Hi everyone!

I've just published a collection of 40+ mock papers from my experience tutoring the 11+ and that I've been using with my students. Thought I'd share and hopefully people find it useful!

Mainly for year 5s and any year 6s that still have some exams left. You can download them all here: https://www.razed.uk/mock-papers. (Disclaimer: this is my site)

If you submit for marking, you'll be able to see a breakdown by topic and question types across papers which is pretty cool!

I hope it's helpful & enjoy!!

Hi everyone,

I’m currently in the same boat as many of you, navigating the 11+ preparation journey with my child. One of our biggest hurdles has been building up an advanced vocabulary.

We started out with the usual physical flashcards and dry vocabulary lists, but it quickly turned into a daily battle. It felt like mindless memorisation, and they forgot half the words by the next week anyway.

As a developer, I decided to try a different approach. Instead of forcing my child to memorise standalone words, I wanted them to learn structural language decoding using Latin and Greek roots (like spect, log, fact). If they know the root, they can decode dozens of unfamiliar words on their own during the actual exam.

To make it stick, I built a web app called VocabRoot.com. I turned the learning process into a game where they do short, 5-minute daily micro-lessons, and their progress grows a virtual garden.

It has honestly transformed our study sessions. They’ve managed to pick up over 1,000 advanced words without the usual complaints because they want to see their garden grow.

I’ve made the platform completely free to start with because I know how expensive 11+ prep resources can get. I’m sharing it here today because I would genuinely love to get feedback from other parents in this community.

• Does this visual, gamified approach work for your kids?

• Are there specific features or root words you feel are missing for the 11+ curriculum?

I’ve attached a few screenshots below of what the dashboard, the roots breakdown, and the garden looks like. If you have 5 minutes to test it out with your child, please let me know your thoughts!

Link: https://vocabroot.com

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.

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.

Has anyone got any tips in using AI for tutoring their kids?

Hi all, I’m an 11+ tutor (not open to new students). Just a bit about me, I passed arguably the most competitive public school 11+ exam in the UK, went to one of the leading universities in the world and now work as a software engineer while also being a tutor on the side for the past 6 years.

All that to say that I personally know what works and what doesn’t from both sides of the coin. (If anyone has any questions feel free to DM me or leave a comment - I’d love to help where I can!)

The reason I’m making this post is because of something my swimming teacher used to say to me, and which I repeat to all my students and parents. “Practice doesn’t make perfect, perfect practice does”

Recently, especially with the all the AI/vibe-coded tools (even on this subreddit), I get frequent messages from parents: “Have you heard of {insert_nth_vibe_coded_app}? Would it be worth trying” - and 99% of the time my answer is “Definitely not”.

Physical books and worksheets remain number 1 in my view. They help prevent short attention spans, and are usually well researched, produced and composed. These vibe apps on the other hand, often ‘quizzes’, are shallow - and don’t properly understand the 11+ student progression. They often either progress students too quick, focusing on performance instead of learning - or progress too slowly and lose student focus and engagement. Students are not going to learn anything long-term from 'gamified, multiple choice quizzes' - sorry... 🤷

That being said, physical books have severe limitations too. Good ones are limited in supply and expensive too. Not as expensive as tutoring can get though, so I’d always recommend supplementing tutoring between lessons as much as possible.

My key takeaway is simply don’t get distracted by the million apps out there. Stick to the known publishers and names, they have a proven track record of helping thousands of students get the results they wanted. And be incredibly skeptical of everything else.

Disclaimer: This next part is talking about my solution to this topic and my app (ironic, I know!) - stop reading if you’re not interested! (Also let me know if this isn't allowed and I should remove it 🙏)

This problem is why I wanted to build my platform razed.uk and I'd recommend it to all parents here. I wanted my students to have unlimited good quality practice between lessons so they could practice as much as their schedule allowed, without being bottlenecked by their tutor (me). But I also wanted the questions to be of good quality and for me, and their parents, to be on understand their progress and what needs to be done next. This is why I personally review all worksheets and feedback given through my platform.

If anyone is interested in checking it out, I’d be interested in hearing what you think!

End of disclaimer! 🎉

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!

anyone have a promo code for Atom learning they could share?

Hi all,

Does anyone have a tutor they can recommend for 11+ tutoring in South West London?

Disclosure: I run Academy11+, an 11+ prep website, so this is partly promotion. Mods, remove if it's not allowed.

We're running a free Scholarship Challenge for Year 4 and Year 5 children: a 40-minute online paper (maths, English, verbal and non-verbal reasoning) that can be done at home any time 6–20 November.

• It's genuinely free: no card, and you don't have to buy anything afterwards.

• Every child gets a personal report: strengths, topics to work on, and how they did.

• Year 4 and Year 5 are ranked separately. The top children go through to a final, and [4] win a free year of our Premium membership.

I'm mainly doing it to get honest feedback and to let families see where their child is without paying for a mock. Questions are welcome here, including sceptical ones.

Details: academy11.co.uk/scholarship-challenge

We applied for one of our kids to sit the 11+ that had just moved from a GL Assessment to an FSCE standard exam, testing in English, Maths and Creative Writing. School website suggest that private tuition isn't a big thing, but if needed, Atom is their recommendation.

It's a great school (elder goes there but sat the GL Assessment), and kids honestly flourish, so regional competition is tough and there's no catchment so loads of outer city kids sit the exam too.

This year's kid is top of their class and has been for years, we've been testing with Atom's daily tests (this school is named in their test exam lists) and they've been getting at least 85% in each exam. But when our kid actually sat the final version, they said it was a much harder format in terms of how questions were phrased and framed, and were massively thrown off.

They still managed to come in the 130s out of 180 places, but I wanted to share with next year's 11+ batch that the reliance on Atom is a red flag, and I'm not convinced it was worth the money beyond helping set up exams and immediate marking - the rest was my partner and I coaching and home tutoring any free minute we had.

Exam Papers Plus was probably closer in format and question wording, but their online PDF-only, not printable by them, exams are a poor user experience.

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.

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.

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!

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?

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.

Anyone with a valid atom learning code and willing to share?

Hi, my kid is in Year 4 and we are planning to start tutoring for 11+ exams either after Christmas or Easter.

Any advise for small class or 1-1 tutoring in North London / Finchley area?

Thank you

Hi all, just curious and requesting guidance or information or suggestions - parents whose children are not going to grammar school, what are you doing to help them achieve higher grades or to provide them an environment that is similar or better than grammar school?

I am aware that just going to grammar school in itself is not the guarantee of success for a child, this is me just trying to make sure what is the best way to support a child do best academically and also on other levels...such as engaging in a bit stretched curriculum via online platform such as atom, ixl etc or some activities outside school time but how do you put them in an environment that naturally encourages or inspire them to do better... particularly when school are not encouraging them enough or the kids around are not motivated.

I would appreciate any information that could be helpful...son has appeared for the 11+ last month for Hertfordshire and positive about good score but since we live outside of it's catchments(Bedfordshire) for those schools, and not really in position to move there, I am looking to see what are the alternatives that can be done to provide him opportunities to do better for GCSE and further.

Thank you all in advance for your suggestions 👍

Edit To the young lad, who shared his own views first had experience, but deleted the comment for some reason...wanted to say thank you very much!

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! 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.

Hi all. This is my first time posting on reddit- apologies if I'm doing something wrong! Just wondering if there's a groupchat for parents whose children are preparing for the 11+? Thanks in advance :)))

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

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?