What to do the night before the 11 Plus (11+)

The night before

No practice paper this evening. A final paper a couple of days out is fine; tonight, a good score proves nothing, and a poor one is what they’ll be thinking about as they fall asleep. If they want to do something, ten minutes of something familiar, then stop.

Pack together, with your child rather than for them:

• The letter or email with the test centre details, printed.
• Two sharpened pencils and a rubber, in whatever pencil case the instructions allow. Many centres ask for a clear one, and some provide all the equipment and want nothing brought in at all, which is why the letter gets read tonight and not at 7.40 tomorrow.
• A water bottle, label off if that’s the rule.
• Glasses, if they wear them.

Then check the two details most likely to cause trouble in the morning: where you’ll park or which entrance you’re using, and what time the doors open.

Keep bedtime exactly as normal, lights off at the usual time. An early night ordered specially for the test mostly produces a child lying awake thinking about it.

When the nerves surface

At some point in the evening, most children ask a version of ‘what if I fail it?’. Have an answer ready rather than reaching for ‘you won’t’.

The truthful answer holds up well: it’s one test on one morning; some children pass and choose a different school anyway; and the result doesn’t measure how clever they are, with good schools ahead of them either way. Tomorrow’s job is only to show what they’ve practised. Say it once, evenly, then change the subject.

One piece of technique is worth planting tonight: if a question looks impossible, it wasn’t put there to upset you; mark your best guess, put a dot beside it on a paper test, and move on. A line like that, heard the night before, is easy for a child to reach for mid-test.

If the worry has been building for weeks rather than appearing tonight, that needs different answers, and we’ve covered it separately in how to help your child with 11+ exam nerves.

The morning, and afterwards

Breakfast should be food your child reliably eats: familiar, enough of it, with water, and nothing being tried for the first time.

Leave earlier than feels necessary. Children read a parent’s mood in the car, and a driver watching the clock in traffic passes the worry straight to them. If you arrive early, stay in the car or take a short walk rather than joining the crowd of parents at the gate.

Keep the goodbye short and plain. ‘See you at lunchtime’ and the plan for afterwards is plenty; a speech at the door only adds pressure.

Have something ordinary and pleasant planned for afterwards, agreed before they go in, and keep it whatever happens. Let them talk about the test if they want to and leave it alone if they don’t; ask ‘was there anything funny?’ rather than ‘how did the maths go?’. And hold whatever verdict they give loosely, because children misjudge their own exams in both directions.

Top tips

• Read the test centre letter tonight, and pack from it with your child.
• Sort the parking, the entrance and the door-opening time this evening.
• Keep bedtime and breakfast exactly as they always are.
• Answer ‘what if I fail?’ once, truthfully, then talk about something else.
• Teach the impossible-question routine: best guess, dot, move on.
• Agree the after-test plan before they go in, and keep it whatever happens.

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