The 11 plus exam, explained for parents

The 11 plus is a selective entrance exam sat in the final year of primary school. Passing it is how children are offered places at grammar schools, and a similar test is used by many independent schools for entry at the same age.

There is no single national paper. Each area, and in some cases each school, chooses its own test. The two names parents meet most often are GL Assessment and CEM, and a number of schools set their own bespoke papers instead. The admissions page of the school you are applying to is the only place that will tell you exactly which one your child will sit.

Depending on the test, a child may be assessed on any of four things:

• Maths — arithmetic, fractions, decimals, percentages, ratio, algebra, geometry, measures and multi-step word problems, worked under time pressure.
• English — comprehension, vocabulary, spelling, punctuation and grammar, and sometimes a piece of writing.
• Verbal reasoning — word puzzles, codes and logic expressed in language.
• Non-verbal reasoning — shape, sequence and pattern questions with no words in them at all.

Kudos is a maths product. It does not teach English or reasoning, and it says so rather than implying otherwise.

In most areas the test falls at the start of Year 6, which means the preparation happens through Year 5 and the summer before. Registration usually closes months earlier, often during Year 5, and the deadline is set by the local authority or the school rather than by the exam board. Check the dates on your own school’s admissions page early; the registration deadline is the one families miss.

Less than the forums suggest, and more regularly than most families manage. The maths in the 11 plus is mostly primary curriculum content asked in unfamiliar ways and at speed, so the work that pays is short, frequent practice that keeps finding the gaps, rather than long sessions that rehearse what a child can already do.

That is the whole argument behind Kudos. A child answers a question wrong for a reason — subtracting before multiplying, misreading a remainder, converting a unit the wrong way — and unless somebody names that reason, more practice simply produces more of the same mistake.

• Daily practice that adapts to the answers given, so the questions follow the child rather than a fixed list.
• An explanation after every question, written for the child to read on their own, so nobody has to mark anything.
• Full mock papers in the GL and CEM styles — 50 questions in 60 minutes, timed like the real thing.
• Printable worksheets for days away from a screen.
• A weekly course that works through the whole 11 plus maths syllabus in order, with a quiz at the end of each week.
• Reports that show which topics are improving and which are not, so a parent can see the picture without sitting through the practice.

If you work with a tutor, they can be linked to your child’s account and see the same detail — you grant that access one child at a time and can withdraw it whenever you like. More on how tutors use Kudos.

If you are ready to start on papers rather than reading about the exam, the 11 plus practice papers page explains how the mocks and worksheets work.