11+ Papers & Preparation Resources

How to use these 11+ papers properly

There is no national 11+ exam. There is a set of different tests, set by different providers, chosen school by school, and the single most expensive mistake parents make is preparing for the wrong one. Start by finding out what your child will actually sit.

The 11+ landscape changed, and most advice online has not caught up

Until 2023 the two big names were GL Assessment and CEM, and half the internet still tells you to work out which one your target school uses. CEM withdrew from paper-based 11+ testing from September 2023. Most schools that used it moved to GL, and some built bespoke tests instead.

GL Assessment now sets the tests for the large majority of English grammar schools. That matters practically, because GL tests draw from a published question bank and reward familiarity with question formats in a way that a bespoke school paper does not.

Test Where you meet it What it looks like
GL Assessment Most English grammar schools Maths, English, verbal and non-verbal reasoning, multiple choice or standard format
CSSE Essex consortium Its own English and maths papers, written answers
FSCE Some Midlands consortiums Marketed as harder to tutor for, in practice still format sensitive
ISEB Common Pre-Test Independent schools, Year 6 or 7 entry Online, adaptive, sat at the child's own school
School's own paper Many independent schools Written maths and English, often with worked answers required

Check the admissions page of every school on your list, not just the first one. Consortiums change providers between years and the school's own page is the only source that is reliably current.

What the papers are for, and what they are not for

Past papers are a diagnostic tool and a familiarity tool. They are not a teaching tool, and using them as one is the most common way a year of preparation gets wasted.

The pattern that works: sit a paper, mark it, and use the wrong answers to build a list of topics. Then teach those topics properly, away from any paper. Then sit a different paper a fortnight later and see whether the list got shorter. Papers measure. Teaching moves.

Doing paper after paper without the middle step produces a child who is very familiar with the format and no better at the maths, which shows up as a plateau around three months in.

Where 11+ maths marks actually go

Across the 11+ papers we mark, the same topics come up as persistent problems, and they are further back in the curriculum than parents expect:

  • Fractions. Not the operations, the concept. A child who thinks of a fraction only as a shaded shape hits a wall on fractions of amounts and reverse fractions.
  • Ratio and proportion. Especially unequal sharing and recipe scaling, where the arithmetic is easy and the setup is not.
  • Place value with large numbers and decimals. Quietly responsible for a lot of careless-looking errors.
  • Multi-step word problems. The real skill being tested is deciding what to do first, and it is almost never taught directly.
  • Time and timetables. Reliably the lowest scoring topic on the papers we see.

Our interactive lessons cover each of these starting from the basic version and stepping up in difficulty tiers, which is the part a past paper cannot do.

Timing is a separate skill from maths

Most 11+ papers are tight on time by design. A child who can do every question given an hour and gets through two thirds of the paper in the time allowed will look like they have a knowledge problem on the results letter. They do not.

Train the two separately. Untimed work builds the maths. Then short timed bursts, ten questions in ten minutes, build the pace. Do not combine them until the untimed version is comfortable, because doing so teaches a bright, anxious ten year old that maths means panic.

The other half of timing is skipping. Children are taught in primary school to finish what they start, and in an 11+ paper that instinct costs marks. Practise leaving a question, moving on and coming back, until it stops feeling like giving up.

Questions parents ask

When should we start preparing?

For most families, the start of Year 5 for the underlying maths and English, and around January of Year 5 for test-format practice. Starting earlier rarely helps and often burns a child out before the test that matters.

If you are starting later than that, it is not hopeless. It changes the plan from broad coverage to targeting the specific gaps, which is what a diagnostic assessment is for. Our guide on when to start goes through the timelines properly.

Are the FSCE and similar tests really tutor proof?

No test is tutor proof, and the claim usually means the test avoids question types that respond to drilling. That is a real design goal and it changes what preparation should look like rather than removing the value of it.

We took the claim apart in is the FSCE exam really tutor proof.

How many papers should my child sit before the real thing?

Roughly one a fortnight through Year 6, with the gaps filled by teaching rather than more papers. Ten to fifteen properly worked papers across the year is plenty.

Save two or three of the most realistic papers for September and October of Year 6 so there is something genuinely unseen close to the test.

My child scores well at home and badly in mocks. What is going on?

Usually one of three things: time pressure, an unfamiliar room, or the fact that home practice happens with an adult nearby who unconsciously prompts.

All three are trainable, and all three are worth training before assuming the maths is the problem. Sitting a paper alone, timed, at a table rather than a sofa, is a surprisingly big change.

Do independent schools use the same tests as grammar schools?

Often not. Many independent schools use the ISEB Common Pre-Test, which is online and adaptive, or set their own written papers with their own style.

If you are applying to both, budget for two different kinds of preparation rather than assuming one covers the other.

Where to go next

11+ readiness quizInteractive maths lessonsNon-verbal reasoning game3D nets toolComplete guide to 11+ mathsMock exam markingFree 15 minute call

Browse by school

Every 11+ paper in this library, school by school

1,089 free 11+ papers and 1,230 downloadable files from 142 schools, boards and consortia: 329 real past and entrance papers, 708 sample, specimen and practice papers, and 52 familiarisation booklets and topic lists. Every school below has its own page listing each paper it has published, with the answers where the school released them.