All The Resources We Used for 11 Plus Prep

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A homeschooling blog with an article on 11+ preparation…eh?

I know it might sound a bit contradictory – why would a homeschooling blog talk about school entrance tests? But bear with me; there’s a good reason for it.

When we started homeschooling, we weren’t entirely sure if we’d continue homeschooling into the secondary years. We wanted to keep our options open, so we decided to prepare our oldest child for the 11 + grammar school entrance exams. This way, we could choose the best path for their education, whether it meant continuing to homeschool or transitioning to a grammar school.

Preparing for the 11 Plus did initially feel overwhelming as it required more work than we had done previously, but, ultimately it has panned out well for us as the rigorous preparation for the 11 Plus gave our son a significant academic boost. 

In the end, we decided to continue homeschooling into the secondary years. However, the benefits we saw from the 11 Plus prep were undeniable. So, we ended up having all our kids prepare for these entrance exams, even though we chose to stick with homeschooling.

Year 5 is crucial for 11 Plus prep. I would recommend starting right at the beginning of Year 5 to cover all the material and practice needed in a little but often style rather than cramming and stressing.

Find out all you can about the 11+ tests in your area. Check the Local Authority and school websites for detailed test info. Don’t rely on hear say from other mums. Check everything yourself with official sources even if that means calling the schools directly.

This site elevenplusexams was invaluable for me:

Goldmine of information.

If you’re not hiring a tutor, you’ll need to be disciplined about your child’s preparation.

We spent their academic Year 5 (age 10) year preparing specifically for the tests.  I won’t lie, it was intense as there was not only the content to cover, but also being able to answer questions accurately and quickly.

Up until that point we were homeschoolling in quite a relaxed un-urgent way. However, as we were homeschooling, we had the flexibility of scheduling our days however we wanted, so the preparation for these exams just took the place of our homeschooling subjects. For the academics of homeschooling we just focused on English and maths and didn’t bother with history or topic work as was our usual routine in the primary years.

And they read a lot. My kids have always been avid readers, but during this year of 11 plus preparation, I did intervene and request they read books that they probably wouldn’t have chosen to read themselves.

If you have decided that your child is going to sit the 11 Plus entrance exams, the best way to approach it is that it ISN’T about passing a text. It was about building a solid academic foundation. Make sure your child knows this, so that they know that despite being called a test, there is no failing, as all the preparation and work they put into this will definitely pay off. The surprise bonus that we discovered is that after the 11+ exams, (which they did at the start of Year 6) is they didn’t have to study or work through any year 6 maths or English content as it was all covered in the 11+ preparation content, so they had a whole year off “schooling” after their exams were over. Not only that, my kids were more or less ready to start GCSEs in Year 7, so we did a mix of KS3 content and GCSEs form Year 7 and have been able to take it slow.

The strategy I’m going to share has successfully prepared my three kids for the 11 + using the same resources for all of them.

Make sure you are getting the correct preparation materials for the test that is applicable to what your child will sit. My older two sat the CEM Durham 11+ exams, then the grammar schools in area switched to the GL 11+ exams. This was really annoying as we had to buy all of the test specific preparation material again. But I’m so glad I checked, as the tests are different enough from each other taht it probably would have made a difference.

I have also included resources to use from Year 4. These aren’t 11+ specific resources, but this it what we were using generally for dipping in and out of for English and Maths, so I thought I would include them. If you’re considering having your kids sit the 11 plus entrance exams for grammar schools, I hope this list of resources helps you out!

English and Maths Year 4 (and carrying on throughout Year 5)

During Year 4 we just concentrated on building strong foundation in English and maths. We didn’t use anything 11 plus specific resources, except for my younger two, to ease the burden of memorising a lot of vocabulary in a short amount of time, we started memorising the 11 plus vocabulary flashcard words.

Comprehension:

Depending on the level of your child, start at this level then move on to the next level in the series. If the level is too easy then just skip to the next level of the series.

