11-Plus Resources You Need to Know About
Introduction
It’s very easy to feel overwhelmed with so much information and services out there it can be very confusing to know which information is helpful and what is not. I’ve compiled this basic list for parents that are looking for the best resources to prepare their children for secondary school entrance examinations and don’t have access to additional help such as a private tutor.
This list is in no way definitive but there is enough here for some good and adequate preparation for both 11-plus examinations and entrance exams for independent, grammar and selective state schools.
1. The School website
The first place you should looking for resources is the website of the school you are interested in applying to, many schools will have some sort of guidance on the resources you can use and also information on the specification (topics you need to know for the exam) and sometimes past papers which give both parents and students a practice of what the real exam will be like. My advice for past papers would be to prepare first learn the content and then do the past papers under timed conditions using the same amount of time that you would have for the real thing. Note that not all schools have markschemes along with the practice tests so you may have to create your own.
Repeat this for every school you are applying to, you may notice that different schools may have similar assessment materials, use this to your advantage, you can have multiple mocks. Also use the exam material from schools that are not in your locality, that you will not be applying to if their assessments are similar to your preferred schools.
It’s also worth asking your current school, if they know about or have any useful resources for preparation
2. Bond Books
Many Parents have heard of Bond books and with good reason they produce very good books to help children get prepared, before you take any exams you need to learn the content of the exams, and Bond produce a range of materials that cover, verbal and non-verbal reasoning, maths and English going through step by step giving examples, and they contain questions that can be completed and answers in the back of the books. You must make sure that you get the age appropriate book for your child as they also produce materials, for the 7+, 8+, 9+ and 10+ as well as 11+ examinations.
They also have a series of books just for practice exams and warm up exercises so you can use them as and when you need. Typically the cost of the complete books is around £10-£15, so if you’re going to be purchasing this in all the subjects it can add up.
They also have simple charts in many of the books so you can track your child’s progress, Bond books I believe are a good investment, if you’re preparing independently without additional help. I especially like the Non-verbal reasoning books and practice tests, they are very useful.
3. Standard Assessment Tests( SATS)
Also known as Year 6 National curriculum tests. Most admission tests (especially those for independent schools) will contain the higher levels of the national curriculum and beyond. Sats therefore provide a very useful indication on how prepared your child is to sit these exams. They provide a good baseline, so you know the areas that need work and unlike bond resources there are nearly 20 years of resources available for absolutely free online. They will not be exactly like the admissions tests but provide a good guide for the most part.
You can access both Maths and English papers that are based on the national curriculum, to have a good chance of passing the interview stage your child will have to be one of the highest performers in their class generally and practice Sats papers are a good way to gauge this. A secret fact that many parents may not realise is that there are also KS3 Sats papers available also, and these must also be used.
After the KS2 material has been covered and mastered, you must move on to the KS3 material this will ensure that students are able to deal with anything that is thrown at them during the exam.
As a rule of thumb for me is a score of 80% or above consistently on KS3 maths and English papers should translate to a decent score in an admissions test. These resources come with markschemes, grade boundaries and even examiners reports.
If you’re child is taking Sats in year 6 this is also can double up nicely as preparation for this, I would advise however that if they are taking Sats to not complete all the examinations during the 11-plus prep but save a good amount for when they are preparing for their sats during year 6.
4. GCSE Resources
You SHOULDN’T need this but I have seen a couple of admission tests for schools that did contain some mild Gcse Maths content, so I thought to add this for completeness. Websites such as Corbett Maths are good for Parents if they need to brush up and for students if they need to get their heads around concepts.
5. General Search
There are a lot of resources that have been compiled to help with 11-plus and entrance examinations, some are paid but generally there should be enough free online resources that are very useful, typing in key words will yield many results that you can then go through and decide what is useful for you.
All of these resources should give you everything you need for adequate preparation, it’s also important to give your child ample length of time to prepare and avoid cramming because it’s not effective for the majority of students.
Summary
In summary some useful resources for 11-plus that you can use without a tutor are (You can find the links for SATs and Corbett Maths Below)
- School Website.
- Bond Books.
- Standard Assessment Tests (also known as Year 6 national curriculum tests).
- Gcse resources ( such as Corbett Maths).
- General Internet Search.
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