Introduction
If your child is preparing for their 11+ exam, it’s quite likely that they will benefit from practicing skills assessed in the Verbal Reasoning component. This aspect of the 11Plus assesses pupils’ grasp of logic and language and can involve a mixture of literacy and numeracy questions. Unfortunately, 11+ Verbal Reasoning papers can be challenging to practice for in advance, in part because they can vary quite widely in format.
For instance, some exam boards, such as Granada Learning (GL), structure their Verbal Reasoning test in a very different manner to other prominent exam boards, such as the Centre for Evaluation and Monitoring (CEM).
As such, the best first step to helping your child prepare for this important aspect of their 11Plus exam is to find out in advance which exam board is setting the test. Once you’re equipped with this knowledge, you can help your child tailor their preparation accordingly.
To further help you prepare your child prepare for their Verbal Reasoning 11+ papers, we’ve created the following guide which contains everything you’ll need to get them ready for exam day.
- Introduction
- Developing a Broad Vocabulary for 11 Plus Verbal Reasoning
- Practicing Mental Arithmetic and Numeracy for the 11+ Verbal Reasoning Test
- Developing Memory and Recall for the 11+ Verbal Reasoning Test Papers
- 11+ Verbal Reasoning Practice Papers and Past Papers
- 11 Plus Verbal Reasoning Tutors
- FAQs
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Developing a Broad Vocabulary for 11 Plus Verbal Reasoning
When helping children to prepare for the 11plus exam, it’s easy to imagine that the most important thing is to rely as much as possible on using practice papers or past papers. While we thoroughly recommend using these resources, it’s important to recognise that the best form of preparation will also involve an array of materials to help your child build a confident and wide-ranging vocabulary for both English-based and numeracy-based Verbal Reasoning questions.
Vocabulary-building can involve specially-tailored tasks which help children focus on spelling tests, word games, and knowledge of word-building (for instance, learning formal concepts like antonyms, synonyms, compound words, homophones, homonyms, word groups and prefixes/suffixes). You can also make use of manageable daily questions tasks, to help foster a “little and often” approach.
Alongside these types of activities, you should also prioritise giving your child more “organic” opportunities to widen and practice vocabulary. For example, encourage them to develop a daily reading habit with appropriately challenging books or pieces of writing at National Curriculum KS2 level. This will allow children to encounter unfamiliar vocabulary, and it will also allow them to practice the important skill of gauging meaning of words from their context.
Similarly, engaging your child in stimulating conversation or creative writing tasks is a great way to give them opportunities to use and consolidate new words.
Practicing Mental Arithmetic and Numeracy for the 11+ Verbal Reasoning Test
Broadly speaking, mental arithmetic and numeracy-based questions are particularly associated with the GL 11 Plus test- though regardless of the exam board, it will be beneficial to help your child practice these skills ahead of their 11+ exam.
Assuming your child is generally versed in Key Stage 2 National Curriculum for Maths, they should find these types of questions fairly familiar. We recommend making time for your child to use Skillswise revision materials in these areas regardless of their confidence level, as speed and skill with arithmetic on exam day can mean that they will have more time to dedicate to more challenging questions elsewhere.
When your child is preparing for the numeracy elements of the Verbal Reasoning 11 Plus test, we strongly recommend reviewing their times tables- aim to help them reach a stage where they can verbally recall times tables reliably without pen, paper or calculators.
Similarly, help your child to brush up on their ability with division, ensuring they are confident in using a written method for this. If your child is less confident in addition and subtraction sums, make sure you take the time to go over these methods too. The more practice of basic calculations, the better!
Developing Memory and Recall for the 11+ Verbal Reasoning Test Papers
Sometimes people talk about a good memory as if it’s something that you either have, or you don’t. However, psychological and educational research proves that this is simply not correct. In fact, memory works a lot like muscle- we all have it, and the more we use it, the stronger it gets. This is a great rule to remember when helping your child prepare for the 11 Plus Verbal Reasoning papers.
Memory games are one excellent way of developing memorisation. For example, you can take it in turns with your child to pick an animal or an object to describe, going through the alphabet building a list of adjectives which you both take in turns to list, adding a new word each turn. By the end of this game, your child should be able to recall 26 adjectives in a row. Similarly, check out the possibilities for game activities involving times tables.
Spelling mnemonics are another great way of building memory and these can be very useful in 11+ Verbal Reasoning papers. If your child frequently misspells a common word, teach them how to make a memorable sentence where each word begins with the letters of the tricky word (e.g. “BECAUSE”: Big Elephants Can Always Use Small Elevators).
11+ Verbal Reasoning Practice Papers and Past Papers
In this guide, we’ve gone over some of the top general skills and areas you should focus on when preparing your child for the 11+ Verbal Reasoning test. 11+ Verbal Reasoning Papers could have questions from following topics:
Word Meanings | Opposite meaning Similar meaning Word connections Closest meaning Two odd ones out Reading information |
Making Words | Insert a letter Hidden word Missing word Move a letter Compound words Make a word |
Maths | Letters for numbers Number series Complete the sum Related numbers |
Codes | Letter series Letter connections Word letter codes Word number codes |
While a focus on these holistic areas is incredibly important on its own, we strongly recommend that you combine this with specially tailored 11+ Verbal Reasoning practice papers which will help you and your child to understand the specific kinds of questions they might encounter in their 11 Plus Verbal Reasoning paper.
11+ Verbal Reasoning Sample Questions:
Subscribe to 11+ Verbal Reasoning Practice Papers to practice more such questions.
We also recommend using both 11+ English past papers and 11+ Maths past papers to build your child’s requisite skills in Verbal Reasoning.
Lastly, if you’re also concerned about the 11 Plus Non-Verbal Reasoning test, we recommend making time to solve NVR practice papers designed to help your child build their skills in that area.
11 Plus Verbal Reasoning Tutors
It’s entirely understandable to feel at sea when it comes to the ins and outs of the 11Plus. So remember, if you feel under-equipped to help your child prepare for their Verbal Reasoning test, help is available in the form of specialist tutoring.
Hiring an 11+ tutor can be an excellent way to ensure your child receives all the targeted support necessary to become confident and capable ahead of their test date.