The best way to build 11+ vocabulary is to read good stories a little above your child’s level, and then talk about the words. Synonyms, antonyms, cloze and comprehension all come down to knowing what words mean, and no list can cover every word the test might use.
Here are the books we’d start with.
For ages 8 to 9
- Charlotte’s Web by E. B. White. The whole story turns on the words Charlotte spins into her web: terrific, radiant, humble.
- Matilda by Roald Dahl. Gloriously over-the-top descriptions, and a heroine who loves reading.
- The Iron Man by Ted Hughes. Short, vivid and finishable in a week.
- The Firework-Maker’s Daughter by Philip Pullman. Crisp writing, full of words children don’t meet at school.
For reluctant readers
- The Wild Robot by Peter Brown. Very short chapters with precise nature words.
- Horrible Histories by Terry Deary. The jokes sneak in words like monarch and heir.
- Barrington Stoke books. Short novels by well-known authors, easy to read but written for the child’s real age.
For keen readers of 9 to 11
- The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster. Every joke is about words.
- The Bad Beginning by Lemony Snicket. The narrator stops to explain the hard words.
- The Explorer by Katherine Rundell. Rich, exact descriptions, and great for creative writing too.
- Kensuke’s Kingdom by Michael Morpurgo. Clear, gripping and full of sailing and survival words.
- The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien. Best read aloud first.
- Nevermoor by Jessica Townsend. Long, playful descriptions for a reader who loves detail.
Word books worth buying
Only if reading isn’t covering it, usually in Year 5 or Year 6:
- A children’s thesaurus, such as the Oxford Primary Thesaurus.
- One pack of 11+ vocabulary flashcards. CGP and Bond both make good ones. One pack is plenty.
- CGP’s 11+ vocabulary 10-minute tests, for exam-style practice in the last year.
Five habits that make words stick
- Read aloud to them, even at ten, from a book a bit harder than they’d pick themselves.
- Ask before you tell. “What do you think it means?” Let them guess from the sentence.
- Keep a word book. Five new words a week, read back the week after.
- Learn words in families. Frugal, thrifty and economical, with wasteful as the opposite. That’s exactly how synonym and antonym questions work.
- Practise a little every day. A word your child has met ten times is theirs for good.
Number five is where Rush comes in. The Synonyms and Antonyms games are free, take 100 seconds, and bring back the words your child got wrong. For a printed list, our free 11+ word list has 186 common 11+ words, each with a synonym and an antonym.
Questions parents also ask
How much should my child read?
Most days, for fifteen to twenty minutes, plus being read to. Little and often beats a big push before the test.
Do comics and graphic novels count?
Yes, for enjoyment and keeping the habit going. They have fewer words than a novel, so pair them with a harder book read aloud.
Should my child learn an 11+ word list?
A short list is handy for quick tests, but the exam can use any word. Reading widely and learning words in families matters more.
