This works for maths, reasoning — everything.
• Read something you actually enjoy. Comics, magazines, fiction, non-fiction — it all builds your vocabulary. The more you read, the easier the English paper feels.

On exam day

• Pack your pencil case the night before: two sharpened pencils, an eraser, a sharpener — and a bottle of water.
• Shade answer bubbles fully and neatly. The machine that reads your sheet can't read a half-hearted scribble. Fill the whole bubble, and don't change answers by scribbling — use your eraser properly.
• Don't panic if a section feels hard. Everyone finds it hard. The questions are supposed to stretch you — that's the point.
• Use the space in the question booklet to work things out. It's yours — scribble away.
• Move on. If you're stuck on question 15, leave it and come back. A blank answer is a guaranteed zero; a guess isn't.

Tutor notes: the deeper picture

For tutors preparing students for the 11+, here's what the research and experience say about doing it well.

The three pillars of 11+ tuition

1. Curriculum security first. English and maths content must be mastered before test technique. The most common reason bright students underperform is a shaky fraction or punctuation foundation dressed up as "test anxiety". Diagnose content gaps before blaming technique.
2. Question-type fluency second. Reasoning sections reward recognition: a child who has seen forty letter-code questions can answer the forty-first quickly and calmly. This is pattern recognition, and it's trainable. Aim for breadth of question types early, then speed.
3. Exam discipline third. Timing, answer-sheet mechanics and decision-making (when to skip, when to guess) are skills in their own right. Schedule at least two full mock sittings in the final term — in silence, in one go, on a real-style answer sheet.

Practical pedagogical notes

• Spaced practice beats cramming. A student who does 20 minutes daily for six months will outperform one who does two hours weekly — and the difference grows when anxiety is high.
• Feedback needs to be specific and immediate. "Seven out of ten" tells a student nothing. "You lost four marks on fractions word problems, and here's the method you missed" changes behaviour. Review errors together the same day.
• Standardisation means age-adjacent scores matter. A child born in August gets an age uplift relative to a September-born child — that's by design, so don't "protect" a summer-born student by slowing their schedule. Instead, make the younger child's methods secure.
• Watch for question-type fatigue. Many students plateau because they've done 200 random questions rather than 20 targeted ones. Identify the three weakest types and drill those to mastery before widening again.
• The answer sheet is a silent killer. Children who can solve every question can still score poorly on GL papers through sloppy shading, missed transfers or skipped questions. Insist on the real answer-sheet format in every mock.
• Set expectations with parents early. Discuss the reality: the 11+ selects a minority of applicants in most areas. Your job is to maximise the chance and protect the child — not to promise a place.

When tutoring genuinely helps

Tutoring adds most value when there's a specific, diagnosable need: a subject gap, an anxiety problem, or a child who needs external accountability. It adds least value when the parent could equally supervise structured practice from a book. If a family's budget is limited, the better use of it is usually one practice-paper book plus a weekly review session with a tutor, rather than daily sessions with diminishing returns.

Common mistakes: a full breakdown

Mistakes parents make

Mistakes students make

1. Not practising under time — then discovering the paper is longer than it felt.
2. Guessing randomly instead of eliminating — in multiple-choice, cross out impossible answers first.
3. Skipping the review — doing papers without learning from wrong answers.
4. Staying up late before the test — a tired brain is slower than an untrained one.
5. Panicking mid-paper — forgetting that everyone finds it hard, and moving on is a skill.

Mistakes tutors make

1. Teaching content, not exam skills — brilliant lessons that never mention timing or answer sheets.
2. Ignoring the specific test — using CEM-style materials for a GL student (or vice versa) wastes months.
3. No diagnostic baseline — teaching a child fractions for six weeks when their gap was vocabulary.
4. Promising outcomes — the 11+ is competitive; honest tutors manage expectations.
5. Overloading younger students — Year 3 students benefit from foundations and confidence, not two-hour grinds.

Frequently asked questions

Related reading on SharpY Mind

• 📘 The 11+ Guide — every guide we have, mapped
• UK Grammar Schools by Region: Zone & Exam Board Guide
• National Offer Day & the CAF: Timeline Explained
• 11+ Verbal Reasoning: Free Practice & Guide
• 11+ Non-Verbal Reasoning: Free Practice & Guide
• 11+ Vocabulary: How to Actually Build It
• Sutton Zone Grammar Schools: The Complete Guide
• The 11+ Pass Rate: What the National Numbers Mean
• How Many Children Compete Per Place?
• When Should I Start 11+ Preparation?
• 5 Mistakes Parents Make During the 11+ Journey
• Should Your Child Use ChatGPT for 11+ Prep?
• Screen Time and the 11+: What the Research Says
• CEM vs GL Assessment: Why It Changed
• CSSE 11+ Exam Guide (Essex Consortium)

A final word

Preparing for the 11+ is a marathon with a very short sprint at the end. The families who handle it best share a few habits: they start early enough to stay calm, they build a routine that fits real life, they keep reading at the heart of everything, and — most importantly — they keep the test in perspective. The 11+ opens one door; it is not the only door, and it is not the only good one.

Your child is more than a score on a September morning. Whatever the result, the reading, the reasoning practice and the confidence they've built along the way will serve them at any school.