Practice Papers
Exam Types
11 Plus entrance examinations can broadly be divided into three groups. GL Assessment and CEM are both large educational testing and research institutions, providing entrance examinations for multiple schools and groups of schools across the UK. There are also independent examinations set either by an individual school or a small group of local schools. On this page we will break down the common features of exams produced by these three groupings to help you and your child familiarise yourselves with what you need to do to secure a place at grammar school, and how we at 11 Plus Hero can help you achieve it.
GL 11 Plus Assessment - Granada Learning
GL or Granada Learning are the leading providers of 11 Plus entrance examinations in the UK. They have been providing admissions tests for over 35 years and operate worldwide in over 100 countries. Working with their partners including King’s College London and the University of York as well as school leaders they ensure that the tests and services they provide are in line with educational best practices.
GL- Entrance Examination Content
GL 11 Plus selective grammar school admission tests can be commissioned by schools in four different areas. These being assessments in English, Maths, Verbal Reasoning and Non Verbal Reasoning; all of which will be described below. Any one school or consortium of schools, may choose to commission papers for all four areas or just a few of their choice as they see fit. In fact many schools commission GL tests in several areas but write their own tests in others if they wish to select for a particular cohort of children to best match with the specialisms of their school. There is also a degree of geographical variation in the content of tests as local authorities who commission them can specify their own testing parameters. Despite this there are commonalities which we will explain here.
- Comprehension – Children will be asked to read a passage of text and answer questions on it. This will involve direct information retrieval as well understanding and interpreting the meaning of the text.
- Word Choice and Grammar – Children Will be asked questions to assess their understanding of the English language. Example tasks include choosing the correct word to fill a gap in a sentence from a choice of presented options.
- Capital Letters, Punctuation and Spelling – Children will be asked to spot spelling and punctuation mistakes in written text.
- Basic operations – Understanding when and how to apply the four basic operations + – X ÷
- Number handling – Knowledge of Times Tables. Capacity for Mental Arithmetic using whole number, fractions and basic algebra.
- Shapes, Measurements and Space – Elements of spatial awareness, understanding of angles, lengths, areas and volume of shapes and measurements.
- Reading and Interpreting Graphs – Data will be presented in a series of line graphs, bar charts or pie charts and children asked to extract and interpret information.
- Rules and Meaning of Language – Children will be asked to spot patterns in words such as similarities and differences in their meanings. This relies on children having a wide vocabulary.
- Processing Verbal Information – Children will be asked to apply logical thinking to solve word problems. These may involve use of the basic numerical operators (+, –, X, ÷).
- Language Manipulation – Children will be presented with problems involving the manipulation of letters and words. Example tasks include identifying and extracting hidden words in presented text following certain test-described rules.
- Spatial Awareness – Children will solve problems involving sequences of shapes where they must identify the next shape in a logical pattern. These questions will require children to mentally manipulate shapes in terms of rotation, reflection and symmetry.
- Identifying Rules and Patterns – Problems will also ask children to identify rules which group certain shapes in order to distinguish similarities or differences. This could involve identifying a shape which does not fit a group or solving a code which identifies the characteristics of a shape.
There is some minor variation in the format of GL 11 Plus Tests depending on the local authority who commissioned the test from GL. All English and Non Verbal Reasoning tests are in multiple choice format, and will be presented as a separate Question Booklet and Answer Sheet. Whilst most authorities also request multiple multiple choice Maths and Verbal Reasoning papers, some instead ask applicants to write their questions in an Test Booklet.
Schools will generally choose to group the four sections together to limit the number of individual papers children will sit. It is rare for children to sit more than two papers of any more than 1 hour on a single day. Most commonly Maths and Non-Verbal Reasoning are grouped together, as are English and Non-Verbal Reasoning.
CEM Assessment
The Centre for Evaluation and Monitoring (CEM) was the second largest provider of 11 Plus Entrance Examinations for selective admissions to Grammar Schools in the UK. As a part of the Cambridge University Press & Assessment organisation they provided examinations based on real education research data. Outside of entrance examinations they are the largest provider of educational assessments and have been operating for over 30 years in over 90 countries. As of 2023 they will no longer be providing 11 plus examinations meaning schools using their service have switched to another exam type, which is highlighted on each of our school pages.
