11+ Exam Techniques and Tips – Mindset, Preparation, Comprehension, Maths, VR

(Personal experience only – this is simply what we did, not formal advice. We can’t cover all question types here.)

11+ Exam Preparation in the Weeks Before

• Every morning at breakfast, do a short practice – often a 10-minute NVR test. Builds confidence and skills without overloading.
• Keep study sessions to 30–50 minutes, then take a break. Longer than that, and younger children tend to lose focus.
• Avoid taking full practice tests every day – the aim is to peak on the day, not weeks in advance.
• Ensure your child practises using papers or sample questions from the provider used by your target schools, as formats and question styles may differ.
• Think marathon, not sprint – steady, consistent practice wins.
• Stay calm yourself – they can sense your nerves.
• Show them you believe in them – confidence is powerful.
• At this late stage, it’s all about confidence: build it, don’t break it, even if they score poorly in mocks.
• Tell them – with the right attitude, preparation and mindset, they can make real progress, and many do go on to pass. In my experience, this happens fairly often.
• Listen to advice from others, but only keep what suits your child – you know them best.

11+ Exam Tips for the Day and Night Before

• Decide whether they need a gentle nudge or a complete rest – every child is different.
• Do outdoor exercise to release nervous energy.
• Get an early-ish night!
• Pack everything the night before and leave it by the front door.
• Make sure you know what to pack – always check the target schools’ websites.
• Fill the car with petrol and know exactly where you’ll park.
• Plan to leave home early!
• Reassure them you’ll be nearby.
• Make it clear that your love and pride do not depend on 11+ test results.
• Plan something nice for after the exam, pass or not.

11+ Exam Morning Routine and Preparation

• Give them a good breakfast. Save the Coco Pops for another day!
• If your child is sick, obtain a GP note where possible and follow the school’s guidance – some centres require evidence for special consideration or re-tests.
• Take all essentials – snacks, water, equipment and an extra layer if it’s cold.
• Leave home with plenty of time.
• If possible, arrange to be dropped off to avoid parking delays.
• Tell them to put their ‘monkey in the box’ – this means imagining all their worries and distractions shut away somewhere safe so they can deal with them later. The ‘monkey’ is the part of the mind that jumps around and interrupts focus. In the exam, they should ‘shut it away’ so they can concentrate fully on the paper.

11+ After the Exam

• Try not to quiz them straight away about how it went (it’s very tempting, and I probably did!). Many children worry they’ve ‘messed up’ even when they’ve done well. Reassure them, focusing on the effort they put in, and then move on to something enjoyable.

11+ Exam General Discipline During the Test

• Go to the toilet before the test and during the break – never during the exam unless you’re ill. If that’s the case, tell an invigilator.
• Familiarise yourself with the room and locate the clock.
• Use a simple analogue watch if allowed – no smartwatches.
• Organise your desk.
• Keep your head down – ignore distractions, even if a child cries or is sick.
• Read and listen to all instructions carefully. Do not turn a page or start a section until told to do so.
• Write your name and date of birth accurately in the correct places. Include your candidate number if required.
• Don’t be afraid to put up your hand and ask a question.
• Be aware of time always, but don’t spend it all looking at the clock.
• Aim to spend roughly the same amount of time per question, and if one takes too long, move on and return later if time allows.
• Keep focused across both papers if there is more than one.
• Mark answers clearly as instructed, as scanners can sometimes miss faint or partial marks.
• If you change an answer, erase fully so no stray marks are read.
• Do the workings in the question booklet, not on the answer sheet.
• Stay in sync between question-and-answer sheets – if you get out of sync, every answer after that point will be wrong until you correct it.
• Make sure to keep answer rows aligned – a single slip can throw off the whole sheet.
• If you skip a question, circle it in the booklet and go back to it before time is called.
• Listen for time warnings and adjust your pace.
• Balance checking – don’t spend too long re-checking early questions at the expense of finishing the paper.
• If time is nearly up, make a strategic guess – pick one letter for all remaining answers if there is no penalty for incorrect answers. (Up to this point, you should be eliminating wrong answers before guessing anything.)
• Once a section is over, you often cannot return to it, so check it before moving on.
• If nerves hit during the test, pause, take a slow breath, and refocus on just the next question – never the whole paper at once.

