2017 - my local grammar school uses the GL Assessment Verbal and Non-Verbal Reasoning tests. My son has just been told he's passed and we'll have to wait til March to find out if he has a place. Having spoken to his teacher today I know that the pass rate this year was 224 for the two papers combined. My son passed with 236 (115 for the Verbal and 121 for the Non-Verbal)
As to tutoring, yes, I paid for a tutor. I was and still am against tutoring and do wish ALL the schools followed the guidelines given that NO tutoring or preparation should be done. However every single primary school in my catchment area does do some prepping, leaving our primary school the only one following guidelines. When I saw the practice papers and realised I simply couldn't fathom out half of what I was seeing, I ended up doing what every other parent was doing...going to a tutor. Although I understand some parents started the tutoring around Christmas, I didn't send my son til the Easter. A one hour lesson a week in a group of 4 - £20. Then come the summer holidays he had 4 x 2 hour sessions where he did a practice paper for both tests. I also paid for 2 x one-2-one lessons at a cost of £25 per session to cover the areas he was really struggling with.
As our tutor said 'I cannot teach your child to pass the 11+, but I can help him with his time management, I can make him familiar with the answer sheets and to help him understand what the questions are asking him'. I have to be honest, until the last 3 weeks before the first paper, I wouldn't have thought he would pass, but he suddenly came into his own during those last few weeks. He suddenly figured out how long was too long on one question, when to guess and move on and to not get stressed out by a new type of question.
I don't think tutoring is necessary if you have the ability to use the books (go with Letts....they are harder and truer to the style of GL Assessment (if that is what your school is using) You do need a tremendous amount of patience and my advice is to stick to short 15 mins sessions until you both get to the level where 30mins or an hour is not stressful. Also, make it fun. The non verbal papers are kind of fun....like puzzles :)
As to the cost of the tutoring, it was about £500 for approx 25 lessons. I probably added on about 10 lessons I hadn't planned on having but those extra lessons built my son's confidence hugely. Even if he had not passed the 11+, I still think he gained a lot from the tutoring - it gave him skills in problem solving, on having to focus and concentrate and it's really built up his confidence in his own abilities.