With the National Curriculum 11 Plus exams just around the corner, parents are starting to get anxious about the pressure their children will face on this day.An 11 plus mock exam can be taken at home to simulate an exam and provide children with a sense of what they will encounter come exam time.From our experience, we have found that this is a great way for children to prepare themselves mentally for the 11 Plus exams as well as provide parents with more information about their child’s progress and the development of their confidence.

Prior to the day of the 11 Plus mock exam

Setting a date about a week in advance can help when it comes to anxiety. Try finding a good routine during the week! Don’t overdo any revision, have your child stay relaxed, so that they can eat properly.Set up a really silent room for the 11 plus mock exam. Have your child use white-out or glue so that they can’t cheat. Make sure they get to the room on time and start as soon as possible without considering lunch or toilet breaks.

When your child sits for the 11 plus mock exam

We suggest that you make the 11 plus mock exam experience as similar to the real-world as possible. If your child needs to use the bathroom during a test, then don’t give any extra time; call out at half time and five minutes before exam ends.Children are often required to sit 2 or more papers. Make sure the 11 plus mock exam is as close to the actual test as possible.

When grading the answers

To overcome the stress of a mock exam, we at Pass 11 Grammar suggest that you should take things step-by-step and make sure you go through feedback sessions.You may want to talk with your child about their energy levels, and if they feel pressured about anything. This will help them adjust and will guide them through the day.Sometimes, a second 11 plus mock exam day is worth it—children often do much better the second time because they’re more comfortable with the process.From experience, we have found that lots of little mistakes can creep in when you’re tired – this is because the pressure of an upcoming 11 plus exam and how tired your brain is. These small mistakes can be what decides whether your child passes or not, so make sure to focus on them!

11 Plus Mock Exam Papers for Preparing Your Child

Schools sometimes publish past 11 plus exams to give students a chance to work on the real thing. However, be careful as these are often not full papers or they may come without some disciplines.When provided as a resource, we would recommend using school-assigned papers to get the most realistic feel. Be careful though that you do not become too reliant on them, as they are sometimes unavailable.There are also revision materials available for Non-CEM 11 Plus Exam Schools. Most packs contain four papers, but that may not be enough. It’s better to make sure you buy enough or just use some different ones of your own if you have any leftover from the weekly work.You may wish to take advantage of our Mock sessions. Please call us.

If you have a few weeks or months before the 11 plus exam, then it might be worth following these tips to help you get ready:

Work on the skills that are most crucial for your 11 plus exam

If you are aiming to do well in your 11 plus exam, We advise against cramming at the last minute is not a good 11 plus revision preparation tactic. This might come as a surprise but it’s been proven time and time again that working on core skills will get you much better results than practice papers.We suggest that children should read every day. We at Pass 11 Plus Grammar recommend having your child read classic books to help them develop their vocabulary. They should also do mental maths to improve accuracy in literacy and numeracy tests. However, this does not apply to every child, and some really need 11 plus revision preparation.Practice tests are important, but they shouldn’t be prioritized over basic skills development work that teaches children how to think critically. Kids who neglect this kind of activity will find it harder to stay ahead in their classes.

Identify problem areas

From experience, we have found that one of the best ways for students to improve is by learning about exam technique. Students should identify topics they know well and answer them without worrying about time.Once they have mastered these, we suggest going back and try others with the help of 11 plus revision techniques, starting with those they think they can do well on.We strongly recommend kids follow this process because we want them to answer questions, they know how to answer but may have hesitated to answer the next question on the test, which was about something they weren’t confident about.For many students, an 11 plus exam can be challenging- but tackling these exams in a smart way can produce success, even if certain knowledge is missing or had little time for 11 plus exam revision preparation.We at Pass 11 Grammar believe that the best thing to do is to spend time going over any questions or problems which were skipped/missed or wrong by your child. Doing this should allow you to identify their skills and gaps in knowledge, so that you can focus on developing those skills.

