11+ support thread 2026

[11plus2026]

Not sure if anyone is around yet but thought I’d open one.

Has anyone started any practice questions yet? Mine will be starting tutoring in September, she’s had an assessment to see where she’s at currently and now just enjoying the sunshine ☀️

Glad to hear I’m not the only one who finds the summer a bit stressful. My daughter still struggles with the NVR and because of that I feel like we haven’t really got enough time to practice the other subjects. Just realised we’ve barely done any punctuation for months so have to start practicing that now.
Every mock we’ve done so far has been slightly above or slightly below the pass mark so I’ve never felt completely confident that my daughter will pass the real test. I can’t wait for it to be over!

Just under 4 weeks to go for us! Now need to keep practicing under timed conditions. Dd has some good and bad days but is keen to do well and it shows. Spending around an hour in the morning and keeping the rest free for reading and play dates. Been on holiday so feeling refreshed too.

how are you all doing?

Ours isnt great, we are trying a very selective grammar locally just for practice as we really just want one of the indies. Tried the grammar mock and getting around 55% (this is 2nd time we have tried) mainly the vocabulary is too high for my DD. Just two weeks to go

@Eeshagood luck to your dd. 11+ vocab is very difficult, but my belief is that whatever they soak up at this stage they will take with them to secondary school. Is the indie she’s going for quite selective?

Genuinely some of the words I have to look up and I’m a Solicitor so should have a decent vocabulary! Maybe I’ve imparted my brain as it definitely fails me more these days!

Has anyone dd found the cpg nvr 10 min tests book 2 from test 23 impossible to finish in the allocated 10 min? The questions have definitely stepped up to next level. previous to this could easily complete the tests

dd feeling a bit stressed about this!

Hi @11plus2026, we are looking at Habs, Francis Holland and SHHS - but also NLCS and Henrietta Barnett. These are the ones we liked but are late to the game here so not sure we even have a chance! If anyone has a clue about how selective the first 3 are, that would be very much appreciated.

@Eesha we aren’t based in London so no experience but those schools I’ve heard are very good. Does she have a tutor?

@Justonemorebubbles mine’s going through the first book still, don’t think we’ll have the chance to buy the second! The test mine is taking won’t be as difficult as those CGP books but I hear the difficulty depends on the area?

My two are gamely plodding along here but I’m back at work so not supervising very much - relying on them doing atom islands and then we’re doing a couple of past papers a week. They’re definitely more consistent in their scores than they were but not exactly breezing through. When is everyone else thinking of stopping revision or will you go up to the wire?

@11plus2026 no tutor, mainly due to cost. We have lots of books and past papers and ive taken the approach to slowly do it in bits so less heavy pressure for DD. Its hugely competitive in these areas so very unlikely we will get into many listed so I dont want there to be that level of pressure. We could also pass the exam but 'fail' the interview!
We are in an indie currently so have a fallback but im certainly going to be screaming into my Bond books if we get nothing after all this work!

I know a few class friends of my DD are paying £100 per hour to get them ready for the indies.

My DD got a Habs offer last year, plus an academic scholarship from St Margaret’s Bushey. She’d done surprisingly badly in the Parmiter’s test (was way off the “pass” mark) but maybe she had a particularly bad day! She had worked hard and is bright but not in genius territory, though we knew if she made it to interviews she would ace those.

We took a place at an academically selective school closer to where we live - last year the Y7 intake was around 120 but this year we think it’s c.100. And I’d also heard that (from someone with a friend who works at the school) that they had had to drop their usual “pass” mark a bit in order to fill even 100 places.

Habs may be different of course but it does show the impact VAT plus falling birth rates can have. It means it may well be easier than it once was to get in even competitive/sought after schools (I don’t want to out but there is a further local reason why numbers at DD’s school have fallen a bit).

