How to prepare your child for the 7 Plus (7+)

Start early, and keep sessions short

Introduce the kinds of questions your child will meet, especially reasoning puzzles if their target school includes them, well before the exam, so nothing arrives for the first time under pressure. At this age, 10 to 15 minutes of focused practice is usually enough; longer sessions tend to lose a child’s attention rather than add to their learning.

Starting in the school year before the exam, rather than in the final few weeks, lets you spread that practice thinly enough that it never feels like a big event. A little English and maths, kept up regularly since the autumn term, makes January’s exam morning feel ordinary instead of new.

Build a simple routine

A short, regular pattern (a little English, a little maths, and reasoning practice if it’s part of the target school’s format) serves a young child far better than long, irregular sessions. Check your target school’s official format before you start, so you’re practising the right mix of subjects rather than guessing.

Two or three short sessions a week suits most children better than one every day; at this age consistency counts for more than volume, and a child who’s had a break tends to get more from a session than one doing back-to-back practice.

A sticker chart or a small reward after a set number of sessions gives a young child something concrete to work towards. ‘Passing the exam’ is too abstract to motivate most seven-year-olds; the next sticker isn’t.

Add timed practice closer to the exam

In the weeks before the exam, have your child sit a practice paper under proper timed conditions, so working against a clock isn’t new on the day. Mark it together afterwards, talking through what went well as much as what didn’t; it tells you where to spend the remaining time and keeps your child’s confidence intact.

If the school also talks to candidates, an interview or a short spoken element, a practice conversation helps more than it might seem: a few minutes of you asking about their day, their favourite book, or what they’d like to be when they grow up. Few seven-year-olds have had a proper one-to-one conversation with an unfamiliar adult, and a little rehearsal takes the edge off that on its own, quite apart from the academic content.

Top tips

• Keep sessions to 10-15 minutes. Short and regular is the pattern that works at this age.
• Confirm your target school’s exact format first, so you’re practising the right subjects and question types.
• Introduce reasoning questions early if the school includes them; they’re often a completely new question type for a child this age.
• Use small, consistent rewards rather than pressure, to keep practice something your child wants to do.
• Add timed conditions only in the final weeks, once the content itself is familiar.
• Treat mistakes as ordinary. At seven, learning what went wrong matters more than getting everything right.

How to prepare

The most useful materials for this age are short, focused practice papers your child can complete in one sitting, covering English and maths in the format their target school actually sets, with reasoning practice added if their school includes it. Look for material written for this age group specifically rather than simplified 11+ papers, since the question style and expected handwriting are quite different at seven.