Work on both verbal and non-verbal reasoning

If your child is taking a Verbal Reasoning or Non-Verbal reasoning paper, then make sure to buy and read a book on how to answer these questions and do plenty of 11 plus revision preparation.Children who are Non-Verbal can make good progress in other subjects early on and they will get better at Verbal Reasoning too, but a lack of vocabulary will make it more difficult.Finding balance is especially important, which is why you don’t need to do everything in one day. Instead, focus on doing enough each day so you can still get through your 11 plus revision process.Don’t rely on working hard to solve your problems because it’s not enough; it won’t. We know of families who put their children through six or eight-hour workdays during the summer holidays and it really isn’t worth the stress.This kind of 11 plus revision is likely to cause stress and undue pressure, which will result in a decreased performance on exam day.

Other than the points above, here’s some other things to keep in mind

Your child may not get great marks in Math, but usually it’s due to getting a few mistakes rather than fundamental gaps in their knowledge. Try to test their ability by doing a math assessment and checking for times tables and basic operations skills.If your child’s score on the test is less than 48%, it may be worth reviewing again in a month or so. We can help with accuracy.

Other things you can do to prepare your child

Many clever kids, including those with high IQs, don’t have to study hard or undertake extensive 11 plus revision, and will still score impressive grades.Make sure that children are targeting their subjects and learning the structure of a good essay. Fill knowledge gaps so they can write better essays. This will help raise their scores.

Do not pressure or stress your child

We have discovered that some kids feel too much pressure when they do lots of preparation because it seems like the more you prepare, the worse you perform.Children who are just in the right amount of study not overworking themselves at 11-plus revision prep have a higher chance of success than those who’ve been hard at work.Adequately prepare your child for their 11 plus exam by teaching what they need to learn and making sure they know what to do. Make sure they feel confident and ready before entering the testing center.Many students will enter the exam room confident in their ability to answer questions, but it’s unlikely that they’ll be as relaxed as they would be if they were not feeling nervous.

Getting 11 plus revision preparation done, year after year, might seem difficult especially with all the other commitments some families have, but there are ways to pull off a last-minute preparation plan and still get good results.If you are thinking of starting your 11 plus revision at any point from May onward, we suggest that you start to start as soon as possible to avoid a last-minute preparation process. There is a lot going on, particularly in competitive subjects, and this will lead to little time for rigorous revision.Children can improve quickly in a short time so not all is lost, but any work a child does should be focused and should help them achieve their goals.

The consequences of not starting 11 plus revision early

Potentially there will be drawbacks when you start late, so it as well to be upfront about these.Limited vocabularyIf your child is not reading for at least 30 minutes every day for a prolonged period of time, it’s likely that they will not have as wide a vocabulary as others because of poor 11 plus preparation. From our experience, we have found that this can be troublesome, especially if there isn’t a chance to read more in the near future.Likely the biggest reason why some children pass the 11 Plus and others don’t, is because of their vocabulary skills.Poor math skillsIf your child hasn’t been putting much 11 plus preparation into Math, it could be that they are still struggling with their tables or solving operations. These gaps lead to them working more slowly and making more mistakes.The bigger issue with kids failing numeracy questions in the 11 plus exams is not a lack of knowledge, but instead, a lack of core skills e.g., being able to reliably read numbers, addition and subtraction.You can do plenty of practice exams, but if mistakes continue to happen, it may be because the student’s core skill level is not adequate. Children will not advance unless the weaknesses in their core skills are addressed. The best way to advance kickstart 11 plus revision and achieve success is by setting up a well-thought-out last-minute preparation plan.Poor verbal reasoning skillsThere are limits to what can be achieved in short periods of 11 plus preparation when it comes to verbal reasoning in specialist subjects that aren’t covered in Primary Schools. Nevertheless, considerable progress can still be made, so don’t give up on your exams because of the time limit. Have us help your child figure outWorking ahead in a short time is a big challengeIn many areas of numeracy and literacy children will be facing questions based on the whole of KS2 study, all the way to the end of year 6, and yet in many cases their schools will not have tackled these yet. In effect they need start to work ahead which can be a big issue for some with a short period of 11 Plus preparation time.There isn’t enough time for proper 11 plus revisionStarting 11 plus revision late is not easy. You have to know how to fine-tune your 11 plus preparation and work smarter and be aware of your time constraints. Part of the problem is that there’s not enough time to cover everything, so you need to figure out what’s most important and tailor your activities accordingly.

