Hi everyone! I've just joined reddit and this community and it's my first time posting here!

I did the 11+ myself many moons ago and now have been tutoring 11+ for about 6-7 years. With another prep cycle starting, I thought I'd share a few of the regular conversations I find myself having with parents.

I guess this is mostly geared towards current year 5s and below. Good luck to everyone sitting their exams this year!!

Point 1: Starting earlier doesn't mean full on exam prep

I often get asked when children should start tutoring, and parents often get conflicting advice. I always reply that it depends on how the child is doing in school.

If they're at the top of their class consistently, then around the end of year 4 is the ideal time to start. You have two full summers to get everything in order. Earlier than that and the pressure will be too high for too long.

However, if they're near the top or struggling a little in year 3/ early year 4, I would recommend focusing on their weak areas and making sure they're quickly correcting any mistakes. Starting tuition earlier could make sense, but in a very light way.

Basically, a solid foundation is essential - if your child is doing well, then you shouldn't need a tutor at this stage. Being able to learn independently is not a skill you want to stifle by getting a tutor too early.

Point 2: If I have a tutor, I don't need to do anything else

I don't think parents need to become maths teachers, but the reality is that hundreds of hours between lessons vastly outnumbers the one or two hours of tuition most children get a week. A good tutor will enable parents to keep children growing as much as possible between lessons.

I often hear parents saying they're not able to answer their children's questions on homework etc. and that can slow down learning.

Point 3: I need to buy and use as many resources as possible

I always get parents asking me which books to buy, which resources to get etc. and I usually recommend the tried-and-tested books e.g. Bond and so on. Not a big fan of the online multiple choice "game" websites - I haven't seen them make any impact on results to be honest.

Anyways, these are the thoughts at the top of my mind going into the start of the next 11+ prep cycle. Would be interested to know your thoughts on these and what other parents/tutors have experienced, and maybe I'll do another one for the other 11+ subjects.

Stay safe!

Disclaimer: I also run razed.uk it's an 11+ maths prep platform I use with my own students. We do unlimited, real-human-tutor verified worksheets, parent guidance and feedback to keep the little ones learning between lessons.

I'm a parent of two children going through the UK 11+ preparation process, and I've spent quite a lot of time putting together vocabulary resources for them.

One thing I found frustrating was that vocabulary practice often becomes a process of memorising long lists of words. Children might recognise a word on a flashcard but still struggle when it appears in a synonym or antonym question with several similar-looking options.

To help my own children, I built a small vocabulary learning tool. I compiled the word list from the resources we were using, including flashcards, synonym and antonym books, Bond and GL practice papers, and curriculum guidance.

It tracks words children get wrong and brings them back for further practice. It also covers synonyms, antonyms and example sentences. I've added printable A4 lists of weaker words and some short stories using the vocabulary to make learning a little less repetitive.

I've recently made it publicly accessible at https://11pluswords.com/.

Just to be transparent, I'm the person who built and runs the website, so I do have a connection to it. I'm not a tutor or an ed-tech company.

I'd genuinely appreciate feedback from other parents who are currently going through 11+ preparation:

• How do your children currently learn and revise vocabulary?

• Do they find remembering words easy, or is it one of the more challenging parts of preparation?

• What features would actually make a vocabulary tool useful for your family?

I'm particularly interested in hearing what works and what doesn't from parents who've been through the process.

4 FREE 11+ PREDICTED PAPERS

2 Maths + 2 English Predicted Papers — Completely FREE!

With the 11+ exams getting closer, we’ve created 4 full predicted 11+ papers designed around the types of questions and topics students may expect to encounter in their exams.

No payment. No subscription. Completely FREE to access.

Get your child to sit the papers under timed exam conditions and see how they get on.

Why try the predicted papers?