11+ Reading and Comprehension Tips

• Always read the comprehension’s title: it will help you understand its content.
• Read quickly but carefully – use a finger (Peter Pointer is your friend in tests!) or a ruler to guide your place; our eyes move around, but our fingers tend not to. Mouth the words if that helps you.
• Picture the comprehension as you read it. Pictures tend to stay in our minds more easily than printed words.
• Answer all line-reference questions first.
• Then answer all universal questions – these can be anywhere in the text.
• Answer the remaining questions.
• Always eliminate answers you know are wrong.
• Watch out for ‘distractor’ questions in multiple-choice or multiple-answer formats: these include answers that look right at first glance but don’t match the text closely enough.
• Scan the question for trap words like ‘not’, ‘except’, ‘always’, or ‘only’ – they can flip the meaning. For example, if a question says, ‘Which of these is not true?’, you are looking for the one wrong answer, not the right ones.
• For multiple-answer items, test each option against the text independently. Do not assume that two answers that look good together must both be right. One of them may be a ‘distractor’.
• If a question asks for evidence, find it in the passage – don’t guess.

11+ Cloze Tips

• Fill in the gaps/words you’re certain of first. If you choose from a word bank and fill in wrong answers early, many other incorrect answers may follow.
• Watch tenses, capital letters, punctuation, articles (a/an).
• Check subject–verb agreement across the sentence.
• Read ahead – clues may appear later.
• Don’t cross out words you’ve used in case you change an earlier answer: underline them or mark them in some way as you still need to ‘see’ them.
• If unsure of a spelling when not working from a word bank (e.g., anagram types), write it on scrap paper first and check it visually. This advice applies to all VR-type spelling questions, not just cloze-type questions.

11+ Figurative Language and Poetry Tips

• If asked to analyse figurative or metaphorical language, visualise it and try to decide its meaning.
• Poetry often uses figurative speech – look for the inferences.
• Example – The brook babbled – continuous, possibly irritating or soothing noise.
• Ask yourself – what is the writer implying?

11+ Shuffled/Jumbled Sentence Tips

• Never work directly on the answer sheet – use the question sheet. (This is for the entire test, as computers often mark them.)
• Look for tense changes or time phrases that don’t match.
• Look for capital letters indicating proper nouns.
• Adjectives describing nouns, etc.
• Take a step back for a helicopter view before deciding the sequence.
• Repeated words may be superfluous.

11+ Logic and Reasoning Tips

• Make a chart (such as a tally chart) or table before answering if required with multi-step questions.
• Identify exactly what category the question needs. Example – car, tractor, yellow vehicle, motorised vehicle.
• Use the alphabet if provided.
• If rough paper is not provided, use the question sheet for workings, not the answer sheet.

11+ Mathematics and Numerical Reasoning Tips

• In multi-step problems, accuracy at the start is critical. Write the correct units and be aware of conversions.
• Double-check ratio answers – don’t reverse them.
• Short maths – eliminate obvious wrong answers and sanity-check the rest.
• Long maths – skip if stuck and return, keeping track of what’s missed. Don’t waste precious time on one question. This advice goes for the entire test.

11+ Test Discipline and Accuracy

• Match each question number with the correct answer number – check regularly.
• Underline the key word in the instructions – antonyms, synonyms, etc.
• Circle missed questions in the booklet, not on the answer sheet.
• Eliminate wrong answers before guessing.
• Avoid careless mistakes – many marks are lost by rushing or misreading.
• If time runs out, fill all blanks with the same letter for better odds of guessing the correct answer.

11+ Creative Writing Test Tips

• Follow the brief exactly – don’t wander off-topic. This is the biggest problem I see with creative writing: not following the given brief/style.
• Show a range of skills – punctuation, varied sentence length, literary devices, etc. Don’t force out-of-context vocabulary into your writing.
• Include direct speech if relevant, to show punctuation skills.
• Match tone and style to the task – e.g., a diary entry should feel personal, while a newspaper report should sound factual.
• Make sure your handwriting is legible. An examiner cannot mark what they cannot read.

11+ Vocabulary Reading Books – The Cadwaladr Chronicles, The Cadwaladr Quests

If your child is preparing for the 11+, our range of 11+ Vocabulary Reading Books – The Cadwaladr Chronicles and The Cadwaladr Quests – along with targeted workbooks, can help build the skills and confidence they need to succeed.
Each story is packed with carefully chosen vocabulary, comprehension practice and literary techniques, all woven into engaging plots that children enjoy.