Guide topic
Preparation Plans
Practical, child-centred ways to organise 11+ preparation without relying on cramming.
- 10 guides
Start here
The guide that frames the rest of this topic.
When should a child start 11+ preparation? A year-by-year plan
A calm, practical guide to building foundations in Years 3 and 4, adding structured preparation in Year 5 and using timed practice proportionately.
- 5 min read
More in this topic
| Guide | Read | Published |
|---|---|---|
How to Pass the 11 Plus: Exam Technique and Timing StrategyMost 11+ advice tells parents to keep an eye on the time and never says what the time is. This guide turns published test timings into seconds-per-question budgets, checkpoint pacing, answer-sheet discipline and a structured wrong-answer review. | Read15 min | Published |
Building an 11 Plus Revision Timetable That Your Child Will Keep ToThree complete 11 plus revision timetables (12 months, 6 months and 6 weeks), counted backwards from the real test date rather than forwards from today. Free, ungated and built around spacing, interleaving and a recovery plan for the weeks you miss. | Read15 min | Published |
Starting 11 Plus Preparation in Year 4: What Actually MattersA Year 4 child is roughly 12 to 14 months from 11+ registration and about 18 months from the paper itself. Here is what that timeline means in practice, with checkpoints you can verify and a maximum weekly workload rather than a minimum. | Read16 min | Published |
How to Add Structure to Home Education Without Recreating SchoolThe law does not require a timetable, set hours or marked work, but it does reward evidence of progress. Here is a four-part system (goals, rhythm, review, evidence) that keeps home education defensible without turning your house into a classroom. | Read15 min | Published |
How to Choose an 11 Plus Learning PlatformA disclosed buyer guide written by a company that sells one: how to decode the word adaptive, test whether a progress report is real evidence, and run a seven-day trial that actually decides. | Read15 min | Published |
When Your Child Hates 11 Plus Practice: A Lower-Pressure ResetA step-by-step reset for parents whose child has stopped co-operating with 11 plus practice: how to tell ordinary resistance from real distress, a seven-day pause, the exact words to use, and how to decide whether to reduce, pause or stop. | Read16 min | Published |
Why Short 11 Plus Sessions Beat CrammingThe 11+ advice online tells you to practise for seven minutes, twenty minutes, forty-five minutes or two whole papers a day. Here is what the evidence really supports, and what it does not. | Read15 min | Published |
11 Plus Tutors, Apps and Self Study: Costs and How to ChooseVerified 2026 tutor and app prices, the free council and GL Assessment route almost nobody mentions, and three fully costed 12-month budgets so you can choose a route on evidence rather than anxiety. | Read15 min | Published |
How to Prepare for the 11 Plus: a Year by Year PlanStart with a fifteen minute diagnostic, not a reading list. This guide routes you to one of three plans, gives weekly time budgets in minutes from Year 3 to exam week, and tells you exactly what to cut when time runs short. | Read12 min | Published |
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