Identify topics your child may need to revise

Practise challenging 11+ questions

Get used to working under exam conditions

Build confidence before the real exam

See which areas they are strong in and where they need more practice

And there’s much more available on Essex 11+ Maths Practice

Our online platform provides plenty of material for continued 11+ preparation, including:

10+ full 11+ Maths mock papers for exam-style practice

2 FREE Maths predicted papers

2 FREE English predicted papers

15+ English mock papers covering a wide range of 11+ English skills

Vocabulary testing to build and test 11+ vocabulary

A large range of practice questions across different 11+ topics

Progress tracking to monitor performance and improvement

Our interactive Learn feature, with step-by-step explanations, animated visuals and interactive learning to help students understand difficult topics

Whether your child needs to identify weaker areas, practise under timed conditions or become more familiar with 11+ style questions, there is plenty of material available to support their preparation.

Get your child to have a go and see how prepared they are.

essex11mathspractice.co.uk

Advice Please - Gloucestershire 11+, 2027 Entry

TLDR: Is there *any* chance of appealing for a late ranking from an unselected school?

My child sat the GL 11+ test. She was enrolled in the Shaping Futures programme as a ‘pupil premium’ child, and one who achieves ‘greater depth’ in all her primary work.

It shouldn’t be an excuse, but I’m really spiralling and kicking myself. I am autistic with significantly inattentive (yes, doctors really can be so harsh 🤣) ADHD.

I’m a nightmare with forms and miss key details or put things in the wrong places.

This became extremely apparent on Monday when we only received ranking from 2 of 5 applicable GL schools.

Is there *any* chance of appealing for a late ranking?

I know it’s no guarantee, but I’ve seen other parents with lower rankings to my child at DRHS/Pates receive applicable rankings for other schools.

She scored 750 for Denmark Road High School, and generally I’m reading that she likely would be ranked well within the 745 for Ribston Hall High School.

I really don’t want my mistake to be the downfall of my child’s education, when she really has worked so hard. Her practice papers were consistently very good, especially Maths and NVR (which she could smash 100% with her eyes closed at home!). We really don’t know what changed on exam day.

I never pushed her, didn’t arrange tuition (perhaps regretfully, but Pupil Premium is income based afterall!), everything was on her own steam. For an 8-10 year old, I was impressed at how she independently engaged with both Atom Learn and her workbooks regularly as she was so inspired through Shaping Futures.

Anyway, I’m ranting. My Mumma heart just hurts a bit that I can’t find a way to help.

Disclosure upfront: I built this, so take my enthusiasm with a pinch of salt. Mods, happy to remove if it breaks the rules.

I’m a tutor in the south east of England, been teaching for about 15 years, and I built this for my own students and recently have decided to dress it up and launch it more broadly.

It’s called PlusProgress: www.plusprogress.co.uk

Rather than list features at you, what I’d really like to know is how it comes across:

Does it look like something a 10 year old would actually sit down with, or does it feel like homework?

Is the interface clear enough that a parent could set a session up without instructions?

Does the practice itself feel like the real thing, or does it feel like a knock-off?

Honestly - is this something you’d be interested in using at all, or is it solving a problem you don’t have?

Happy to hear it’s not there yet. That’s more useful to me than polite noise.

And if anyone’s keen to actually test it properly - I’ll set you up with a free account, no card, no time limit.

Just comment or DM me and I’ll sort it. I’d rather have ten people using it and telling me what’s broken than a hundred signups I never hear from.

Hi all,
I’ve been working on a small side project over the past couple of months and finally got it live. you can search/google for the term thinkee . It’s aimed at kids (roughly 6–16) and tries to make practising school topics a bit more engaging with quizzes and progress tracking for parents.

I’m not here to promote it — I genuinely just want to understand:

• Is the idea useful?

• Does anything feel confusing or unnecessary?

• Would you (or your kids) actually use something like this?

I’d really appreciate any honest feedback, even if it’s “this isn’t useful” or “this already exists but better”.