Thank you @RulesControlTheFun , very helpful. These schools make it seem like its so tough to get in/jump through hoops but i do wonder if this is the reality sometimes. We did go see HB and these must have been hundreds there for just one slot viewing

@chillipopcorn1 do yours do all the islands each week. We’ve got close but don’t always complete all just interested in other views. Also on atom on the graph we are close to the target score but some areas still say need practice are others over the target score line at this stage in the process or just under or on also. Someone suggested that atom may encourage you to keep going so may say more practice so I’m interested on testing that theory.

The atom trend lines are interesting. One of my twins was way over the maths line on her first month doing atom, then dropped way below and has still not quite caught up to where it said she was six months ago. She hasn’t got worse at maths in that time so no idea what’s going on there! My two are both ‘on track’ or above for everything except maths, but one twin only got there this month. She is very conscientious about doing all her islands and really plows through it. Their test scores are rarely over 105SAS though! I can see that atom have a vested interest in not telling you you’ll sail through. I’m looking forward to cancelling that direct debit!

Interesting to read all your posts. DD hasn’t used Atom but wants to after her 11+ for science. She’s doing a 5 day trial at the moment and seems to enjoy the science and English. Has anyone done Science and is Atom really good for it, or are there any other good platforms out there?

@chillipopcorn1 thanks for that feedback I appreciate it. We only got a SAS on the mock test I couldn’t see that updating anywhere but I could be looking in the wrong place haven’t been using it very long. Says needs more practice on verbal reasoning and English. Verbal was always strong but I’d agree on the English with Atom.

We had a pretty disastrous mock test last week I need to ask what the average for the cohort was but my DD was very disheartened and looking at the questions they were super tough

Sorry to hear that @Rinse123 but some mocks can definitely be harder than the real test and as you say it depends on the cohort. Was it ExamPaper Plus by any chance? Their tests are notoriously hard.
We’re not doing too great here, I am a bit disappointed in our tutor but I’m going to try to bite my tongue.
Time is the biggest problem for my daughter now and I feel like we might not have been focusing enough on VR and vocabulary but I find it hard to find the correct practice material for the Quest format. I’m not convinced at all she’ll pass the test but trying to stay positive. How’s everyone else getting on?

We’re also not brilliant. Run out of steam and my two are back at school and that’s taken precedence. One bad practise paper for one twin and she’s spiralled a bit and lost confidence. I’m filled with doubt about it all and regretting starting!

It’s so reassuring to hear that others feel similar to me. I’m telling myself it’s not over yet and my DD was getting great grades and then lost confidence I know she has worked so hard so I want it for her and I’ll be so sad for her if she misses out. We started some atom as they use quest and we stopped with the tutor in July. That’s helped a lot but didn’t help with this mock. The mock was at Explore Learning.

As in you feel the tutor hasn’t supported the right material. My only gripe with ours is that she has never really said whether she thinks she’ll pass or not she’s said she’s doing really well or where I’d expect but she always said she’d be honest and in two years no actual commitment to a view on how she’ll do

I’ve got a few issues with our tutor the biggest issue is that it doesn’t feel like she’s been supporting us with the right material and she’s now having a go at some of the parents because they’ve not been preparing their kids enough for the new format.

Very strange behavior as I think surely that’s her job to give guidance about what books to use at home and to prepare the cohort for the correct test format . I’ve signed up for atom just like you but wish I would have done it sooner. We’ve not had a lot of feedback either, guess tutors might be careful with that as anything can happen on the day.
Sorry for the rant 🤪 just a few more days now and it’ll all be over and I’m sure our kids will be fine regardless ❤️.

@Annithebell I really do not agree that you pay a tutor to then be expected to know what material is needed. They are tutoring for the test and they should advise you how to support. I had assumed my tutor was working on Quest - everything I’ve seen is GL that’s why I signed up to Atom but feel like you wish I’d done it sooner.

@Rinse123 true. My hope is that the pass mark might be lower this year as this change has been so confusing. Our tutor has mostly been focusing on VR codes and it’s my understanding that the Quest test will be more about vocabulary and logic.

We too did a lot of code work which my DD is strong at. Our tutor did a mock and I said to her is it Bexley format like Quest and she said yes, paper clearly said GL and it varies hugely to the new provider.