A Tutor’s Guide to the 11+ Examinations

As a tutor, there is a strong possibility that you will at some point in your career be asked to tutor
a child in order to prepare them for their 11+ exams. The 11+ is a series of challenging exams that
children can take in either year 5 or the beginning of year 6. The outcome of these exams determines
whether a child can or cannot be considered for a particular grammar school.
Tutoring a child for their 11+ exam can be a very stressful job; it can feel as if their examination
success sits within your own hands. At the same time, for a child who is already working hard at
school, undertaking extra study, preparation and revision for their 11+ exams can feel overwhelming
- even for the most motivated of students. Parents and carers can also find the idea of the 11+
exams daunting and may not know the best way to support their child. As a tutor, they will no doubt
turn to you for advice, feedback and support.
This Tutor’s Guide to the 11+ Examinations hopes to provide you with the information and support
you need to feel confident in your ability to tutor children for their 11+ exams. Remember that as a
tutor you are there to guide, explain, support and nurture a child’s skills and abilities, but no one can
expect you to do any more than that.

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This guide is split into five key sections which provide key information about the 11+ exams and link
to resources that will help you plan your tutoring sessions with your students.

Section One: An Overview of the 11+ Examinations, Exam Boards and Consortiums

Section Two: Links to Useful Resources for 11+ Tutoring Sessions (Split by Skill Area)

Section Three: Teaching Examination Technique

Section Four: Progress Tracking Grid

Section Five: Observations, Feedback and Thoughts to Share with Parents and Child

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 A Tutor’s Guide to the 11+ Examinations

We hope you find the information on our website and resources useful. The contents of this resource are for general, informational
purposes only. This guide is intended to offer parents and carers general guidance on what subject areas tend to be covered in their
child’s 11+ examination and where they could support their children at home. However, please be aware that every child is different
and information can quickly become out of date. There are some subject areas that we have intentionally not covered due to the nature
of how they are taught or because a trained professional or tutor needs to teach these areas. We try to ensure that the information
in our resources is correct but every school teaches the national curriculum in its own way. If you would like further guidance or are
unsure in any way, we recommend that you speak to your child’s teacher, tutor or another suitably qualified professional.

Section One: An Overview of the 11+ Examinations, Exam Boards and Consortiums

11+ exams are used by selective independent schools and grammar schools as an entry assessment to
identify children who are best suited for their schools. Different examination boards provide the exam papers
for the 11+ and it is up to each school to decide which examination board’s papers they will use. Generally,
schools within the same region use the same examination board, but not always.

There are two principle examination boards for the 11+: the GL and the CEM.

The GL is an abbreviation for Granada Learning. Its assessment is currently used by the majority of grammar
schools in England.

The CEM Assessment was developed by the Centre of Evaluation and Monitoring at the University of Durham.
It was initially created because there was a growing concern that the existing assessment had become too
transparent in its format and so more and more children were being ‘taught to test’ rather than holding the
skills and knowledge that the test was seeking to identify. Over the past few years, we have seen more and
more schools choosing the CEM Assessment as opposed to the GL Assessment.

The two examination boards do assess children in

different ways; the format of their exam papers is
different, and often the number of papers that a child
takes is different depending on (a) the examination
board chosen and (b) the grammar school’s
personal choice.

There is a dedicated blog article that explains in

detail the differences between the GL and the CEM
examination boards. This article can be found on our
Twinkl Tutor Blog.

Some regions across England (London, Kent and

Lincolnshire, for example) have a large number of
grammar schools within their area. Parents can
choose to apply to multiple grammar schools. In some
regions where there are larger numbers of grammar schools, a group of grammar schools decide to work
together and administer one collective set of 11+ exam papers for students to take. Schools that act in this
way are called a consortium. Currently, there are about 16 11+ consortiums in England.

Consortiums aim to reduce the stress and time constraints that come with sitting multiple 11+ exam papers
to comply with the entry requirements for different schools. With a consortium, a child only has to sit the
agreed 11+ exam papers once. The results of these exams are then considered by all of the schools within
the consortium.

