You can. Plenty of children pass the 11+ with a parent, a plan and short, regular practice.
A tutor brings three things: a plan, someone to keep it going, and someone to explain the methods. You can do all three at home, and you get one thing a tutor can’t give you: a few minutes every day, not an hour once a week.
1. Find out which test your child will sit
There’s no single national 11+. Each area or school picks its own test and subjects. Kent tests English, maths and reasoning. Lincolnshire tests only reasoning. The Essex grammar schools test English and maths, with written answers rather than multiple choice.
So check your council’s or school’s admissions page before you buy anything. Our guide to the tests compares the main ones.
2. Follow a simple plan
| When | What | How long |
|---|---|---|
| Year 3 and Year 4 | The basics: times tables, number facts, word meanings, shapes | 5 to 10 minutes most days |
| Year 5, autumn and winter | The 11+ question types, one at a time, untimed | 20 minutes, 4 days a week |
| Year 5, spring and summer | Short mixed tests against the clock | 20 to 30 minutes, 5 days a week |
| The summer before Year 6 | Full papers in test conditions | One or two a week |
The first stage is the one most families skip, and it’s the one that pays off most. A child who knows 7 × 8 and what frugal means without thinking has more time for every question. That’s the stage Rush is built for: quick 100-second games that make the basics automatic.
For the question types, our free exam guide has a page for each one, with a worked example and the usual traps.
What a week looks like in Year 5
Here’s a sample autumn week. Swap the days round to suit your family.
| Day | What | Time |
|---|---|---|
| Monday | A new question type, untimed (say, letter codes) | 20 minutes |
| Tuesday | The same type again, then the mistakes book | 15 minutes |
| Wednesday | Times tables, number facts and words | 10 minutes |
| Thursday | Off | |
| Friday | A 10-minute test on last week’s type | 15 minutes |
| Saturday | Reading for fun, and a few quick games | 20 minutes |
| Sunday | Off |
That’s under two hours across the week, and it never feels like a lot on any one day.
3. Buy a little, not a lot
- Start free. GL Assessment gives away familiarisation papers, and many areas, including Kent and Buckinghamshire, have their own booklet.
- One study book per subject to learn the question types. CGP’s 11+ Study Books are clear and well laid out.
- One series of 10-minute tests for speed, such as CGP’s or Bond’s. Buy your child’s age band.
- One set of full papers for the summer. GL’s own practice papers are the closest to the real thing.
Skip three brands of the same thing, and anything for a subject your test doesn’t include.
4. Mark together, and keep a mistakes book
Mark each paper the same day. For every wrong answer, jot down what went wrong: didn’t know how, misread it, a slip, or ran out of time. Reteach the “didn’t know how” ones with a fresh example, then try the original question again a week later.
After a few weeks, the book tells you exactly what to practise next. Rush does this for you in the app: every miss goes into Review, with the answer and why.
5. Keep it calm
Pick the same time each day and keep two days a week free. Take a week off each half term. Praise the effort and the method, not the score, and keep reading for fun going all the way through.
When a tutor might help
If the same mistakes keep coming back after you’ve retaught them twice, if you can’t follow a method yourself (cube nets and long word problems are the usual ones), or if every session ends in an argument. Even then, a few sessions on one topic often does the job.
Questions parents also ask
How much practice a week is enough?
In Year 5, about two hours a week in short sessions. A bit more over the summer, when full papers take about an hour each.
Are the free familiarisation papers the same as the real test?
They show the question styles and the answer sheet, which is exactly what they’re for. The timings and number of questions can be different, so check your own area’s booklet.
Can we prepare in three months?
You can learn the format and build some speed, especially if the basics are already strong. Building the basics from scratch takes longer, which is why starting early helps so much.
