When Is The Best Age to Start 11 Plus Tuition?

If you give a typical 11 Plus comprehension test to a child in Year 3 or Year 4, they probably simply won’t understand much of the vocabulary - either in the main body of the text or in the questions. The length of the passage will be overwhelming, and even if they grasp the meanings of the words, they may well not understand the subtlety of the questions, which require the reader to dig more deeply - beyond the obvious. The result? A poor score, a panicked parent, and a child who feels they aren’t good enough, which is a dangerous belief to plant in such a young mind.

Does that mean you can’t prepare children for the 11 Plus English test at all before the second half of Year 4? Not at all! The best way to prepare a child early is simple: encourage them to read, read, read! Try to challenge them with both fiction and non-fiction books that are slightly beyond their reading age, but if they get hooked on an easier author, don’t worry - all reading is good reading! Fun books like Diary of a Wimpy Kid are fine for fostering a love of reading, but aim to introduce more challenging authors too, to stretch your child's vocabulary, and unconsciously instill in them an understanding of the correct use of grammar, punctuation and accurate spelling. Reading great literature satisfies so many of your child's learning needs, and best of all it's enjoyable, easy to fit into your hectic lives and cheap! What's not to love about it!  And if you want to take it a step further, try reading the books yourself as well, and discussing them with your child, starting them along the road of developing the comprehension skills they'll need for the 11 Plus test, but without any pressure. You might be amazed by how much you enjoy revisiting childhood classics, or discovering newer gems for the first time, and your child will really appreciate the interest you're taking!

When it comes to the 11 Plus Maths test, the issue is a slightly different one. The 11 Plus Maths test relies on a vast range of mathematical skills that children in Year 3 and early Year 4 simply won't have learned yet. Giving them 11 Plus-style questions at this stage is like handing them a book written in a secret code - and they simply won’t yet have the tools they need to decode it.

Maths skills build upon each other, layer by layer - you can’t teach a child to convert fractions to percentages if they don’t yet fully understand both fractions and percentages! The school curriculum will provide all the foundational knowledge they need - the extra challenge in the 11 Plus test comes from needing to apply these skills to multi-step word problems. At Club 11 Plus, we teach all all the maths skills that will be covered in Year 5, but we assume that our students will have already grasped the basics from Years 1 to 4. Exposing them to 11 Plus maths tests too soon risks making our children feel lost and inadequate.

 
But can you do anything to help them prepare for the 11 Plus Maths test before Year 5?

Absolutely, you can!

Core mental maths skills are crucial for the 11 Plus maths test, as good mental arithmetic is key to the speed your child will need to answer as many questions as possible in the limited time given. Helping your child to master their times tables - inside and out - backwards and forwards - will be one of the greatest gifts you can ever give them! Maybe test them casually in the car, or throw a few questions at them at mealtimes, or buy some times tables cards and use them to play timed tests - children love the challenge of beating the clock!

Speedy addition and subtraction of single and double-digit numbers is also essential. Make it fun - use dice or playing cards to create games, for example, lay down two playing cards, roll a die, and get your child to add the card values before multiplying by the die number. Small, fun activities like these can work wonders, giving your children firm foundations that will stay with them throughout their 11 Plus journey and way beyond - never underestimate the importance of basic mental maths skills!

The 11 Plus Verbal Reasoning curriculum is very wide-ranging. Some questions are word-based, and for these, there’s no better preparation than - you've guessed it - reading, reading, reading! Other questions involve cracking codes, which children absolutely need to practise before the test, but a year of practice is more than enough, as the question types are limited, and there's only so much practice a child can do!

Other Verbal Reasoning questions are number-based, where developing strong mental maths skills - as we've already mentioned above - is the best preparation. Once again, if you start tuition too soon, your child could easily become overwhelmed and lose confidence. We know we sound like a broken record, but in the run up to Year 5, the best way to help your children with Verbal Reasoning is to encourage them to devour as many books as possible, and to practise their mental maths until they're veritable number ninjas!  

The 11 Plus Non-Verbal Reasoning test is a little different from the other three tests. These questions assess pattern-based intelligence - skills not typically taught in schools. Some children who excel academically in all other areas might find themselves struggling a little with Non-Verbal Reasoning questions, whilst others who find traditional subjects quite challenging might perform exceptionally well, which can be a real joy for a traditionally less academic child to discover!

Practising Non-Verbal Reasoning questions definitely helps with speed and strategy, but unlike English and Maths, there isn't really any foundation knowledge required before getting started. Because of this, starting to practise these questions earlier than Year 4 isn’t necessarily a problem, but unless your child enjoys it, there’s little benefit. There are only six different Non-Verbal Reasoning question types, and while it really helps for children to have practised all of these question types regularly before their test, so they can learn to spot the best ways to tackle them, one year of practice really ought to be enough. 

We'd hate you to think from what we've said so far that we believe that 11 Plus preparation is in anyway overrated or unnecessary - far from it! Sadly, the bar has been raised so high that good preparation is essential in order for children to fulfil their potential and perform to the very best of their abilities. But we do believe that starting too soon can backfire, potentially discouraging children and overwhelming parents.

Our recommendation?

The concerted opinion of the boffins at Club 11 Plus is that parents should plan for their children to start some type of formal 11 Plus tuition around the second half of Year 4 or the beginning of Year 5.

If you choose to begin in Year 4 rather than Year 5, maybe allow your child to work on the areas they’re naturally more comfortable with first, gradually introducing more challenging topics later on. That approach may seem counterintuitive, but building confidence and enjoyment in learning is the best way to encourage progress in the long term.

Once in Year 5, structured study is crucial - in our opinion, at least a couple of hours a week. However, regular daily practice is by far the most effective approach. We reckon that twenty minutes a day, six days a week, is the gold standard. Think of it like learning a musical instrument - little and often always gives the best results.

In our humble opinion, that’s why Club 11 Plus is so perfect for the job. Our lessons and quizzes take about 10 minutes each, making them manageable yet highly effective, and there are hundreds to choose from, covering all the 11 Plus topics your child will need, guiding them through their 11 Plus journey, and hopefully teaching them not just how to pass the 11 Plus test, but also helping them to realise that learning can be  truly enjoyable. At Club 11 Plus, we firmly believe that getting the timing right is important, but that "little and often" is the real key to success!