Useful Links to Independent School 11 Plus Sample Papers

11 plus, Helpful Guides, Private School Entrance Exams

Useful Links to Independent School 11 Plus Sample Papers

Apr 18, 2024

As part of your preparation for the 11 plus entrance exam assessment process for independent schools, it is important to get a good idea what form of exam papers your target school uses and the types of questions likely to be set. There is often an English exam, a maths exam and some sort of verbal reasoning and non-verbal reasoning test. Some schools, especially London schools, have come together to alleviate some of the stress for students applying to multiple schools, by setting one, joint assessment. An example of one such group is the London Consortium of Schools. Groups such as this often set an initial round of online assessments in a multiple-choice format, and if students succeed on this first round of tests, there is normally an interview stage which may include further, smaller tests for students. The process will vary from school to school, with individual schools having differing policies in place for stage two of any exam process.

On the other hand, many private schools still devise bespoke school entrance exams and quite often provide their own exam resources such as sample or familiarisation papers which you can access on their website. Occasionally, these come with detailed answers but not always. A candidate’s class teacher, home tutor or a specialist tutor can help guide students on what is expected as, for example, it is not always obvious what makes a really good creative writing answer. These practice papers usually give you a good idea what sort of tasks candidates might be expected to complete on the actual exam day. These can vary quite a lot and it is definitely worth reading carefully what is expected and going through any practice papers available for the target school, perhaps using these question papers as mock exams.

For example, in English assessments, quite a few schools give candidates a comprehension section followed by a short creative writing exercise. Other schools use a different exam format by combining the ‘reading and understanding’/comprehension with the writing task, asking candidates to ‘continue the story’. Maths papers vary too in terms of their level of difficulty, exam format and style of assessment paper. I have found there to be a degree of overlap in the question types in maths, but some of the more competitive schools include more challenging, thoughtful problems towards the end of their sample practice materials so it’s worth keeping an eye out for this sort of tailoring.

There are independent schools which choose not to provide any sample exam papers, and it is then a question of reading their exam brief carefully to determine what sort of assessment to expect. After doing this, look through 11 plus sample papers from other sources to try to find something similar to use for practice. There are plenty of examples to choose from below. I have always found that if a student is well versed in the types of questions expected in the entrance exam of one or two independent schools, then they are often well positioned to apply their skills to the entrance exam of another independent school. The more practice the better and, after all, this exam preparation process will not be wasted as many of the skills applicants acquire when doing comprehensive preparation will help them progress smoothly in their first year of secondary school.

Working through target school sample questions or ones which have similar content will help candidates understand what is expected of them in the exam. It is useful to then use 11 plus English papers and Maths papers from other sources to provide valuable additional experience. In the run up to the exam day, completing a few timed mock exams will fine tune a student’s time management skills as well.

Below, I have brought together links to 11 plus sample papers I have found useful when teaching, gathered from a selection of private schools.