How To Help Your Child Pass the Grammar School 11+ Exam

Here we have our parents guide to helping your child to pass the all important 11 plus entrance exam, which is a requirement to get into any top standing grammar school in the UK.

Keep Them Motivated

Keeping your children motivated is really difficult. Sometimes they simply won’t want to do what you say they should, and if they’re at the age where they cannot understand logical arguments, you’re in for a tough battle.

That being said, with revision, it’s important to use small rewards as incentives, and help get your child into the routine of practice. Another great way to keep them motivated is to not overwhelm them by rushing things too late, give them plenty of time to get into the learning before the exam.

Cover All Topics

It’s highly important that your child understands all of the topics involved in the test, so that no surprises throw them off and upset their rhythm for the rest of the exam paper. You can view a brief list of topics below, but make sure to research your particular paper before finalising your list:

  • Verbal reasoning
  • Non-verbal reasoning
  • English
  • Essay writing
  • Mathematics
  • Numerical problems
  • Shuffled sentences

Use Practice Exam Papers

The use of practice exam papers is well known to help children prepare for exams. That combined with mock exams are a sure fire way to make sure your child is comfortable and ready to go into the exam hall.

For the 11 plus exams in England, there are two different exam boards that offer two slightly different tests, and so you should look for your local grammar school website and check which test they will be offering.

CEM Practice Papers

The CEM exam paper is thought of as being the most difficult, and so is definitely one where you should invest in the most practice papers possible. One of the best providers of CEM 11+ practice papers is 11 Plus Leap.

GL Practice Papers

The GL exam board actually provides papers for you to browse on their website, which you can see here.

Practice with a Tutor

If your child is struggling, or you simply want to ensure that they perform well in their exam, then hiring a local tutor can really help accelerate your child’s learning. You can search Google for an 11 plus tutor near me here.