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 A Tutor’s Guide to the 11+ Examinations

No matter which examination board your student’s 11+

exam paper will be issued by, all 11+ exams aim to assess
a child’s ability in four key academic areas:

Mathematics and numeracy

English reading, writing and comprehension

Non-verbal reasoning

Verbal reasoning

As an 11+ tutor, you will be working with your student to help them have the skills and knowledge they need
to answer questions in these four academic areas to the best of their ability. In Section Two of this guide, you
will find suggested resources to help you best prepare students in this way.

The Format of the Exam

Each school can choose how many papers a child will sit for the 11+ examinations and which type of
questions will be contained within each paper. Schools that use the GL assessment often ask that a child take
four distinct papers; English, Maths, Verbal Reasoning and Non-Verbal Reasoning. Those that use the CEM
assessment are more likely to ask that a child sit two papers; one that tests English and Verbal Reasoning
skills, and another that tests Maths and Non-Verbal Reasoning.

What Is Included in an 11+ Examination?

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Sentence
Spelling construction

English Grammar
Reading and
comprehension punctuation

Creative Cloze
writing activities

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 A Tutor’s Guide to the 11+ Examinations

Word and Three

letter codes letter words

Verbal Compound,
Odd ones out
Reasoning missing and
hidden words

Closest,
Complete the
same and
sum and
opposite
related
meanings
numbers

Odd
Codebreaking
one out

Non-Verbal
Reasoning

3D shapes Symmetry
and nets and rotation

Quantities Arithmetic
and volumes

Distance, Maths Data

speed handling
and time

Worded maths Algebra

problems

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 A Tutor’s Guide to the 11+ Examinations

Section Two: Links to Useful Resources for 11+ Tutoring Sessions

When you start to work with a new student, it is a good idea to have a baseline assessment of your student’s
knowledge and abilities against the key criteria of the 11+ exam. This will in turn inform your own work
programme for your tutee and will help you, the child and the parent understand:

• the key strengths that the child already displays;

• the areas that need greater development;

• the areas or subjects that the child is anxious about.

Schedule in further assessments throughout your tutoring

work programme to see tangibly how the child is progressing
and to continually identify key areas of revision, practice
or preparation.

11+ Assessments:
Following on from your initial baseline assessment with your
tutee, you will need to create a work programme so that you
have a structured approach to your 11+ tutoring sessions.
Your work programme should cover all of the areas that
the 11+ exam papers will assess for your student. Place an
emphasis or schedule more time for those skill sets that need
greater development for your student and for those areas that
he or she is most nervous about.

Every tutor has a different approach to planning.

When creating a work programme for an 11+ student, it can be useful

to consider:

• How many tutoring sessions do you have between now and their exams?

• Will the tutoring be online or face-to-face or both?

• Which of the key skill sets do you need to focus on the most, following the outcome of your baseline
assessment?

• Which skill sets is your student most anxious about?

• How many mid-work programme assessments do you want your student to undertake?

• Don’t forget to build in time for your student to destress and voice any concerns or anxieties they
might have.

• Don’t forget to dedicate a number of tutoring sessions to exam strategies and exam paper
time management.

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 A Tutor’s Guide to the 11+ Examinations

Face-to-Face Tuition Session Planner:

To help provide content and structure ideas for your 11+
work programme, throughout the rest of this section we There are many more resources
have provided links to resources and activities that help available from the 11+ section of
with 11+ preparation, split into the four key academic areas our dedicated Twinkl Tutor Page.
listed above.

Click on the orange buttons to

English Resources: find the resources!

Creative Writing: Grammar and Punctuation: Cloze Activities:

Cloze activities assess how
Use the resources within this well a child can find the
Use these 11+ Creative
Creative Writing Proofreading most appropriate word from
Writing Activity Mats to
Pack to challenge your child’s a list of possibilities. There
encourage creative writing
understanding of grammar are some great themed
practice with your child.
and punctuation in a fun way! activities available from
our website.