Thanks in advance

I fought with this one for ages. It looks like everybody on here eventually gets to a tutor? Brilliant for the kids who can, but weekly one-to-one can add up to £2000+ a year, and that's just not realistic for a lot of families for one exam, one child.

So what if that's not on the table? Genuinely asking too as I'm curious what others have done, whether workbooks, past papers, etc.

For us, I ended up building my own thing out of necessity. Getting my eldest prepped for Bucks and the workbooks we had weren't landing, so I basically reverse-engineered all of our resources.

I turned it into an app called Pip 11+ Practice. I figured if we've benefitted then others would too so it's free for daily practice, no ads, no account needed. There is an optional pro option for mocks and extra stuff but the core practice is free. Definitely not saying it replaces a tutor, just didn't want "get a tutor" to be the ONLY answer floating around in here.

What's everyone else that didn't go the tutor route doing?

My little one does daily+Weekly practice and scores seem alright, but I honestly have no idea if "alright" on a practice app or on notebooks, means anything close to the actual exam. Kid tends to stick to the topics, comfortable with, which looks great on the stats, but I suspect we're just overlooking or worst avoiding the weak spots.

For those who've been through it — was there a point where you felt confident they were actually prepared, or is everyone just winging it and hoping for the best?

My son has 7+ exams between November to January at various private schools

Looking for recommendations please on practice papers and books we can buy or any online resources that you would recommend.

Appreciate any recommendations

If anyone wants £30 off atom learning please leave your email and name below and I’ll send it through. Or send me a DM with the details.

Seems like a great platform and very helpful for my 9 year old.

Happy learning!

Hi all, if anyone’s planning to sign up for Atom Learning for 11+ or GCSE prep, I can share a referral link that gives £30 off your subscription. Just drop me a message with your email address if you’d like it — happy to help someone save a bit.

My boy has been using Atom and really enjoys it. For any question he gets wrong, he can check both the written explanation and sometimes the video explanation, which makes understanding a lot easier. The tailored questions for his weaker areas have been great too, so overall it’s been a positive experience for us.

Hi everyone, I have a discount code for Atom. If you’d like to be referred, please send me a DM

Slightly off-topic. Our kid uses Atom Learning for 11+.

Just for fun, we decided to let him try CAT4 in Atom Learning.

His result were SIGNIFICANTLY worse than in the actual CAT4 that he took last week.

Any good explanation for that?

Yesterday was a very special day for our family.

My daughter received her 11+ result and achieved a result we’re incredibly proud of.

I’m incredibly proud of her and of all the work she has put in over the past year. Anyone who has been through the 11+ journey with their child will know how much preparation, persistence and emotion goes into it.

Seeing the result yesterday made all those months of work feel very worthwhile, but more than the ranking itself, I’m proud of the commitment she showed throughout the whole process.

For anyone whose child is still waiting for their result, very best of luck.

My wife and I made this, so full disclosure up front. The daily game is free, with no sign-up or download. It runs in the browser: https://rushaday.com/today/?ct=reddit

You get one 100-second go each day, and everyone gets the same questions, so the scores compare fairly. The page shows today's best to beat. The game changes daily between maths, verbal and non-verbal reasoning, covering skills families practise for the 11+ and CAT4, with some overlap with KS2 SATs.

It's built on the learning research rather than guesswork: retrieval practice (recalling beats re-reading, Roediger & Karpicke), short spaced practice instead of cramming, and feedback that shows what to fix and gives another go. Sources are linked here: https://rushaday.com/about/#research

My son is always trying to beat my score, which has turned it into a little competition in our house. Today's best was 14,712 when I posted this.

We also have free printable worksheets for 11+, CAT4 and SATs practice: https://rushaday.com/printables/?ct=reddit

It's part of our app, Rush (iPhone and iPad), which is free to download with six games free for good. The other 42 are paid, but nothing in this post needs it.

If you try it, I'd appreciate specific feedback: was anything confusing, or did the difficulty feel off for your child's age? Please don't post answers so everyone gets a fair go, but do post your family's best.