Spelling:

Vocabulary:

Extensive vocabulary knowledge is essential for the 11 plus. The best way to acquire these is naturally through reading, but I found my kids just skipped over any words they didn’t know when they read, so we decided to use flashcards, and learn a few a week through out year 4 and year 5.

The set of flashcards we used aren’t available on the market anymore, but these vocabulary flashcards from CGP look quite good and child friendly:

Maths

In addition to our normal maths curriculum, we focused on memorising times tables multiplication and division facts. These have to be accurate and fast. We also used this time to practice accuracy and fluency on addition and subtraction facts up to 100.

In addition, depending on the level of your child, start at this level and carry on to the next level:

11 Plus Preparation Year 5 (SPECIFIC TO THE 11+ GL EXAM)

(THESES RESOURCES ARE SPECIFIC TO THE 11+ GL EXAM. FOR THE 11+CEM RESOURCES CLICK HERE.)

During Year 5 we continued with comprehension, spellings, vocabulary, mental maths and our normal maths curriculum we were using for homeschool.

In addition, we started some 11 plus specific study using the following resources.

Term 1 of Year 5

From September to December of Year 5, we worked through these study guides and workbooks to get ourselves familiar with the format of the exam.

Term 2 of Year 5

From January of Year 5, we started doing one or two of these 10 minute tests from each book of the series.

Term 3 of Year 5

From May we continued the 10 minute test books and also started doing one practice paper a week from this series. We chose the GL publishers as it was a GL test we figured this would reflect the real exam content.

There is also the CGP practice paper series. This wasn’t available as a pack but we did get a couple of tests from CGP as I thought it might be good to get questions from a different perspective.

Don’t get both the GL practice papers and CGP at once. Most likely you won’t end up using all of them, or you’ll want to use all of them and end up stressed out due to the amount of work.

Something new which CGP published that I wasn’t aware of during our 11 plus preparation until the last month, are CGP 11 plus revision cards in a boxset. As the practice papers were showing a weakness in Verbal Reasoning, towards the end of August I bought one for verbal reasoning, and it was quite fun to use. It made a change from the books and papers.

11 Plus Preparation Year 5 (SPECIFIC TO THE 11+ CEM EXAM)

(THESES RESOURCES ARE SPECIFIC TO THE 11+ CEM EXAM. FOR THE 11+ GL RESOURCES CLICK HERE.)

As for our daughter, who prepped for the GL exams, my kids who had to do the CEM exams spent Year 5 carrying on with comprehension, spellings, vocabulary, mental maths and our normal maths curriculum we were using for homeschool.

In addition, we started some 11 plus specific study using the following resources.

Term 1 of Year 5

From September to December of Year 5, we worked through these study guides and workbooks to get ourselves familiar with the format of the exam.

Term 2 of Year 5

From January of Year 5, we started doing one or two of these 10 minute tests from each book of the series.

I got these 8 “10 minute” test books. They really helped in getting that little and often practice that is so essential to really build and strengthen skills and speed.

We did a couple each evening on the weekdays, Mondays- Thursdays. There is a book 2 of all of these, but we only used book 1 of the series.

Term 3 of Year 5

From May we continued the 10 minute test books and also started doing one practice paper a week from Letts and Lonsdale (which is now Harper Collins, CGP and BOND.

We did the Letts ones first, then the CGP sets, then the Bond exam practice papers. This was because I felt it these increased in difficulty in this order, with Letts as the easiest and Bond as the hardest.

Something new which CGP published that wasn’t available for CEM 11 plus when my kids were doing it, were these CGP 11 plus revision cards in a boxset. We did use them for my daughter doing the GL preparation, just for VR as this was cropping up as a weakness, so I bought these cards and we used this to get in extra practice. It was quite fun to use and made a change from the books and papers.

You can get the whole set or you can get individual sets to target weaker areas as we did.

If you are helping your child prepare for their 11plus exams and have any questions regarding how we used these resources, what books we were reading for vocabulary development, our process for vocabulary development or anything else, reach out in the comments.

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