How to improve your child’s 11 Plus (11+) comprehension

What the examiner is looking for

It helps to know what a comprehension paper is testing, because four skills cover nearly every question your child will meet:

• Retrieval: finding a piece of information that is stated in the text.
• Inference: working out what the writer implies without saying it.
• Vocabulary: working out what an unfamiliar word means from the sentence around it.
• Language and structure: explaining why the writer chose a particular word or image.

Most children score well on retrieval. Marks are most often lost on the inference and language questions, so that is where practice at home should go.

Teach your child to recognise the question types

Once your child can tell which type a question is, they know what the answer needs to look like before they start writing:

• Find and copy: the answer is in the passage and should be copied exactly, spelling included. No paraphrasing.
• Why do you think…?: inference. The answer needs evidence from the text rather than what your child imagines they would do.
• What does this word mean?: vocabulary. The whole sentence, and usually the one before it, carries the clue.
• Why has the writer used…?: a language question about a simile, metaphor or unusual choice. The answer should say what effect it has on the reader.
• How does the character feel?: inference again, and the evidence usually sits in what the character does or says rather than in a named emotion.
• Longer written answers: in standard format papers some questions carry three or more marks and need several sentences, each adding a separate piece of evidence.

Multiple choice papers test the same skills through options instead of written answers. The wrong options are usually built around common misreadings, so careful reading matters just as much.

A practice routine that works

Twenty minutes twice a week, marked together, is enough. The routine we recommend:

• Read the questions before the passage. Your child then reads knowing what they are looking for.
• Underline the evidence before writing. If there is nothing to underline, the answer is a guess.
• Match the answer to the marks. One mark, one idea; three marks, three ideas, or one idea with evidence and effect.
• Mark it together, and make your child the examiner. Ask them to explain any answer that lost marks. Ten minutes of marking together often teaches your child more than the paper itself.
• Keep a notebook of words picked up from passages. Comprehension and vocabulary rise together, and the same words feed the verbal reasoning paper.

Alongside the papers, it is reading itself that raises comprehension over the months. Choose books slightly above your child’s comfort level, and lean towards classic novels, because that is where exam passages often come from.

Top tips for your child

• Answer in full sentences unless the question tells you to find and copy.
• Use the words of the question in your answer. It keeps you on the point.
• Quote a few words as your evidence. You never need to copy a whole sentence.
• Keep an eye on the clock. Comprehension is the section children most often run out of time on.
• Never leave a question blank! Even a guess can earn a mark.
• If you meet a word you don’t know, read the sentence again and work it out from what surrounds it.

The mistakes we see most when marking

These come up again and again in marked answers:

• Answering from imagination. Every answer should be traceable to something on the page.
• Retelling the story instead of answering the question that was asked.
• One line for a three-mark question. The mark allocation is telling your child how much to write.
• Copying out a long quotation in the hope the marker finds the relevant part of it.
• Never reaching the final questions. Time runs out at the end of the paper, and the final questions often carry the most marks.

How to prepare for 11+ comprehension

Practice papers are the most useful tool here, because they give your child passages at the right level with mark schemes you can use at home. Choose the format your child’s school actually sets: our English packs come in both multiple choice and standard format, and the two are not interchangeable. If you are not sure which your school uses, check its admissions page or our exam information guides.

The spelling and vocabulary series is worth adding alongside, since a wider vocabulary lifts comprehension marks more reliably than almost anything else you can practise.