What’s in the 11+?
If you’re thinking about preparing your child to take an eleven-plus test to secure a place in a grammar or independent school, you may have already googled or asked in some parenting groups, ‘What’s in the 11+?’
And if you have, you might have been surprised by the variety of answers you’ve found.
This is because, as parents discover when they ask us the same question, our honest answer is always, ‘It depends.’
The eleven plus has evolved over time to include some elements that your child might recognise from their normal class work (maths, English and Verbal Reasoning questions) along with a particular test not covered by the National Curriculum (NC), Non-Verbal Reasoning.
If you really want to see the NC data and would prefer to read the official government document it’s 201 pages long and can be downloaded from the government website here but be warned, it’s not a bedtime read.
The snag, however, is that, unlike GCSEs or A-Levels which are calibrated across exam providers, there is no one, standard that every school uses, nor is there a single ‘pass’ mark that will guarantee your child a place at your desired school.
The 11+ will, in theory, test your child’s ability to answer questions taken from any part of the syllabus that they would have or could have been expected to have covered by the end of year 6 (ie the end of Key Stage 2).
But they’ll be tested on this, either in September at the start of their year 6, or sometime between September and January if they’re taking independent school tests (or round two tests for some grammar schools).
No ‘standardised’ test
When considering which grammar school or independent school might be right for their children, many parents quickly discover that if they’ve got more than one preference, their child may therefore have to sit a selection of 11+ tests.
The tests set by grammar schools and independent schools can be separated into the following broad groups:
- GL Assessment multiple choice papers
- CEM multiple choice papers (but CEM have recently announced their withdrawal from paper tests)*
- CSSE open format and multiple choice papers
- Traditional open-format answer papers
- Online screen-based assessments including CEM Select, ISEB Pretest and CAT4.
Many of the ultra-competitive schools follow a two-stage testing regime, so your child may need to be conversant with a variety of question formats.
*Following announcements by CEM to withdraw from paper-based tests and focus purely on online tests for independent schools, many parents considering ex-CEM test schools are in a state of flux, waiting for clarification as to which tests their child will need to sit.
Think syllabus, not just format
Many of the top schools often include questions in their test papers which require thinking skills beyond what’s covered in KS2.
This means it might be sensible to provide your child with a working overview of some post-KS2 maths and English if you’re considering schools such as those; better safe than sorry.
If you’re aiming for one of the top schools your child should have a working knowledge of some of the maths concepts that they won’t explore in school until after year 6.
This also includes having a good understanding of English, since many maths questions are designed to trip up the unwary by their careful, or crafty, use of wording.
We’ve therefore produced an updated document which outlines the broad topic areas your child could well be tested on.
Depending upon which schools you’re targeting you might be able to omit some of those sections, but we’d recommend you double-check before doing that.
Please contact those schools or speak to us if you’re unsure.
This isn’t an official list, since none exist, and schools can, and do introduce new or revised questions at any time, so beware!
The document is divided into four sections: Maths, Non-Verbal Reasoning and Spatial Reasoning, English and Verbal Reasoning.
Against each category, there is a useful tick box so you can track when your child started on that section, along with when you feel they’re exam-ready or require additional study.
If you click on the link below we’ll have an easily printable ready-formatted copy sent to your email address.