11 Plus for Parents - Top 10 Working Tips

1. Consider the school carefully

As well as the actual preparation for the 11 Plus exam, it’s important to consider the school your child is applying to. Spending long hours commuting to school won’t necessarily help your child achieve better grades, even if it’s a grammar school. Students will have lots of homework and this will also limit the number of after school activities they can participate in.

2. Building strong foundations at an early age

It’s a good idea to start with attempting to develop core maths and english skills from Year 3, as these are crucial skills that they would need throughout school and will also aid in the 11 Plus exams. Perhaps start off with encouraging them to read daily/regularly. Our article ‘11 Plus Reading List‘ suggests fiction and non-fiction titles for your child to read. They can also practise their mental maths skills (multiplication, addition, subtraction, and division, without paper, pen or calculator). Our article on preparation for 11 plus maths questions may be helpful to read.

3. Stay consistent

Staying consistent will lead to a better result in the end as there’s a clear plan of what needs to be done and when. To help your child stay consistent, create a timetable for them, assigning a particular time that they’re going to work on a particular topic each day. Try not to work in an environment where there are lots of distractions and allow them to take regular short breaks to help them concentrate for longer.

11 Plus 1-1 Tutoring

Up to date and personalised revision, age appropriate and engaging lessons, experienced and friendly 11+ tutors. Click below to book a FREE consultation!

Book Now!

4. Developing an extensive vocabulary

This is essential for the comprehension questions in the verbal reasoning section (and the creative writing section if they need to sit one). Check out our previous article about the recommended reading list to help with the 11 Plus. Reading various types of books will aid in developing a broader vocabulary in a shorter amount of time.

5. Allow them time to learn the topic before testing them on it

Taking a test on an unfamiliar topic can be very frustrating, especially with a subject like maths, and this will not help them stay consistent. Allow them to learn the topic at their own pace and find out where there are missing gaps in their knowledge or if there are any misconceptions. Therefore, after they have learnt the topic they can take a quiz, which will yield an accurate measurement of where their areas of improvement are.

11+ Revision Weekly Classes

Enrol your child on our weekly 11+ class course and they’ll benefit from small groups and individualised learning

Book Now!from just £3.75 per class!

6. Don’t put too much pressure and stress on your child

High stress levels can lead to a poorer overall performance in the exam, regardless of how much preparation work your child has completed. It can interfere with memory retrieval and decrease attention. Try to keep them engaged with the process and make it fun because after all the hard work, you wouldn’t want stress to be the limiting factor.

7. Create a study timetable

When creating a study timetable for your child, don’t overload it as they won’t be able to take in all the information effectively. Give them regular breaks since children’s attention spans range from 30-50 minutes so it’s important to accommodate to your child’s needs. When it’s evident that they’re becoming increasingly distracted, you know it’s time for a break. 

8. Try to vary the study techniques

Use mind maps as a visual aid, games to make it more fun, mnemonics to help them remember concepts better, spelling challenges etc. By trying out different techniques, it’ll be easy to tell which one helps them to achieve a higher score and which ones they enjoy the most. Also, having good study techniques helps to boost their confidence for the exam.

9. Practice questions

After studying the content for the 11 Plus, the best way to test their understanding is applying to exam questions. This will highlight the areas that need improvement, whether they’re completing each question within the time limit and whether they can decipher what the question is asking efficiently. Use the answer booklets to practise the format of the exams.

10. Double check answers

It’s important to get them into the habit of double checking all the answers at the end, in case they’ve missed some bits of the question or misinterpreted it. If a question is too difficult, they can leave it and come back to it at the end (circle the question number so it’s easy to relocate at the end).

If you’d like to read more about the 11 Plus exam, check out our article “What Is 11 Plus Exam” for more information.

General tips and informative articles on 11 Plus: