Learning Hub
Most 11+ advice is sorted by maths topic. That is not how the problem arrives. It arrives as a marked paper and a feeling that something keeps going wrong. So this is sorted the way you would describe it out loud.
11 plus exam dates, school by school
Taken from each school’s own admissions page, with the day we checked and the year of entry each one is for.
…keeps making silly mistakes
Marks lost on questions they can plainly do.
Careless mistakes in 11+ maths: why “slow down” doesn’t work · and 1 more
…isn't improving
Same score, paper after paper, however much they practise.
How many past papers should my child do for the 11 plus? · and 1 more
…forgets what they were taught
Knew it in class. Gone by the time it counts.
Is your 11 plus tuition working? How to know what stuck · and 1 more
…rushes, or runs out of time
Half the paper done brilliantly and the rest in a scramble.
Running out of time in 11 plus maths, and the child who isn’t actually slow
…misreads the question
The right maths, done to the wrong question.
The right maths, done to the wrong question: misreading in 11 plus maths
…panics, or has lost confidence
Knows it at home; freezes when it counts.
The 11 plus question your child did not even start
The same lens, one topic at a time: not how to do it, but where the marks actually go.
Getting the right answer and still losing the mark in 11 plus maths
A night shift starts at 21:50 and ends at 02:20. How many minutes long is it? A child who writes 4 hours 30 minutes has done every bit of the maths and still loses the mark. Change one word in the question and the same answer is right.
Ratio questions in the 11 plus: why the answer is almost never the number you divide by
Share £40 in the ratio 5 : 3. A child who divides by 5, or by 3, has done nothing careless. They have done the most reasonable thing in the question, and it costs the mark every time.
Percentage questions in the 11 plus: why 25% off and then 20% off is not 45% off
A coat is reduced by 25%, then by a further 20%. Most children say that is 45% off. It is not, and the same mistake quietly costs marks in fractions, money and ratio questions too.
Clock angle questions in the 11 plus: why twenty past twelve is not 120 degrees
What is the smaller angle between the hour hand and the minute hand at twenty past twelve? Most children answer 120 degrees. It is 110, and the ten degrees they lose explain something bigger about how angles are taught for the 11 plus.
When should you start preparing for the 11 plus?
The exam is sat about a week into Year 6, so Year 6 is not the preparation year, it is the exam. That one fact changes the answer for a Year 4 and a Year 5 in completely different directions.
The five most expensive fraction mistakes in the 11+
Fractions is where 11 plus papers earn their reputation, and where children who can do fractions still bleed marks. Five wrong turns, the thinking behind each, and the one question to ask at the kitchen table.
A night shift starts at 21:50 and ends at 02:20. How many minutes long is it? A child who writes 4 hours 30 minutes has done every bit of the maths and still loses the mark. Change one word in the question and the same answer is right.
10 October 20262 min read
Share £40 in the ratio 5 : 3. A child who divides by 5, or by 3, has done nothing careless. They have done the most reasonable thing in the question, and it costs the mark every time.
25 September 20264 min read
A coat is reduced by 25%, then by a further 20%. Most children say that is 45% off. It is not, and the same mistake quietly costs marks in fractions, money and ratio questions too.
22 September 20264 min read
What is the smaller angle between the hour hand and the minute hand at twenty past twelve? Most children answer 120 degrees. It is 110, and the ten degrees they lose explain something bigger about how angles are taught for the 11 plus.
20 September 20264 min read
A reasonable question with an awkward answer: the number is not the thing that decides it. Score 80% on a forty question paper and thirty-two of those questions told you something you already knew.
17 September 20264 min read
The exam is sat about a week into Year 6, so Year 6 is not the preparation year, it is the exam. That one fact changes the answer for a Year 4 and a Year 5 in completely different directions.
17 September 20265 min read
Two students sit the same lesson and keep different halves of it. Finding out which halves is not something an hour of tutoring can be spent on. Here is what it actually takes, and why it is not a reflection on the teaching.
14 September 20265 min read
A tutor teaches the topic. Nobody checks what each child actually kept from it, and there are four good reasons why they can't. Here is how to find out, and why it isn't a reflection on the tutor.
14 September 20265 min read
Two children lose the last five marks of an 11 plus paper. One is slow. One is fast and careless. The score cannot tell them apart, and the fix for each would make the other one worse.
14 September 20263 min read
A blank on a paper is read as “couldn’t do it”. Often it means something else entirely, and the two need opposite work. What a blank can tell you about 11 plus maths, and what it can’t.
14 September 20263 min read
A child works a question out perfectly and still loses the mark, because the question wanted something slightly different. It is not carelessness, it has a shape, and it hides from every kind of 11 plus practice organised by topic.
14 September 20264 min read
Your child forgets what they were taught, and you and the teacher both know it was taught properly. Here is how gaps in a child’s maths quietly form: the forgetting curve, the moment nobody thinks to check, and why the people closest to a child are the least likely to spot it.
4 August 20268 min read
Three different things get called careless in 11 plus maths, and they need opposite responses. Here is how to tell which one your child is doing, using a paper they have already sat.
3 August 202612 min read
Two children sit the same 11 plus paper and both score 62. One needs harder questions; the other needs a week on the basics. The number can’t tell them apart. The pattern underneath it can.
1 July 20265 min read
Fractions is where 11 plus papers earn their reputation, and where children who can do fractions still bleed marks. Five wrong turns, the thinking behind each, and the one question to ask at the kitchen table.
25 June 20265 min read
“Careless” describes everything and explains nothing. Most lost marks in 11 plus maths come from a handful of specific, repeatable wrong turns, and once a wrong turn has a name, you can practise against it.
12 June 20264 min read