11+ Exam Practice Guide

GL Assessment is used in Kent, Lincolnshire, Buckinghamshire and many partial-selective areas. It tests four separate papers: Verbal Reasoning, Non-Verbal Reasoning, Maths and English.

CEM (Centre for Evaluation and Monitoring) was used in Birmingham, Wirral and a few others, but most CEM regions have switched to GL since 2023. ISEB Common Pre-Test is used by independent schools, taken in Year 6 or 7, computer-adaptive.

Verbal Reasoning: word puzzles, codes, analogies, finding the odd one out. Heavy on vocabulary — the strongest predictor of a high VR score is wide reading from age 7+.

Non-Verbal Reasoning: shape sequences, mirror images, matrices. Less coachable but improves with practice. Maths: KS2 curriculum plus quick mental arithmetic. English: comprehension, grammar, punctuation, sometimes a short writing task.

Most families start formal 11+ prep 12 months before the test (start of Year 5). Earlier 'enrichment' through reading and puzzles is fine, but heavy tutoring before Year 5 is rarely cost-effective.

Aim for 30–45 minutes of focused practice, four or five days a week, building to one full timed paper each weekend in the final two months.

Read aloud to and with your child every day — it builds vocabulary faster than any tutor. Encourage at least 30 minutes of independent reading from age 7, gradually moving toward classic and challenging texts.

Don't over-tutor. Children who arrive at the exam exhausted or anxious underperform. Build in proper rest days and stop all 11+ talk the day before the test.

The exam is held at a local grammar school or test centre on a Saturday morning in September. It's usually two papers in the morning with a short break.

Results are released in mid-October. Most areas use the score for school allocation in March via the standard secondary school application (CAF) — your child's catchment school remains as a backup.

Verbal Reasoning: 21 question types in the GL bank. The most common are word codes (substitute letters using a key), letter sequences, hidden words inside sentences, antonyms, synonyms, and 'cloze' (fill-in-the-blank) passages. Vocabulary depth matters — children should know words like 'placid', 'meander', 'reluctant' and 'feasible' by Year 5.

Non-Verbal Reasoning: shape rotation, mirror images, find-the-odd-one-out, complete-the-matrix and code-the-shape. The trick is methodical elimination, not pattern guessing. Encourage your child to explain their reasoning out loud — it dramatically reduces careless errors.

Maths: focus areas are fractions, decimals, percentages, ratio, area, perimeter, time and pure word problems. Answer is sometimes multiple-choice, sometimes a free-text number — practise both formats.

Pass the 11+ and your child qualifies for grammar school admission — but does not automatically get a place. Allocation depends on each grammar school's oversubscription rules: catchment area, sibling priority, distance to school, sometimes Pupil Premium priority.

You apply through your local authority's Common Application Form (CAF), naming up to six schools in preference order, by the 31 October deadline. Always include a non-selective backup — most LAs will not allocate any place if all your preferences are full and you haven't named a fallback.

Appeals: if your child narrowly misses the qualifying score or doesn't get an offer at a school they qualified for, you can appeal in writing. Successful appeals usually rely on evidence of illness on the test day, an obvious anomaly in the score, or breach of the admission policy.

11+ pressure on a 10-year-old is real. Watch for signs of stress: poor sleep, appetite changes, withdrawal from friends, frequent stomach aches before practice sessions. If they appear, scale back not up.

Build in genuine downtime — at least one whole evening a week with no 11+ work, plus weekend family time. Sport, music, drama and free play protect concentration during the actual test more than another worksheet does. Whatever the result, your child should know that the family will love them and back the school they end up at, grammar or comprehensive.