11 Plus (11+) exam technique tips

Answer the question that’s there

Instructions first. The front of the booklet, or the opening screen, says how answers should be recorded, whether to circle or underline, and whether sections carry their own time limits, and a child keen to get going tends to skim it. Practise treating the instructions as part of the paper.

Each question deserves the same discipline. Under time pressure, children often answer the version of the question they were expecting instead of the one in front of them. Reading a question twice before starting costs a few seconds and saves a good number of careless mistakes.

Pace the paper, section by section

Before the exam, work out roughly how much time each question deserves, from the paper’s length and question count, and have your child practise holding that pace. When a question digs in, the better move is usually to put an answer down anyway, circle the question number, and return to it at the end, taking the highest-mark questions first.

On papers split into separately timed sections, the pacing resets at each one. Time lost in the first section can’t be recovered in the second, so a slow start on comprehension shouldn’t turn into a rushed maths section as well; treat each section as a separate small exam.

A watch your child can read at a glance helps more than the clock on the wall, which isn’t always visible from every seat. Practising with the same watch they’ll wear on the day means a time check takes a glance rather than a pause.

Match the approach to the paper

Find out which format your child is facing before you coach either set of habits.

On a multiple choice paper, ruling out the plainly wrong options and moving on works better than agonising over the exact reasoning. There’s no credit for working, only for the answer selected, so an educated guess should always go on the sheet; it keeps a real chance of scoring, and a blank scores nothing.

On a written or standard format paper, method usually earns marks of its own, particularly in maths, so the working belongs on paper even when your child is confident of the answer, and a first step is worth writing down even when the full answer won’t come. In written English answers, a short quotation from the passage plus a sentence of explanation tends to score better than a single unsupported statement, however right that statement is; often the explanation is what earns the credit.

Some tests are sat on screen, where there’s often nothing to underline or annotate, so these habits need adapting rather than abandoning. Our guide to preparing for an online 11+ test covers what changes.

Top tips for your child

• On multiple choice, put an answer down for every question! There’s no penalty for a wrong one, and a guess still has a chance of scoring.
• Read each question twice before answering, even with the clock running; the question you expected isn’t always the question you’ve been given.
• In maths, never leave a question empty if you can write a first step; on written papers the method itself usually earns marks.
• If a question is eating your time, put an answer down, circle the number and move on; come back once everything else is done.
• Time each section separately. A slow first section doesn’t have to become a rushed second one.
• Practise on the format you’ll actually sit: paper or screen, multiple choice or written.

How to prepare

One of the most effective ways to prepare for an 11+ entrance exam is to use practice tests written by experts. We publish a full range of 11+ revision resources: area and school-specific practice tests, subject-specific packs, spelling and vocabulary resources, and reading books.

Each of our practice tests:

• is available as a PDF download or in physical format
• familiarises your child with the types of questions they will face in the real exam
• includes answers to every question, with detailed, step-by-step explanations for the maths and reasoning questions
• builds your child’s confidence before the actual exam.

Use the finder below to jump straight to the papers for your child’s school or area.

Find papers for your school or area

Grammar schools and area tests

• Bexley
• Bishop Wordsworth’s
• Buckinghamshire
• CSSE
• Ermysted’s
• Gloucestershire
• Henrietta Barnett
• Kent
• QE Boys
• Redbridge
• Slough Consortium
• St Olave’s
• Sutton
• The Latymer School
• Tiffin School & Tiffin Girls’ School
• Trafford
• West Midlands

Independent schools

• City of London School for Girls
• Hampton
• Latymer Upper
• Merchant Taylors’
• St Paul’s Girls’ School
• St Paul’s Juniors