Frequently asked questions

The total length varies by provider and region, but most sittings run between 45 minutes and 2.5 hours across all papers.

GL Assessment typically uses four separate papers — Maths, English, Verbal Reasoning, and Non-Verbal Reasoning — each lasting 45–50 minutes. Some schools run all four in a single morning; others spread them over two sittings.

FSCE formats are school-specific and may include English, Maths and Creative Writing, with some schools drawing on wider Key Stage 2 subjects.

CEM stopped supplying paper-based 11+ exams in 2023. It still exists as an online-only assessment provider, but old CEM paper-format timings should be treated as historical unless your target school specifically says otherwise.

The pace in selective-school tests is deliberately fast — children are expected to work quickly and accurately, which is why timed practice is a key part of preparation.

It depends on the provider, school and admissions year. GL Assessment papers typically use predictable question types across subject sections. FSCE formats vary by school and may include multiple-choice, short-answer and creative-writing tasks. Old CEM paper-format question-count guides are now historical because CEM stopped supplying paper-based 11+ exams in 2023.

The question count matters less than the time pressure: children need to work at roughly one question every 30–45 seconds across most papers. Regular timed practice helps build the speed and accuracy the exam requires.

GL Assessment is now the dominant 11+ provider for grammar schools. It uses consistent, recognisable question formats across subjects such as Maths, English, Verbal Reasoning and Non-Verbal Reasoning.

CEM stopped supplying paper-based 11+ exams in 2023, and most former CEM grammar-school regions have moved to GL Assessment. CEM still exists, but mainly as an online-only assessment provider.

FSCE is a newer not-for-profit exam format used by a growing number of grammar schools and consortia. It is structurally different from GL/CEM, with more emphasis on English, Maths, Creative Writing and wider Key Stage 2 curriculum knowledge. See our FSCE parent guide for the current picture.

Strong foundation skills — vocabulary, arithmetic fluency, reading comprehension and reasoning — remain useful across all formats. Format-specific preparation matters most once you know your target school.

As a general guide: GL Assessment is widely used by grammar schools and has replaced CEM in most former CEM regions. FSCE is used by a smaller but growing set of schools and consortia, including the Gloucestershire grammar-school switch announced for September 2028 entry. CEM is now mainly online-only rather than a paper-based grammar-school 11+ provider.

Regions do change providers, and individual schools sometimes use their own format. Always verify directly with your target school's admissions page or your local grammar school consortium — don't rely on guides that may be out of date. For a current overview, see which grammar schools use FSCE.

11+ results are typically published in October, around four to six weeks after the exam. The exact date varies by region — your local grammar school admissions authority will announce the specific date in advance.

Some areas post results by letter; others publish them online or notify parents by email. Once you have your result, the national secondary school application deadline (usually in October or November) is the next key date.

Registration for the 11+ is a separate process from your secondary school application. You register directly with the grammar school or local authority consortium — not through the national application system.

Registration typically opens in spring of Year 5 (April to June for children sitting in September/October of Year 6). Deadlines are strict and early — check your target school's admissions page at the start of Year 5 so you don't miss the window.

Your secondary school application (via your local council) is a separate step, usually due in October of Year 6 — after the exam but before results are published.

11Plus Tips is an adaptive revision platform for children preparing for the 11+ exam, covering Years 3 through 6. It tracks what each child knows and doesn't know across all four 11+ subjects — Maths, Verbal Reasoning, Non-Verbal Reasoning, and English — and adjusts the difficulty of questions automatically as they improve.

It's not a replacement for a tutor. It's the tool that works alongside one — giving parents and tutors an accurate, up-to-date picture of where a child stands, so tutor sessions can be focused on actual teaching rather than diagnostic work.

Not at all — in fact, Year 3 is one of the best times to start. The goal at this stage isn't exam preparation, it's building the habits and foundations that make later preparation so much more effective.

Year 3 sessions are just 7 minutes a day, focused on vocabulary, number sense, and pattern recognition. There's no pressure, no past papers, and no exam framing. The child is simply building useful skills at a level that suits them — quietly, consistently, and without stress.

Children who start in Year 3 typically arrive at Year 5 feeling familiar and confident, rather than overwhelmed and rushed.

Not too late, but the focus will be different. For Year 6 students, the platform is most valuable as a diagnostic and mock exam tool — quickly identifying which topics need attention and providing regular exam-condition practice before the real thing.

Automated diagnostics run every two weeks and full mock exams every eight weeks, so a Year 6 student starting now will receive meaningful assessment data before their exam date. The platform also covers creative writing, which is a mark-heavy component that many Year 6 students underestimate.

Sessions are deliberately short — built around what children can sustain with genuine focus, not reluctant compliance. Default session lengths are:

Year 3: 7 minutes per day
Year 4: 15 minutes per day
Year 5 and above: 30 minutes per day

These defaults are adjustable by parents. The goal is consistent daily practice — even 7 minutes a day over a school year adds up to more than 20 hours of focused preparation.

Visit 11plustips.co.uk/register and create an account as a parent. You'll set up a profile for your child, choose their year group, and be ready to start within a few minutes. Start with a 7-day free trial; after that, subscription is £20 per month via Stripe — no minimum term, cancel any time from your account settings.

The question bank contains over 5,000 questions across four subjects and 26 topics — and it's growing:

Mathematics — arithmetic, number sequences, fractions, and word problems
Verbal Reasoning — 15 topic types including synonyms, antonyms, letter sequences, code words, compound words, hidden words, odd one out, and verbal analogies
Non-Verbal Reasoning — sequences, analogies, and odd-one-out (all rendered as dynamic visual diagrams)
English — comprehension, grammar, spelling, and sentence dictation

Practice supports GL Assessment-style preparation, legacy CEM-style skills, and FSCE-aware curriculum focus.

