Do you need a tutor for the 11+ exams?
Does my child need to prepare for passing the 11 plus?
Yes
Does my child need a tutor for the 11+?
Not necessarily
All 11+ exams are very tough and will test even the highest achieving kids. They’re also quite distinct from any other exams your child will have come across before. Therefore preparation is vital if your child wants to get in to a grammar school.
How can my child best prepare for passing the 11 plus exams?
Regular, low-intensity practice, starting plenty of months in advance of exam day, is the best way to prepare for the 11+ exam. If the preparation consists of cramming lots of information, all at once, just before the exam, your child is unlikely to actually take all of it in, and may well become very stressed. Therefore start early and go at a pace that suits them and ensures that they can actually understand and apply all of the skills that they’re learning.
Becoming familiar with unusual and complicated questions. When your child first encounters an 11+ style question (particularly Verbal and Non-Verbal Reasoning), they may well feel a little bit startled or overwhelmed due to the unfamiliarity of the styles of question that are asked.
Therefore, practising 11+ style questions before the big day is really important in order that they may become familiar and comfortable with all of the different types of questions that can come up, and can quickly be able to identify what they need to do to answer them, rather than being bogged down in nerves and apprehension.
Master the timing. It is important to get plenty of timed practice for the exam as this can often make a huge difference on your child’s final score. In fact, in some 11+ exams, such as those distributed by CEM, students are not expected to complete every question in the time provided, and as a result your child’s prospects of passing the 11 plus exam are as much affected by the amount of questions they can finish as they are about the proportion that they get right.
Therefore, find out what the timings are for the exam your child is preparing for and give them practice papers to attempt according to these timings. As they practise them regularly they will be able to find a rhythm.
Learn from their errors. It is important that your child gets feedback when they practise 11+ style questions, and that they know not only what they got wrong, but also are taught the correct way to do things. Otherwise they’ll just keep making the same errors and put a lot of work in without improving.
Identify and target weaker topics and question types. There’s little value in your child continuing to practise topics that they’re already acing while neglecting the ones they don’t do so well in. Instead, it is important that they (or someone around them) can identify the areas they need to improve on, so that they can focus on those, while still practising their stronger topics occasionally to keep them fresh.
So is tutoring the answer?
One of the most common ways to prepare is with the help of a private tutor. This table shows some of the pros and cons that you can consider when deciding if an eleven plus tutor is right for you.
Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Eleven plus tutors are experts on the 11+ exams. They know all of the topics and question types like the backs of their hands, so you can almost guarantee that your child will be getting high-quality and relevant help. | Tutoring is expensive. People tend to pay around £60 per hour for a good tutor, a cost which can start to add up over time. * |
| Tutors know how to teach 11+ age children effectively. They will have lots of experience working with primary school-age children so will therefore know how to explain difficult topics appropriately to kids of that age and ability level. | Tutoring is inconvenient. You have to work around their schedule, instead of giving your child preparation when it works best for you. You might also have to drive or get the bus to the other side of town. |
| They can customise exam preparation for each student. Experienced eleven plus tutors can identify improvement areas quickly, as well as how your child learns most effectively, and customise preparation for each student. | Tutoring can make children feel stressed. Primary school-age children are far too young to feel stressed, and anyway, this stress could become a hindrance during the exam itself – making the tutoring counter-productive. |
| They provide structure to the preparation and ensure that it is done regularly. As a parent, all you have to do is turn up. |
Alternatives to tutoring
Numerous online providers sell 11+ practice papers, books, worksheets, along with all the answers and explanations. Regular practice of 11+ style questions is the most effective way of preparing for the exam, therefore many people have found buying these to be a sufficient way of preparing, without being as overbearing and potentially stressful as more intensive tutoring.
Some people find that identifying what their child struggles with and explaining it themselves or using video explanations are sufficient because most of the content of 11+ exams are already on the KS2 syllabus. As a result your child should already have some level of familiarity with the topics that come up, but might just need a small helping hand on certain subjects, instead of full-scale tutoring.
11+ subscriptions provide regular (structured) high-quality 11+ practice papers and worksheets, along with answers (some include video explanations). These subscriptions provide many of the same benefits of tutoring, but are cheaper and can be done from the comfort of home and at a time that suits your schedule, rather than that of a busy eleven plus tutor (especially during exam season!).
Regular practice, spread out over a long period, is the best way ensure your child has a good chance of passing the 11 plus exam. What this regular practice looks like is up to you, and what you feel would be best for your child, whether that’s private tutoring, using an 11+ subscription, or just buying the odd practice paper and doing it whenever it suits you.
That decision may hinge on a number of things, such as financial constraints, or whether you feel you and your child are disciplined enough to keep to a regular schedule without the structure of regular tutoring. Equally you may choose to start off with just a few practice papers but find that your child is struggling and therefore would benefit from an eleven plus tutor’s help.