We at Pass 11 Plus Grammar have found that building your child’s 11 plus exam skills at an early stage is one of the most important tasks in preparation for an 11 plus exam.The verbal reasoning and comprehension exam can be challenging for a child, but if they’ve worked on expanding their vocabulary, they’ll have better confidence to tackle even the hardest of papers.A few of the ways to improve your vocabulary is by holding brainstorming sessions with friends, reading, and writing.

How to help your child improve their 11 plus vocabulary

Get them a notebookWe suggest getting your child a notebook that will last to record unfamiliar words and their meanings in it. Allow them to be curious about words they don’t know and find out what the word means or where it came from.A dictionary is an invaluable resource for this, but children can also cover the pages of their notebook with ones they can’t get enough of from all different genres. Encourage your child to look up these words and learn what they mean to build their 11 plus vocabulary knowledge base.Also buy a children’s dictionaryA children’s dictionary is a great resource to prepare for 11 plus exams. Younger kids might not understand words from an adult dictionary, since they can be difficult to understand and need more explanation.From experience, we have found that oxford Dictionary of English is great because it’s written in a way that kids can easily understand. This is what they need to encourage them to learn and master their 11 plus vocabulary.Encourage them to speak the words they are learningBy trying new words out in speech and writing, they’ll learn how to use them properly and even ace their 11 plus vocabulary session.Don’t over-simplify your languageYour child will learn more when you speak to them at their level and use words they are familiar with. They’ll develop more confidence when it comes to being able to express themselves in conversation and writing. We suggest not making this interaction too simple else your child will not master their 11 plus vocabulary.Hold reading sessions with your childImproving vocabulary skills doesn’t need to be done formally, like with comprehension and VR papers. You can provide your child a rich experience through reading with them. This will encourage their vocabulary and comprehension skills as well as creativity in writing.One of the best ways to improve your child’s vocabulary is to read together. Pick some books they like and try reading a chapter a few nights a week.Take things slow as you prepare your child for their 11 plus exam, and only read one or two chapters at a time. At that pace, you get to guide them through new language, writing styles, and vocabulary.Once you have read your chosen extract with your child, we think it best that you write down the words they didn’t know. Then teach them what those words mean and re-read the passage together.To build on comprehension skills read a story, ask them to summarise it, explain how they felt and express how characters in the excerpt were feeling.The latter is beneficial for children who find it difficult to communicate or understand why a character is behaving in a particular way. You could also point out how punctuation is used and explain grammar when needed.Review and give feedback on your children’s VR practice papersEnsure your child knows the meaning of all words on the page by taking time to go through VR tests and add any new words they struggle with to their word list. When testing them, make sure you pay attention to word pairs like synonyms and antonymes.Make sure they understood the other words in the question. Add these words to flash cards and revise these questions in a few months’ time.Encourage your child to learn words by using flashcardsFlash cards are a great way to learn new English words, build your vocabulary and learn how to use them. They also come with synonyms and antonyms that help you understand the meaning better and show you how they’re used in sentences.We suggest you ask your child to help out by making flashcards for you. They are a fun way to remember word meanings.You could paint or color the flashcards, and use them as a game. This would help with remembering things visually, while also having fun with the whole family. The 11 plus exam revision process can be very isolating, which is why this is a good way to get everyone involved.