When to start preparing for the 11 Plus (11+): a Year 4 and Year 5 plan

Year 4: build the slow-growing skills

In Year 4, an occasional paper is plenty, enough for the format to become familiar. The daily effort belongs on the skills that take years to grow:

• Reading. Nothing else at this stage returns as much. Aim slightly above what your child finds easy, older fiction included; that’s where the vocabulary is. Our 11+ reading list is a starting point.
• Vocabulary and spelling. A few minutes a day, every day. Children pick up words gradually, a few at a time, which is exactly why starting in Year 4 helps.
• Mental arithmetic. Tables, number bonds and quick fractions work, practised until the answers arrive without thought.
• Handwriting and stamina. Writing neatly for twenty minutes without flagging matters in any written paper, and it builds slowly too.

Use Year 4 to pin down what your target schools actually set, as well, because everything in Year 5 follows from it. Some areas test verbal and non-verbal reasoning and some don’t, and the same split runs between multiple choice papers and written ones.

Year 5: structured preparation, term by term

Year 5 is the year of structured work on the papers your child will actually sit. The pattern through the year: topic work and untimed papers first, then the clock once the content is secure.

• Autumn of Year 5: one full paper a week, marked together afterwards. Settle the list of schools and confirm each format, and begin reasoning work if any of your child’s schools test it; for most children it’s brand-new material, so it needs the longest run-in.
• Spring of Year 5: two or three papers a week, properly timed, with topic sessions in maths and English to repair whatever the marking turns up. Registration is worth watching from here on; our guide to when to apply for the 11+ covers the timings.
• Summer of Year 5: the heart of the preparation. With no school timetable in the way, build towards roughly a practice test a day, marked together; the holiday allows the sustained run that term time doesn’t. Our summer holidays plan sets out the week-by-week ramp.
• Autumn of Year 6: only for the schools that test this late. Most grammar tests are sat in the first fortnight of September, so for those the work finishes with the summer. Where a later paper is still to come, drop from the summer’s daily rhythm to three or four timed papers spread across the week, aim the sessions at whatever the marking shows, and add no new topics.

Top tips

• Keep the sessions short and frequent at every stage, rather than saving everything for one long Sunday sitting.
• Pin down the exam format early, before spending money on papers; multiple choice and written formats are prepared differently.
• Keep a simple record of scores by paper and by topic, so improvement is visible.
• Hold one preparation-free day every week, and keep holding it in Year 6 when the pressure to fill it grows.
• The right amount of work is whatever your child can keep up without dreading it.
• Book mock exams early. They fill up, and the useful sittings are the ones with time left to act on the result.

Starting late, or starting very early

Two situations come up over and over, from opposite directions, and both have workable answers.

• Starting in Year 6. Check the date first: for most grammar schools the test lands within a fortnight of Year 6 beginning, while a few grammars and most independent schools test later in the autumn term or in January. For an early-September exam, starting ‘in Year 6’ really means starting in the summer before it, so check your target school’s official admissions page and count back from the date it gives. With the exam close, work on exactly what your child will face: full papers under timed conditions, plus the reasoning question types if the school sets them. Be choosy about how many schools you chase, too; a shortlist that shares one format is a lighter load than a longer list that needs several. Examberry Tuition runs Year 6 courses built around this final stretch.
• Starting in Year 3. At this age the work doesn’t need to look like exam practice at all. Wide reading, new words, and quick, confident number work are what all the later preparation rests on, and a child can enjoy all three. Examberry Tuition runs Year 3 courses that cover exactly that ground.

If you’re weighing up tuition either way, our guide on 11+ tuition will help you decide, and tracking progress covers what to measure along the way.

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