11+ 2025 support thread

[AquaPeer]

Hi all,
I really enjoyed reading previous 11 plus support threads and I think we’re probably ready for a new cohort of year 5s start their prep?

so I thought I’d set up one for next year. All welcome!

we are trying for dame Alice Owen. DD currently has group tutoring once a week but we are looking to increase to twice a week before Xmas.

i am trying to get her to do a cgt GL 15 min tests a day very unsuccessfully! This half term is going to be all about embedding routine 😀

look forward to meeting other parents preparing

I found your perspective extremely helpful, thank you!!

Yes, they’re quite helpful. However, I don’t recommend using them blindly for every exam. If you have a multiple-choice paper—where speed and accuracy matter more than complexity or layered reasoning (like the QE Boys exam)—you’re unlikely to encounter JMC-type questions. But if you’re preparing for Sutton (SET) and have Wilson R2 in mind, JMC papers can be really valuable.

Every paper requires an execution strategy—it’s not just about doing questions, but how you approach them. For the first paper, I’d suggest sitting with your child and tracking the time taken per question. Look for patterns: which question types slow them down, which types they make mistakes on, and what methods they use to get to the correct answer. Yes, it sounds like a lot of effort, but it’s the best way to use the JMC papers for your 11+ goals.

I had a little moment when I saw that DS first exam is in less than 11 weeks. I'm really hoping for an August miracle.

Hi,
For people that used schofield and sims (Mental Arithmetic 6 )

Can you help in telling me how you time each section A,B,C( how long the child on average needs)

also do you think this book helped your child , As I am using it for getting my child ready for Tiffin girls exam.

Is it enough( with the child getting high marks) and using mocks (like Manchester grammar school math tests).

I am finding myself increasingly annoyed at the whole stupid system. It is supposed to enhance social mobility but it does the opposite. My DD is doing better in tests and should get in but we have a reasonably good income so can afford the books, tutor, practice tests.

If you can't afford that then the council website only has a handful of resources. Schools can't teach for it. Surely there should be freely accessible resources (videos, practice booklets, mocks) for everyone to use. It's stupid coyly pretending that you cant practise* your way into this test

*And I've gone through whether it's practice or practise this week with DD and I can't bloody remember 😂

I have had the same thought many times. I know that Atom learning is offered to families on lower incomes, but it has become such a big business that Atom is not enough.

Hey all…. Hope everyone is getting along ok?
I feel like life is one big slog at the not helped by all this 11+ malarkey.

Ds still plodding away. Had another mock on Sunday and got the results on Monday which was impressive. He scored 86% which I’m very happy with and so is he. He scored 95% in VR which really helped boost him up.

Only a few more months to go!

Hey. Agree it feels like one big slog to the end now. We have our second mock this Sunday so we'll see how that goes. His tutor has said he really needs to work on vocab but is doing well in the other areas. I think I've resigned to the fact that vocab is just going to be his weakest point and hope that he can make the scores up in the other sections. He is learning loads of vocab but just not the words that are coming up in the work he's doing!

We're Trafford (I seem to remember you are too?) so less than three months to go now. One the one hand I feel like making a countdown to the end but on the other hand I think that would stress us all out even more 😅

I keep reminding myself of the back-up plan, and that seems to settle my nerves

Those are excellent results.

First ever official mock and DS scored 75%. Its okay as there were some exam nerves and silly errors. Im going to focus on drills now as we don't have knowledge gaps, just exam technique issues

The creative writing element is slowly, but surely, killing us!

Hello, My DD is writing exam this year. Targeting HBS. Which mocks are good or are close to the actual format: Susan Daughtery or ElevenPlusExams?

You don't have to do mock exam. It is not a complete cohort anyway. My children all did such exams and had huge success. None of them did any mock exam. But I do have a lot of materials and I did all the preparation with them myself. And I turned myself into an expert. It is a little bit insane, to be honest. Without help from adults, there is little chance for a naturally bright child to stand out.

My DC has always found Spatial NVR extremely tricky, he hasn't improved over the months, even with doing extra practice.
I am now thinking we should focus on the other elements, getting them as strong as possible.
Any advice?

I spoke to a parent the other day who said that 11plus is harder than GCSES, I believe her. Im trying not to transfer my nerves but when he makes a dumb mistake I get so fustrated. I ve also heard stories that some children just happen to pass on the day , despite doing not so well previously.

@Pipsquiggle we're kind of similar, but more with vocab. It just doesn't go in! And now we're getting close to the final thing my back up plan is to just make sure he's as strong as he can be in all other areas and hope he gets at least 50% of any vocab questions right. It's like his brain just freezes and he can't think straight when hard words come up, sometimes even ones he knows!

Having said that, the spatial element of NVR is also something my DS finds tricky. I have found there are lots of videos on YouTube which are definitely helpful to some extent - they cover all topics. We've also got the CGP spatial flash cards and every now and then we randomly do a couple of those (there are only 2ish questions on each card) just to keep the practice continuous. It's the folding and punching he finds hardest and I really struggle with it too so I'm not of much help to him either!

Our local grammar school has lower cut off for pupils on pupil premium. And they just need to get the cutoff to get a place. While the actual marks to get in is quite higher than the cutoff. The school also provides free lessons to kids on pupil premium to prepare them for the exams. So there are schools doing a lot of things.

@Supamum6629 are you going to visit it next week for the open day? I'm trying to decide whether or not to go and if I should take DD...

We missed registering for the open day on time and the tickets were sold out.

Just had my DC's mock results back, they weren't great. The tutor was really surprised and think it's down to technique. He will probably always be a bit rubbish at NVR.

I just despair with this process. He's bright. I have another DC in Grammar so know the score.

My tutor thinks there's enough time to get there. I just don't know how to encourage him to focus put more effort in

Keep hope. There's 2 months

Do you think things can materially change in 2 months?

I do for several reasons. First the pace changes because of the time. Second they are on holidays so can dedicate time without being tired. They are covering work they've already done. My child has not been doing great in the mocks however we're just going to throw everything at it, she will do her best and that's what we can ask.

We’ve just had final results from the last mocks my daughter sat in tutoring:
English 92%
VR 94%
NVR 97.5%
Maths 64% (!)

I’m really worried maths is going to let her down - she is quite liable to panic and go completely blank if she can’t do the first question. She can do calculations just fine, she just cannot work out what the word problems are asking her to do (she’s autistic which I think is part of it). We will focus on maths over the summer but she’s not improved her scores all year so I’m not sure what we can do. Agh. Luckily she is really good at NVR so that pulls her overall score up (often gets 100% and finishes it in half the time available - I think good at pattern spotting also due to the autism). Anyway, I’d be feeling quite confident if it weren’t for the maths. We went to our first open day this morning (which was a grammar) and really liked it so that’s put the pressure on a bit. We are in Bucks so not going for super selective or anything.