Eleven Plus Admission Test Preparation
- English
- Maths
- Non-Verbal Reasoning
- Verbal Reasoning
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How to Prepare for the Eleven Plus Exam?
In this Section, we discuss the ways to prepare for the 11+ exam, including understanding the ways to research the schools to which you want to apply. You will have to address the following questions:
- What school do I want to apply to?
- What are the entry requirements for that school?
- What resources do I use to prepare for the 11 plus exams?
- How to find an 11 plus private tutor?
Research the school to which you are applying
Here are some examples of schools that may be on your list and the information that you might need to prepare. Renowned for its academic rigour, the school features an intensely competitive admissions process, including entrance exams and interviews.
St Paul’s School
St. Paul’s Boys’ School is a prestigious independent boys’ school in London for boys aged 7 to 18
- Complete registration form. The deadline for this is in November of the previous year.
- Take the ISEB test in January. This is an online test covering the 4 main topics above.
- Take stage 2 entrance test in English and Maths set by St Paul’s
Students who achieve 85%+ historically have gained entry at the 11+ stage.
Westminster School
Westminster Under School (WUS) is a prestigious independent preparatory school for boys in London and structures a well-rounded academic journey intertwining high-quality education with extracurricular activities. It has a record of yielding outstanding results and nurturing lifelong learners.
The steps follow a very similar format to St Paul’s School
- Complete registration form. The deadline for this is in October of the previous year.
- Take the ISEB test in January. This is an online test covering the 4 main topics above.
- Take stage 2 entrance test in English and Maths set by Westminster
Students who acheive 85%+ historically have gained entry at the 11+ stage.
Highgate School
Highgate School is a top-tier educational institution in London that offers a profound and academically rigorous learning environment for students. The school aims to nurture confidence, creativity and risk taking in pupils as they study, in preparation for higher education and the world of work.
The steps are the following:
- Complete registration form. The deadline for this is on 8th November of the previous year.
- Take the admissions tests on English, Maths, and Non-Verbal Reasoning in December
- Interview and trial lesson in January
- Offers are received in February
There are too many schools to list so if you are unsure of the process to your school of choice or are stuck for resources, please reach out directly and I would be happy to assist.
What is tested in the 11+?
Independent schools typically test four areas in the 11+ that I will list below. English and Maths typically follow the National Curriculum KS2. Verbal Reasoning and Non-Verbal Reasoning test a child’s ability to grasp language concepts and spot patterns-more like an IQ test. The most successful students who sit the 11+ usually function above what is expected for their age.
Resources
1. Practice Papers
Practice is the essence of perfection. Giving your child practice papers in the style of the exam they will sit will allow them to appreciate the format, time management, and expected results.
For access to over 2000 11+ practice papers, please request access here to my google drive.
2. Textbooks
As parents, you may often find yourselves debating the value of a traditional textbook over the seemingly endless online resources. While it’s true that the internet provides plenty of educational content, textbooks can offer a systematic and cohesive learning approach tailored specifically for the 11+ exam.
In my opinion, the Bond Textbooks are the best that cover all four sections of the test.
Another option is the Schofield & Sims 11+ progress papers
3. Online Resources
- Atom is a great resource with lessons and mock tests in the format for the ISEB test. It’s laid out in the
- Bond also offers ISEB practice and more general 11+ practice
- Pretest Plus provides specific tests for ISEB and specific schools
- Exam Papers Plus also provides searchable papers for each part of the 11+
Where to start?
When your child engages with Greenhill Academics, we lay everything on the table.
- We give you all assessment material
- We assess your child
- We direct you to the best resources
- We provide you with experienced tutors
- We deliver you an introductory 6-hour programme
Will my Child Succeed?
We are firm believers that every child has a huge amount of potential. They have to be guided, engaged and inspired. Our plan will maximize the likelihood of success (whatever that looks like for your child) as it has done for all of our previous students.
