Last Minute 11+ Revision
The 11Plus test date can be a hugely significant day in the life of many children, as it plays a very large role in determining whether they gain entry to a high-achieving grammar or independent school. For this reason, many families seek to give their children the best shot at success by helping them to begin studying and preparing months in advance of the exam.
However, there are also any number of reasons that families might not have taken this route- so if your child is preparing to sit their test with limited time to prepare, read on: we’ve created a handy guide to last-minute 11 Plus revision.
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Last Minute 11+ Revision techniques for English
Week 1 (and onward)
Ensure your child reads daily:
Comprehension is one of the absolute fundamental skills assessed in the 11 Plus Exams; therefore, we recommend building as much reading into their revision as possible. Practising paired reading with your child using classic children’s texts at KS2 level can be an excellent way to both strengthen core skills in this area- take turns to read paragraphs and discuss the story or text, making predictions and asking questions focused on what they’ve read. This type of paired preparation, daily, can have the added benefit of allowing your child to develop their reading while avoiding last-minute revision fatigue.
Review & practice spelling, punctuation and grammar rules:
We strongly recommend using tailored materials designed to help your child practice their ability to spell, punctuate sentences, and form grammatical language, as these skills will always be beneficial regardless of the 11Plus your child is sitting. A great way to practice these is to give your child plenty of opportunities to apply them in written answers or in pieces of creative writing.
Build vocabulary:
Another key area to devote some attention to is 11+ vocabulary. This includes the ability to both use words in a confident and expressive way, and the ability to encounter and grapple with more challenging words in comprehension texts. While reading and conversing are the two best ways to build children’s vocabulary, you can also make use of materials designed to help them develop in this area.
Complete at least one whole 11+ English paper each week:
This advice might apply directly to some iterations of the 11+ test more than others; for instance, the GL 11Plus exam has a specific English paper, while the CEM test takes a more mixed format. That said, there are practice papers and past papers available for varying formats, and completing at least one each week is an excellent way to give your child practice and identify areas where more development is required.
Last Minute 11+ Revision techniques for Maths
Week 1:
Use an appropriately selected 11+ practice & past paper to assess your child’s strengths and weaknesses in their mathematical abilities. Once you’ve marked this and seen the types of questions they struggle with, you can tailor the remainder of the preparation accordingly.
In addition to this, use daily skills-building tasks, designed to help consolidate children’s mental arithmetic and numeracy at the appropriate level. If you discovered in their initial assessment practice paper that they struggled with basic operations (such as times tables, multiplication, subtraction, division or addition), use materials to give them plenty of opportunities to practice and perfect the steps required in each of these. Similarly, if you find your child is shaky or lacking a solid understanding of (for example) fractions, decimals and percentages, divert time to reviewing and practising these. For targeted practice in specific topics, consider using a revision pack.
Whatever your child’s difficulties or strengths, ensure that at least a little maths practice is done daily- even ten minutes consolidating times tables can be very, very well spent.
Aim to complete one full maths practice paper per week.
Week 2 (and onward):
Continue using skills-wise tasks daily for general practice. The more regular this routine is, the more benefit it will achieve, both in building your child’s confidence and improving their speed, accuracy and skill.
Continue to have your child finish at least one practice paper per week. Each time your child completes a practice or past paper (or any other task) ensure that you mark their work and review mistakes with them, helping them to understand their errors and practice correcting them with similar question types. This step is crucial, as it is the means through which knowledge gaps can be addressed. If you continue repeating this process each time your child completes a practice paper, both their skills and confidence should steadily increase.
Last Minute 11+ Revision techniques for Non-Verbal Reasoning
Weeks 1 and 2:
This part of the 11 Plus is often daunting for children as it will not normally be familiar to them. For this reason, even if time is limited, we recommend introducing them to Non-Verbal Reasoning questions gradually in the first couple weeks of preparation in order to build up their sense of this aspect of the assessment in a manageable way.
Week 3 (onward):
Once you’ve introduced them to the basics in the first couple of weeks, we recommend building up the quantity at this stage. At the very least, aim to have them complete one Non-Verbal Reasoning paper per week; however, you might wish to increase this number, as the more familiar and comfortable your child becomes with the questions, the better.
Last Minute 11+ techniques for Verbal Reasoning
Week 1 (and onward):
As with the English aspect of the 11 Plus test, we recommend using tasks designed to develop a broad vocabulary. You might find it helpful to give your child a small selection of new 11+ vocabulary to learn and practice using in everyday conversation.
Of course, we also recommend giving your child sample questions to practice in this area; fortunately, their English preparation will build skills that significantly overlap in this area and help them to approach Verbal Reasoning tasks with a sound set of language-based skills.
Tutoring, Courses and Online Mocks
If you are concerned about a particular area of your child’s skills base or you are unsure of how to address significant knowledge gaps in their last-minute 11 Plus revision, don’t fear- expert help is available in the form of tutoring and intensive online courses, designed to help students prepare for their 11+ in a short space of time.
This option can be a good choice as it allows an experienced, friendly and knowledgeable tutor to both assess your child’s learning strengths and challenges and address the latter in an organised, targeted way that uses time efficiently.
Lastly, even during last minute 11+ preparation, it can be a good idea to allow them to sit at least one online 11+ mock exam as their test date draws relatively close. This is not only another excellent chance to gauge their progress and areas for further last-minute improvement; it’s also an opportunity for your child to practice key exam techniques, such as time management and pacing.
