Just to add my tuppenceworth to the contentious discussion, as an 11+ surviving parent of a state school child who will be starting at a super-selective grammar in September:
Get the basics right ie check and double check the format of the exam/s of your preferred schools ie GL vs CEM & research whether the exams include VR & NVR, for example
Check and double check the past paper offerings on the websites of your preferred schools so you/your child is familiar with the types of questions and formats of the question and answer sheets
Explain and practise multiple-choice format questions/answers with your child - this sounds ridiculously basic but this is not how tests/exams are usually presented in KS1 or KS2 in state primary schools
Don’t just assume that you can be hands-off if you are paying/trusting a tutor to do the donkey work for you. Most tutors are running businesses and it’s all about bums on seats for them; only you as the parent/s have a real emotional investment in whether your child makes the grade, or not. (Disclaimer here: I’m a totally lone parent on a very low income and I simply couldn’t afford to outsource the 11+ preparation to an external tutor, but I know, not just anecdotally, of parents who were stunned on results day that their guaranteed-top-10-place child didn’t meet the required standard for the exam). It’s a grind taking on the responsibility of helping your child prepare for the exam but then YOU know where the gaps in their learning are and how to help them plug those gaps. I guess I’m saying, fully own the process and be totally involved rather than assuming because you’re paying £50ph however many times a week, your kid is a shoo-in
Commit to regular (little and often) practice from the beginning of Y5, ensuring your child is fully up-to-speed on times tables (back-to-front, upside-down, inside-out, back-to-front, standing-on-their-head etc), is reading/being read to from an extensive list of classics, such as atom Sawyer/Huckleberry Finn/The Little Princess/The Secret Gardenanything by Joan Aiken etc etc (there’s a great reading list of suitable classics on the Elevenplus forum)
Drill down on your child’s reading comprehension (in state schools, in my experience, it’s all about the word count and very little regard is paid to a child’s ability to fully understand and dissect the content of a text
Improve your child’s vocabulary (and yours, too) by keeping a notebook on you at all times so you can write down - and later look up - any new words they/you encounter in their daily reading/everyday life
Make sure not to sacrifice normal family life at the altar of the 11+ - my child’s two (different areas) exams were in the September but we did the absolute bare minimum of work in the entire six-week school holiday as we still went away on our extended summer camping holiday (my view was that we’d all be really bitter if we’d sacrificed too much and my child hadn’t met the standard but if she hadn’t and we’d had a brilliant summer holiday, then at least we’d have a good excuse for her not passing - as well as fantastic memories!)
Keep your counsel and tell no one about your 11+ journey (see above threads for reference) and simply do not believe the folks who tell you they only wafted a past paper under their child’s nose the night before their exam. These are the same people who told you their child was sleeping through the night when they were a nanosecond old (they are liars).
Bond’s 10-minute test books are the dogs-whatsits
Take out an Amazon Prime membership so you can order the above (plus the other books you’ll need) for next day delivery