Every student has a mastery level per topic, rated from 1 (Beginner) to 5 (Mastered). The platform serves questions according to a fixed ratio: 70% at the student's current level, 20% slightly harder, and 10% slightly easier. As accuracy improves, the mastery level increases and the question difficulty adjusts automatically.

This means students are never bored by questions that are too easy, and never demoralised by questions that are too hard. The platform always keeps them working at the edge of their current ability — which is where learning happens fastest.

A diagnostic assessment runs automatically every two weeks. This gives a current snapshot of mastery across all topics and feeds into the weekly progress report. It requires no input from the parent or tutor to set up — it simply happens on schedule.

A full mock exam runs automatically every eight weeks. This is a more comprehensive test under realistic conditions, designed to simulate the actual 11+ exam experience. Results are reported to parents and tutors in the same weekly email format.

Tutors can adjust or pause both the diagnostic and mock exam schedules for any linked student from their dashboard.

Every Friday, parents and any linked tutors receive a progress summary covering:

Minutes studied that week · Target met or missed · Accuracy scores by subject · Topics where mastery has improved · Topics flagged as needing attention · Any diagnostic or mock exam results from the week

The email is designed to be actionable — a tutor can plan an entire session from it, and a parent can have a meaningful conversation with their child about what's going well and what to focus on.

Each week, parents and their child choose a reward together — anything from a family film night to a trip somewhere they enjoy. The reward is entered as free text in the parent dashboard and appears on the student's dashboard as a visible goal alongside their study-minutes progress for the week.

When the child hits their study target, they've earned it. It's not a bribe — it's a way of making the effort feel connected to something real, and of keeping the whole family involved in a process that can otherwise feel isolating for everyone.

Students choose from ten exam-standard story prompts and write their response directly in the platform. Two things happen simultaneously.

As they type, the AI examiner checks the writing live against a five-point rubric: paragraph structure, a strong opening hook, use of literary devices (similes, metaphors, personification), varied punctuation, and emotional intelligence — conveying how characters think and feel. Students see real-time indicators for each criterion updating as they write.

When they're ready to submit, they receive a full marked score out of 40 — matching the real 11+ marking scale — plus written examiner-style feedback, a list of specific strengths, and targeted improvements for next time. Every submission is saved to their history.

Department for Education national statistics consistently show a 12-percentage-point gender gap in KS2 writing teacher assessments — the largest subject gap at primary level. This gap is not about ability or creativity, it's primarily about practice volume and engagement.

Many boys have rich ideas verbally but find it difficult to transfer them to writing. They receive less feedback on written work in a genuinely low-stakes environment, and formal classroom writing can feel disconnected from things they care about.

The creative writing simulator gives boys a safe, pressure-free space to practise — with instant, specific feedback that makes each attempt more productive than the last. It's the closest thing to having a writing tutor available any time of day, without the cost.

All ten prompts mirror the imaginative stimulus used in real 11+ English papers — unexpected events, mysterious discoveries, and emotional turning points:

The Storm · The Old House · The Letter · The Last Tree · The Visitor · Lost at Sea · The Secret Door · The Competition · Night Sky · The Gift

Each prompt is designed to give the student enough direction to get started without constraining their imagination.

It's designed to work alongside your tutor, not against them. When you link your tutor to your child's account, they see exactly what the platform has covered, which topics need attention, and what the automated diagnostics have flagged. Most tutors find it genuinely changes their sessions — they arrive knowing what to teach rather than spending time finding out.

Your tutor can also assign specific topics through the platform ahead of each session, and adjust the diagnostic and mock exam schedules if they prefer to align these with their own programme.

Tutors register for a free account at 11plustips.co.uk. Once registered, they receive a unique tutor code. The parent enters this code in their dashboard — and the accounts are linked. From that point, the tutor has access to the student's progress dashboard and receives the same weekly progress email as the parent.

There's no paperwork, no invoice, and no platform charge to the tutor — ever.

Tutors can view real-time progress data for all linked students, assign specific topics for students to complete between sessions, and adjust or pause the automated diagnostic and mock exam schedules for any individual student. They receive the same weekly progress email as the parent every Friday.

Tutors cannot access billing information or account settings — those remain with the parent.

Very much so. Without data, parent-led tutoring sessions tend to default to whichever subjects feel most urgent or most familiar to the parent — often not the ones the child most needs. The weekly progress email and live dashboard give parent-tutors the same objective picture that a professional tutor gets, and allow them to target each session just as effectively.

The platform also handles the assessment and marking that would otherwise fall to the parent — freeing up sessions for actual teaching, explanation, and encouragement.

Start with a 7-day free trial, then £20 per month billed via Stripe. One plan, everything included — there are no tiers, no add-ons, and no features gated behind a higher price.

Tutor accounts are always free. There is no charge to link a tutor to your child's account.

Yes — from your account settings, in under a minute, at any time. There are no calls to make, no forms to fill in, no retention attempts. The cancellation process is intentionally straightforward because we believe you should stay because the platform is working for your family, not because leaving is difficult.

No minimum term and no notice period. Your Stripe subscription starts after the 7-day free trial, then you are billed monthly and can cancel before the next billing date with no charge. If you cancel mid-month, your access continues until the end of the period you've paid for.

Please contact us at [email protected] to discuss multiple-child arrangements. We're working on making this simpler in the platform — in the meantime, we're happy to help directly.