How the 11+ exam actually works: a parent's guide
14 September 2026 · ZAHA Labs
Most parents start 11+ preparation by buying a workbook. The more useful first step is finding out what the exam in your area actually tests — because the 11+ is not one national exam, and two schools twenty minutes apart can set completely different papers.
The short answer: the 11+ is a set of selective entry tests written by individual schools, groups of schools, or commercial test providers. The subjects, the format and the timing are decided locally, the registration deadline usually falls in Year 5, and the only reliable source of truth is the admissions page of the school you are applying to.
Who sets the papers
There is no single “11+ board”. In practice papers come from one of four places:
- A commercial provider — most commonly GL Assessment, or CEM-style papers, used by a consortium of schools that share one test.
- A school or consortium writing its own paper, which often means a broader “school-written” test.
- ISEB-style pre-tests, used by many independent senior schools, usually sat in Year 6 or even Year 5.
- A mixture — for example a shared reasoning paper plus a school’s own English and maths papers, and sometimes an interview.
That is why advice from a family in a different county can be actively unhelpful: if their area tests verbal reasoning and yours does not, you can spend a year on the wrong thing.
What is usually tested
Almost every 11+ variant draws from the same four areas. What changes is which of them count, and how heavily.
| Subject | What it usually involves |
|---|---|
| Maths | Arithmetic fluency, fractions and percentages, ratio, word problems, sometimes mental maths under time pressure |
| English | Spelling, punctuation and grammar, cloze passages, comprehension including inference, occasionally a piece of writing |
| Verbal reasoning | Codes, analogies, odd-one-out, letter sequences, number codes, sometimes vocabulary and logic puzzles |
| Non-verbal reasoning | Shape sequences, rotation, reflection, odd-one-out figures, missing-shape grids |
Some areas test all four. Others test only English and maths. A few test reasoning as a single combined paper.
When it happens
The test is normally sat early in Year 6, with registration during Year 5 — and in some areas registration opens and closes surprisingly early, sometimes more than a year ahead. If you take one thing from this guide, take this: check your target school’s admissions timeline this week, before you plan any practice, and diarise the registration date.
Results usually arrive in the autumn of Year 6, followed by the school allocation process.
Finding out the format for your area
You need three pieces of information, and all three are usually on the school’s own website:
- Which subjects are tested, and whether reasoning is included.
- Which provider or format the school uses — for example “GL Assessment” or “school’s own papers”.
- The registration window and test date, plus any familiarisation materials the school publishes.
Write those three answers down before you buy a single book. Almost every expensive mistake in 11+ preparation comes from practising the wrong subjects or the wrong question style.
What to practise first
Once you know the format, the priorities are consistent:
- Arithmetic and number fluency — times tables, halves and quarters, simple fractions and decimals. Everything else in maths sits on top of this.
- Spelling and punctuation accuracy — the same small set of words and rules comes up again and again, and they are quick to fix.
- Question-type familiarity for reasoning — children rarely fail these because they are “not clever enough”; they fail because they have never seen a letter-shift code or a rotation question before.
That last point is why we built this site. Five to eight minutes on a single question type, with the explanation written out underneath, does more than an hour of mixed practice where nobody ever explains the mistake.
How much practice is enough
Little and often. Two or three short sessions a week in Years 3 to 5 builds the skills without fatigue. In Year 6, one focused session a day — with the explanations actually read — is plenty for most children.
If your child is getting questions wrong and not understanding why, more volume will not fix it. Slow down and use the explanations.
Start with the activities — they are free, need no sign-up, and every question explains itself.
Practise what you have just read
The best way to make a guide stick is to try the question type straight away — every activity gives instant feedback and a written explanation.