Introduction

The real 11+ English tests assess English in line with the new National Curriculum
taught in schools up to the start of Year 6. The areas assessed typically include
aspects of reading comprehension, spelling, punctuation and grammar.

About The Familiarization Papers

The English Assessments are designed to familiarize your child with the
type of content in the real 11+ tests. The papers are presented in a similar way to
many of the test papers used for selection at 11+. They provide practice in answering different types of English questions used in real 11+ tests and practice recording answers on the separate answer sheet. The papers may not be exactly the same difficulty level as the real tests, as the difficulty level varies between schools.

Working Through

For the real 11+ tests, your child will need to: listen carefully to the instructions read
out by the invigilator; read the instructions on the front of the test paper and the
instructions at the top of each exercise; observe the messages at the bottom of the
test paper telling them to go on to the next page or stop; and check/fill in the details
at the top of the separate answer sheet.

Give your child the paper at an appropriate time, when they are both physically and
mentally alert. Choose a suitable area for them to work in, make sure they can
work comfortably and are free from any distractions.

Before your child takes a assessment, discuss with them the reasons they
are doing the assessment. Also, explain that they might find some of the questions difficult but that they should work as quickly and as carefully as they can. If they get stuck on a question, they should not waste too much time on it but move on to the next one. Encourage your child to work through each question independently. In the real 11+ tests, your child will work through each exercise without a break, however, for assessment purposes, you may wish to work through each exercise in separate
sessions with your child.

Your child should mark their answers on the separate answer sheet provided. The
real 11+ test will be marked by a computer, but it is important for your child to learn
how to use the answer sheet properly in preparation for the real test. They should
mark their answer in the appropriate box by drawing a clear line through it with a
pencil. Mistakes should be rubbed out carefully, not crossed out, since in the real test this would not be recorded correctly by the computer. You can ignore the boxes at the top of the answer sheet marked ‘Pupil Number’, ‘School Number’ and ‘Date of
Birth’. Your child will be required to fill in or check these details in the real test, but it
is not necessary for familiarisation purposes.

Note: For the spelling and punctuation exercises your child will be required to identify whether a question has either one error or no error. Where there is no error, option ‘N’ should be selected on the answer sheet.