11+ Support Thread 2026

Good luck to all sitting today. We only have Sutton stage 2 left which will be next Saturday I think. Invites haven’t been sent yet.

Just over 2 weeks wait for CSSE. I think it will go quick as we have other school open evenings to go to.
Although my brain has gone into trying to analyse all of the comprehensives to get those in an order we are happy with. I am hoping the open evenings will help.

Anyone getting ready for the FSCE test this weekend? A few schools are doing it on 26 September. Some GL exams on the same day too…

how are your kids? Good luck to everyone and remember to give your little one lots of praise and a treat for getting so far, regardless of the results!

fingers crossed for everyone.

Twins is so hard with the 11+ because of the horrid possibility that only one gets in! We kept to the same schedule for fairness but they practised different things at different points. It helps that my slightly less academic twin (who felt on the back foot starting this) turns out to be phenomenal at NVR so that helped her self esteem and they could help each other in bits they found challenging. She also was much more dedicated to revision and did more independently than her sister. I would say try and play to their strengths and interests. Double pay on atom wasn’t fun though 😂

Hi, twin mum here and we are just starting out 11+ in year 5. Best of luck to your twins - it is so tricky! Any advice on navigating with twins - are they on the samE schedule, pace and tutoring sessions?

Hi, twin mum here and we are just starting out 11+ in year 5. Best of luck to your twins - it is so tricky! Any advice on navigating with twins - are they on the samE schedule, pace and tutoring sessions?

Ah ok. I thought they all had to do on same day, like gcse's? Otherwise people could say off sick when not and get content from those who have already taken

Also done today (Warwickshire). She said the NVRs were tough but I won't say more. Anyway, done!!

All done now for us. One twin wasn’t keeping track of time and missed 6 Qs off the non verbal section. Apparently everyone around them kept writing even after it was over but they (being very good rule followers) didn’t. Argh! They were a little thrown by the order and timings being different from mocks and practice. We will see now!

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Same for mine, went to sleep normal time, although up a bit earlier.
So glad we are all done. Now just a month's wait for the results.

Yep, DD said they were told the same, that it's the same practice test every year

Good luck to your DC for tomorrow

They practice tests is apparently part of the test from 2019 according to DD. So as someone else said, not very helpful, as they have changed it quite a bit since then.
But DD said it was easy and feels much more relaxed. I didn't tell her that this one is much easier than the real thing, as I want her confidence to stay up.

I’m hopeful that the practice today will let them all get their mistakes out!

I have lost count of the number of times I have repeated the phrase ‘read the question, carefully!’ over the last few months!

I’ve also now had the comment ‘quite hard’. Progress haha!

It is hard work for them, you forget how young they are still. Bless them. Treat at the end of the week.

How did everyone get on today? DD is exhausted! She said it was ‘fine’ followed by a shrug so I think that’s all I’m going to get out of her until she’s had dinner and a good rest!

We've had exactly this. Done really well in prep (would rather she'd sat it in July tbh), but starting to make silly Maths mistakes. We've had a bereavement as well and I think she needs to wind it down now.

Hi, spotted this and brought memories flooding back from our experience last year. The familiarisation test is easy and I think is not helpful from a content perspective, as the timings and number of questions are not the same as the real test. But importantly, what they should get out of today is- can I see the clock clearly, can I hear the recording clearly, and am I sitting next to anyone who annoys me. Basically make sure they have a good, comfortable seat with no distractions - if not they can ask to move seats fir Thursday. Good luck everyone.

We’ve wound down over the last week/ten days. My DD has done so much work, and so many practice tests (full and by subject) and she was doing amazingly over summer. Really consistently, which felt positive.

As we’ve got closer and closer to this week she’s started to make silly errors, things I know that she knows very well how to do and I think she’s just getting totally test fatigued.

I felt like it was really starting to knock her confidence when her scores were dropping. So the last set of tests we did (when I saw that the errors were things that I’m confident she’s actually competent with, not work that needs to be revisited) I confess, I fibbed to her about her scores. I told her she got higher than she did, said well done and ‘that’s enough now’.

No more testing. She’s been doing some of the CGP 10 minute test books instead, which she flys through and actually seems to quite enjoy. We’ve got a good variety of them, so the last week or so I’ve just let her pick and choose what she fancies. Two a day. So she’s ticking over, still refreshing, but not feeling (I hope!) pressure or stress.

My DD is doing the familiarisation test today (Bucks). She seems ok, a bit nervous but this is the first ‘big’ test that she’s taken. She’s prepared as well as she can, so what will be will be now!

Good luck to all this week!

How is everyone else doing? I think I’m more nervous than she is tbh. I’m proud of her hard work and will be celebrating her regardless of whether or not she passes. I’m more concerned about how hard she might be on herself if she doesn’t pass.

At least she’s one of only two children in her school sitting the test (non-grammar county) so she won’t be surrounded by results talk either way when the time comes.