We let our results speak for themselves. We, and our partners, have helped students gain admission to
- St Paul’s School
- Westminster
- Highgate
- Latymer Upper
- Sevenoaks
The Best Quality
The most convincing way to understand the quality of anything is to try it. We are sure you’ll recognise the time and care we have taken to create
- a 6-hour assessment package to address all major areas of the 11+ assessment
- an immersive and engaging experience with your child that has given confidence to hundreds of parents and our array of corporate partners
- an expert pool of tutors from Oxford University and Cambridge University
- an open communication between parents and tutors of their child’s progress
- targeted content for lessons to address the most important areas of improvement
Frequently Asked Questions
11+ exams are taken between September and January depending on the schools to which you are applying.
The total content for the 11+ takes roughly 14 hours for English, 14 hours for Maths, 4 hours for VR and 4 hours for NVR to tutor on average. It is up to the parent to decide for their child how intensively they want their child to be taught.
The lessons are taught using text and maths content using examples from Key Stage 2 materials and sometimes extension work depending on the child’s ability. Practice questions are taken from past papers and topic specific questions from online 11+ providers.
There are some great online subscriptions and books to use. The best approach is little and often, spread over a long period of time. The best resources are Atom, Bond, Schofield & Sims, and official past papers of schools (if they are published). If stuck on particular topics for maths, Corbett Maths has every topic with answers and worked video answers.
- Gamify learning and frame it as a new adventure.
- There are some great maths games online.
- Find out what your child likes to read and ask them questions about their book
- what vocabulary means
- what’s inferred by the passages
- the facts of the texts.
- the order of events in the books
- Do sums and times tables in the car on the way to school
- Apply maths to real life situations: the bill at a restaurant, number of sausages shared at dinner among your family, the fraction of a cake
We work directly from the curriculum and use regular checkpoints to ensure everything is understood as we go. As we get closer to exam time, we go through practice papers together from our extensive library of published school past papers
- Often a child will be stronger at English or Maths. On the weaker subject we make sure it’s engaging and fun. We also give tricks to get all the marks in the tests and show children that they can succeed. Momentum is powerful.
- For children with learning difficulties, these often surface around the age of 10 meaning that they have not yet seeked out psychological assessments. If there is any doubt, diagnoses help with exam accommodations which are vital to provide the best opportunities to children who need them.
- Not sure what schools to apply to and what tests to take
- It’s important to choose what is important to your child. Some of the criteria that parents consider are: academic performance, sport, drama, grounds, exclusivity, cost, competitiveness, boarding accommodations, and availability of scholarships and bursaries.
- To get a full idea of schools, it’s best to see the school in person on open days.
- Most choose around 5 schools to which they apply, some harder than others to get accepted.
- Not sure if tutoring and testing will put too much stress on the child.
- Our tutoring is always framed as a fun creative interaction between the student and tutor. We slowly introduce timed questions similar to those faced in the real assessments.
- We are very clear that there is more to life than testing. If we sense that a child is getting stressed or overwhelmed, we tell parents and work around this.
The best approach for homework is little and often. This can either be set by tutors or resources can be followed externally from the list of companies.
There is no easy way to handle this and it’s often child dependent. The best way from our experience is to keep the subjects fun and not to put too much pressure on the outcome, knowing that the child will succeed regardless of the results. We encourage our students to focus on the benefits of investing time into academics, rather than focusing on a desired result.
Just last year our students were offered places at St Paul’s, Latymer, Sevenoaks, Ibstock, Harrodian, King’s College School Wimbledon, Wetherby, Highgate, and Emanuel.
After every lesson, we submit learning reports on the lessons on our lesson scheduling platform, TutorCruncher. This outlines strengths and weaknesses, and what needs to be done going forward.
Starting from scratch, to cover all 11+ content of English, Maths, Verbal Reasoning, and Non-Verbal Reasoning takes (on average) about 36 hours of tuition. If the child has covered all the content at school and needs exam practice, this takes around 10 hours.
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