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If like us you are in the process of trying to find support for the 11 plus we know how overwhelming this can be.

We’ve been there looking up ‘11 plus near me’ and ‘11 plus for parents verbal reasoning’ trying to make sense of it all.

The truth is this type of study is very difficult to prepare your child for on your own. Especially given how busy school life is already.

We moved to a grammar school area a year ago. We weren’t familiar with the grammar school, 11 Plus route, so we didn’t realise the amount of preparation needed to do this with less stress and to have a successful result.

So what’s our advice?

Should you be tutoring a year in advance? I know people starting this preparation in Year 3. I don’t think you need to go that far but we definitely would have started earlier if we’d known.

Most children start tutoring or some sort of formal 11 Plus studying a year in advance. This gives your child time to get to know a completely different way of learning.

What did we use for an 11 Plus Teacher?

We chose PIA Academy for a tutor or online classes each week. They start at £10 an hour which is very reasonable for this level of teaching. We also used Atom Learning’s platform for task practice. In hindsight there are enough resources on PIA Academy that we could have used this for everything.

121 Tutors

As mentioned we used tutors and online classes with PIA Academy. Atom Learning do now offer 121 tutors as well.

For PIA there are classes available for Year 4 or Year 5 prep and these are in all areas; Maths, English, VR and NVR.

To find out more click here:

Learn more

Online Learning Platform

If you would rather signup to Atom Learning they have a free trial on their site year round.

For PIA Academy we have a discount code for you to use. Please click this link to head to their site and use code: MAMMAPRADA25 to get 25% off.

Back to the actual type of study, what can you expect?

Word choice

The vocabulary they will learn is extensive and they will need to understand the meaning of these words so they can answer questions where they need to give their opposites as an answer.

This is more complex than just knowing a new word and even children who are quite articulate can struggle with identifying the opposite word to the one they are presented with.

Non-verbal reasoning

The non-verbal reasoning section which in some papers is called ‘Pictures’ is a series of different drawings or shapes. The aim is to check the ability of the child to understand and analyse visual information and solve problems using visual reasoning or their interpretation of the data.

For my son, this was the easiest part but I don’t learn in the same way as him and I found it the most difficult. So it’s very hard to know whether your child will sail through parts of the exam unless they are continuously exposed to the different elements. Having a year of getting used to interpreting data and knowing what is being asked of you is paramount.

Verbal reasoning

There is an impression that this is just ‘English’ but this doesn’t give a full account of what topics are involved. There are questions on sentence structure and grammar, familiar elements of English. However, it’s very unlikely that a child would pass this section if they haven’t studied for it specifically.

Much of the verbal reasoning modules are noticing how words change in their structure and what patterns you can spot. For example, if you took two letters from one word and created two more with the same letters, how could you create a fourth word with that two words and what would it be?

These take time to understand what is being asked. To start practising and seeing how you can create things yourself. Noticing when you have it very wrong and where you made a mistake. Getting used to doing them so you can work quickly. The exam is around 2 hours but you don’t have long to spare on each question.

It amazed me how well my child started to pick up on these patterns and alternative ways of thinking. However, it takes time to build this knowledge and the longer children have to get used to it the less overwhelming it will be.

As mentioned we used tutors and online classes with PIA Academy. Atom Learning do now offer 121 tutors as well.

Online at PIA Academy you will find:

Pre tests and practice papers for your child's exam
Papers for Pre 11+, 11+ and 13+ Papers.
English, Maths, Verbal Reasoning & Non-Verbal Reasoning classes from £10 per hour
11+ Daily Questions, where parents ask and PIA answer

On Atom children learn in the platform through modules on each topic. The teachings are based in ‘worlds’ with colourful graphics and fun elements to keep them interested.

They get little rewards when they complete a certain amount of topics.

Mock exams for each area of the country were very valuable. We needed the Bexley and Kent test and could access these. All the different area tests are available in the platform.

I hope that’s given you some information from a mother who has just lived through the process! Please add any questions below…

If you would rather signup to Atom Learning they have a free trial on their site year round.

For PIA Academy we have a discount code for you to use. Please click this link to head to their site and use code: MAMMAPRADA25 to get 25% off.

Get 25%OFF with code: MAMMAPRADA25