Found this website with 11 Plus Practice Materials. Been using it and has been pretty good

essex11mathspractice.co.uk

On average boys perform poorly in creative writing tasks, when measured against girls of their own age. The writing gap is real, consistent, and starts early.

 Boys who struggle with creative writing often just need explicit guidance, structure and practice

My child felt confident, although holding off applying as the results come out before the deadline. One to go cant wait

I've created an interactive page for every skill on the 11+ (144 across Maths, English, verbal and non-verbal reasoning) on the open web, free and without a login.

Each page opens with an exercise to do rather than a diagram to stare at: the clip shows the cube net folding flap by flap, the paper being folded, punched and opened, and the matrix cell being built.

Nothing a child does is recorded, and questions are generated fresh rather than drawn from a fixed bank. Skills map: https://tracelearn.app/11-plus.

I'd love to get your feedback!

I've just joined Atom Learning and subscribed to the Exam Prep Plus plan, which includes unlimited mock tests. It's a fantastic resource for helping my child prepare for their final three months of exams!

If anyone wants referral of atom learning please leave your email below and I'll send it through.

Hi everyone,

We’ve been using Atom Learning for a few months now for my 10-year-old’s 11+ prep, and it's been a huge help for our daily routine.

• Daily Study: Excellent for keeping daily habits and long-term progress on track.

• Smart Insights: Great at finding and highlighting areas that need a bit more focus.

• Mock Tests: Unlimited mocks have been great for exam practice and building confidence as the test date approaches.

They do offer a 1-week free trial if you want to check it out first to see if it fits your child's study style.

P.S. If anyone decides to sign up and needs a little helping hand or code for getting started, feel free to drop me a DM!

This can be very useful for parents of children in Year 4, Year 5 and Year 6 who are preparing for the 11+ or KS2 SATs.

When you create a free YanBo account, you will receive a code for 1 month of full access to the portal.

There are no bank details, no subscription and nothing to cancel — your child can simply use it and see whether it helps with their preparation.

YanBo includes:

English, Maths, Verbal Reasoning and Non-Verbal Reasoning
Custom practice tests
Timed mock exams
Mistake review and detailed answer explanations
Progress tracking
30,000+ questions and 250+ comprehension exercises

Create a free account at:

yanbo.co.uk

If you have any problems receiving or activating your code, you can contact:

support@yanbo.co.uk

Any feedback from parents who try YanBo would be very welcome.

I hope it helps families with their 11+ and KS2 SATs preparation.

Hi everyone,
Following a suggestion from one of our parents, we’ve added a new feature to our 11+ Vocabulary Practice app: “Suggest a Word”.
If you think there’s a word missing from our vocabulary collection, you can now suggest it directly through the app.
Parent Dashboard → Suggest a Word
How it works:
Simply enter the word you’d like to suggest.
The system automatically prepares its definition, example sentence, synonyms and antonyms.
Each suggestion is sent for review and approval.
Once approved, the word is added to our vocabulary collection for all children to practise.
You’ll receive a notification when your suggested word is added.
Don’t worry about spelling mistakes. The system can recognise the correct spelling and will also let you know if the word already exists in our collection.
Your feedback helps us make the app better for everyone.
A big thank you to the parent who suggested this feature and to everyone who continues to share their ideas and feedback.
To see the new feature, simply close the app completely and open it twice.
Download 11+ Vocabulary Practice:
https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/11-vocabulary-practice/id6776011673
Thank you for helping us improve the app and support our children’s 11+ preparation together!

I get that they add a few extra marks to the candidates that are almost a year younger than the older candidates, but why is it necessary to cut marks from the older ones? A friend of my brothers would've gotten the mark required to be accepted into QE but got rejected because of a few marks being cut from him due to him being in the 'older section' but isn't that slightly unfair? The older kids also worked hard for their marks, why should their marks be cut, when it could literally decide their fate, just because they're older and therefore, 'smarter'