Independent schools
There are a number of independent 11 plus exams across the country. These vary in their structure and assessment criteria. Many contain elements of maths and English which can sometimes stretch to GCSE levels of difficulty at the top end question types. Some schools have stand alone components such as creative writing pieces and other types of assessment. It is important you select the correct 11 plus practice papers for the schools you are applying for. Use our school search below to find out the relevant information and 11 plus mock tests
Independent tests vary in their structure and assessment criteria. Nearly all contain elements of maths and English for the most part set at the level of the Key Stage 2 Curriculum; but which can sometimes stretch to GCSE levels of difficulty at the top end question types. Many schools also write their own Verbal Reasoning and Non Verbal Reasoning papers.
Independent schools who choose to have an Extended Writing task often have this as an integrated part of their English tests. This differs from schools who use papers provided by GL and CEM which are all multiple choice examinations, in which case these schools have to write and mark their own written English tests.
Independent Selective Entrance Examinations differ far more than those written by the external bodies such as GL. Most are multiple choice but some do require children to write in theri answers. Tests tend to last between 40 to 60 minutes and if there are multiple tests, usually just two, then there will be a break in between. Due to this large variation we present the common topics that come up in Independent assessments, however it is important you select the correct 11 plus practice papers for the schools you are applying for.
Use our school search below to find out the relevant information about the specific schools you are interested in applying too.
Common Additional Elements
As well as the areas that GL multiple choice examinations assess often schools wish to know about a child’s capabilities in long form written English. Extended, creative writing assessments are not offered by any third party assessment centre due to the need for a professional to mark the examination rather than a machine which can read the answer sheet. As such many schools have an additional extended written English assessment which is both set and marked by the school itself.
These sections assess the quality of a child’s writing in line with Key Stage 2 targets. Mark schemes typically grade students on the organisation of their writing including sentence structure and use of paragraphs, punctuation, grammar, spelling, vocabulary alongside the use of creativity and imagination evident in their writing.
Exam Paper Subjects
- Understanding how and when to use numerical operators +, -, ✕, ÷
- Following BIDMAS and the correct order of mathematical operations
- Understanding of fractions, decimals, percentages, ratios, time and simple algebra
- Handling measurements such as areas, volumes, masses, angles
- Use of mean averages in data
- Following and manipulating sequences by understanding mathematical rules
- Understanding and extraction of information from graphs
- Comprehension – Children will be presented with passages of text followed by a series of questions requiring them to extract information, but also interpret the meaning of the piece.
- Spelling, punctuation and grammar – Children will be presented with a passage of text and asked to identify errors.
- Vocabulary – In various formats children must identify the meanings of words and be able to identify words with similar or opposite meanings and suggest which word from a list might satisfy a sentence with a space to fill.
- Creative or Extended Writing – Children will be given generally a simple one or two sentence prompt from which they must write an extended piece of writing. They should demonstrate their capacity for written English in terms of structure, vocabulary, grammar, spelling, punctuation alongside evidence of creativity and imagination.
- Understanding Written – Word problems will be presented and children must use their logic and reasoning to find solutions. This may involve basic numerical operators (+, –, X, ÷) but is primarily a logic test.
- Manipulating letters and words – Identifying patterns in letters and words to solve problems such as the extraction of hidden words within other words, following logical rules presented in the task.
- Word Choice – Identifying patterns in the meanings of words and understanding their associations. This may involve the identification of words with similar or different meanings and relies on a large vocabulary.
- Rules, patterns and codes – Sequences of shapes or symbols will be presented and the test will introduce a code that can be used to describe this sequence. Children will then be asked to use their understanding of rules of this code to describe other shapes or the meaning of presented symbols.
- Spatial Reasoning – Children will be required to identify trends, patterns or rules that link shapes and use this understanding to identify others which match this trend. This relies on the child being able to manipulate objects in their mind in terms of rotation, reflection and symmetry.