Spelling: Reading Comprehension: Sentence Construction:

For the 11+ exam, it is Important for Verbal
This Spelling Practice Pack important that a child can Reasoning and English
has lots of worksheets interpret different forms of assessments, understanding
to help your child revise written texts. Exposing them how best to construct
difficult spellings. to newspapers, biographies, a sentence is key to the
poetry, classical texts and language element of the 11+
so on is the perfect way exams. These Uplevelling
to develop their reading Descriptive Writing extracts
comprehension. Focused are great resources which
writing samples can also be a further develop a child’s
great resource. sentence construction skills.

Click on the orange buttons to

Verbal Reasoning Resources: find the resources!

There are 21 different domains within the 11+ Verbal Reasoning assessment but not all of them are assessed
by every examination board and/or school. We have not listed them all here, but tutoring resources for all of
the Verbal Reasoning skill areas can be found on our Twinkl Tutor site.

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 A Tutor’s Guide to the 11+ Examinations

Three Letter Words: Compound, Missing and Closest, Same and

Hidden Words: Opposite Meanings:
The 11+ Verbal Reasoning
exam is often in puzzle ‘What is another word for..?
Language games that focus
format, which makes it a Which of these words are
on how another word can
nice area to work through the same? Which term is the
be made when you combine
with your tutee. Take a look absolute opposite of this
two existing words, and on
at this ultimate revision one?’ These are examples
words that are missing from
pack from Twinkl Puzzled. of some of the questions
a sentence, are all ways to
It provides a range of that you may find on the 11+
practice these 11+ skills
great word games for Verbal Reasoning Paper.
with a child.
11+ students. Practice questions can be
found here.

Odd One Out:

Word and Letter Codes: In this type of exercise, Complete the Sum:
When words and letters are a child is asked to think
about a set list of words and There is often an element
jumbled to create a code,
explore how they might be of mathematics included
these codes then need to be
connected. This will then within the Verbal Reasoning
interpreted to understand
enable them to determine exam. Practice exercises
a hidden phrase or word.
which one is the ‘odd one can be found here.
Children often find these
games lots of fun. out’. Any logic puzzles
that focus on language
definitions are great for
practising this skill. You can
find many in Twinkl Puzzled.

Click on the orange buttons to

Non-Verbal Reasoning Resources: find the resources!

Codebreaking: Symmetry and Rotation:

Non-Verbal Reasoning exams use With this style of question, a child is presented with
images and patterns and ask children an image and asked to find its reflection or its rotated
to continue a pattern or to understand image. There are lots of mirror games that can help
how a series of images are related. children practise this difficult skill.
Codebreaking questions provide children
with a series of images that are also
represented with letter or number 3D Shapes and Nets:
codes. Children have to understand the
Any 3D shape has a net image - a 2D image -
relationship between the images and the
representation. Children have to associate the 3D shape
letters or numbers and then continue the
to its 2D net. This fun matching game is a great way for
series accordingly.
you to help your student practise this 11+ skill.

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 A Tutor’s Guide to the 11+ Examinations

Odd One Out:

Represented in imagery as well as in words, here children have to determine which image doesn’t fit
a given series. There are interactive online and offline resources that you can use with your students
to practise this element of the 11+ exam.

Click on the orange buttons to

Maths Resources: find the resources!

Arithmetic: Data Handling: Algebra:

The fundamentals of maths Lovely algebra! There
and numeracy are tested Data handling and statistics
is one area of maths that is often a real love/hate
throughout the maths relationship with algebra.
element of the 11+ exams: some children really enjoy
because it can be quite These loop cards are a great
addition, subtraction, way to help your student
multiplication, division, hands-on. There are many
presentations, worksheets practise their algebra
ratio, percentages and knowledge in a game-
proportions. There are many and interactive games that
can support your tutoring style setting.
interactive games, board
games, worksheets and for this element of the 11+
puzzles that can help a child maths paper. A selection of
practise these skills in a fun them are brought together in
and engaging way. this 11+ data handling and Quantities and Volume:
statistics pack.
Understanding the different
ways to measure volume
can be tricky for children.
Worded Maths Problems: Distance, Speed and Time: This comprehensive
Also sometimes known as This is another lovely area pack includes a colourful
‘Reasoning’. Children are to tutor, as there are many PowerPoint to explain key
given a worded problem fun ways that you can concepts and worksheets
or a scenario and have to improve a child’s knowledge to test their understanding.
respond to it with a maths of distance, speed and time This is an engaging
solution. These multi-step concepts. There are some resource that works well
worksheets are a good way great interactive games for face-to-face and online
to help students prepare for available to help with your tutoring sessions.
this style of exam question. tutoring sessions, either
face-to-face or online.

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 A Tutor’s Guide to the 11+ Examinations

Section Three: Teaching Examination Technique

When we talk about tutoring for the 11+ exam, we focus on English, Maths, Non-Verbal Reasoning and Verbal
Reasoning. We must also, however, consider exam management - how do you help a child use the knowledge
and skills that they have gained within these four key academic areas in a way that gives them the highest
possible score on the 11+ exam?

Generally speaking, the 11+ exam papers are 45-55 minutes in

length. Some grammar schools ask that children sit one paper and
then have a small break before sitting the second paper. Others
have a greater pause between each paper.

The GL papers often allow children to work through the papers

at their own speed within the total time allowance given. The
CEM examination board, however, allocates time per paper
section. Children are given between 6 and 12 minutes to
answer questions contained within a specific section. They then
must move on to the next section of the paper.

Students sitting the CEM papers can benefit from completing worksheets or questions in a timed setting as
part of their tutoring sessions, and this will help them prepare for completing exam questions in very small
time frames. It is also useful to know that the CEM papers often have more questions than they expect
children to be able to complete. Once again, tutoring a child to recognise and accept that they are unlikely to
answer all of the questions posed on an exam paper is important.

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 A Tutor’s Guide to the 11+ Examinations

Section Four: Progress Tracking Grid

Progress in tutoring involves expanding pupils’ knowledge: but it is also about building a stronger exam
technique, displaying more confidence in personal ability and feeling emotionally ready for the 11+ exams.
The progress tracker proposed below is a resource that seeks to measure all of these areas of 11+ preparation;
something that you can adapt and use for each of your students.

The tracker can be completed and ticked off when you have covered each topic with your student. Spaces
have been left for you to add your own subcategories within each subject area, based on the specific exam
paper your student is taking. There is a suggested traffic light system to record how confident your tutee feels
about each of these topics.

I feel unsure about this.

I feel okay about this.

I feel confident about this!

Academic
Skill Completed
Area

Creative writing

Grammar &
punctuation

Cloze activities
English Spelling

Reading
comprehension

Sentence
construction

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 A Tutor’s Guide to the 11+ Examinations

Academic
Skill Completed
Area

Insert a letter
Two odd
ones out
Related words

Closest
meaning
Hidden word

Missing word

Letters for
numbers
Move a letter
Letter series

Word
connections
Number series
Verbal Compound
Reasoning words
Make a word

Letter
connections
Reading
information
Opposite
meanings
Complete
the sum
Related
numbers

Word
number codes

Complete
the word
Same meaning

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 A Tutor’s Guide to the 11+ Examinations

Academic
Skill Completed
Area

Codebreaking
Symmetry
Non-Verbal and rotation
Reasoning 3D shapes
and nets
Odd one out

Data handling

Algebra

Worded maths
Maths problems

Distance, speed
and time
Quantities
and volume

Exam
technique

Section Five: Observations, Feedback and Thoughts to Share with Parents and Child

This section is for you to record any observations, feedback notes, questions and thoughts that you might
want to share with your student or their parent(s) or carer(s). Use the space to pose questions, record how
tutoring sessions have gone, doodle ideas and make any notes that you might have.

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