11+ Maths Exam Preparation: A Parent's Guide to the Year 6 Entrance Exam

11+ maths exam preparation works best when it targets the two things the exam actually rewards — fast, accurate calculation and the ability to solve an unfamiliar worded problem under time pressure — rather than drilling endless mixed worksheets. Start early, work in short and regular sessions rather than long crammed ones, and match your practice to the exam format your target schools actually use, because an 11+ maths paper is not the same as a school maths lesson. If you bring in a tutor, choose one whose credibility you can check, not one whose experience you have to take on trust. This guide explains what the 11+ maths exam tests, how each part is prepared for, the timeline to work back from, and how to find a tutor you can rely on.

What the 11+ maths exam actually tests

The 11+ is a selective entrance exam for grammar schools, and it is used by many independent schools too. Unlike the Key Stage 2 SATs, it is not part of the national curriculum and it is not designed to confirm that a child has reached an expected standard. It is designed to separate a large group of able children into those who are offered a place and those who are not. That single fact changes how you prepare: the paper is competitive, it is timed tightly, and it often stretches a little beyond what a Year 5 or Year 6 child has been taught in class.

The maths content itself is largely familiar — the four operations, fractions, decimals, percentages, ratio, basic algebra, shape, measures and data. What makes it hard is the combination of three things at once: the pace, the wording, and the occasional question that asks a child to apply a method they have met to a situation they have not. A child who is comfortable with Year 6 maths in a relaxed classroom can still find the 11+ maths paper a shock, because the exam rewards speed and problem-solving over careful, unhurried working.

Timing is the detail parents most often get wrong. The 11+ is usually sat at the very start of Year 6 — commonly in September — which means the real preparation happens in Year 5 and over the summer before. This is the opposite of the SATs, which are sat in May of Year 6. If you wait until Year 6 has begun, the exam is already on top of you. Working backwards from an autumn exam date is the single most useful planning habit a parent can adopt.

The format matters more than parents expect

Here is the part that separates good 11+ maths preparation from generic maths practice: the format is not standard across the country, and preparing for the wrong one wastes months. Most grammar schools use a standardised test provider — GL Assessment is the most widely used — while many independent schools set their own maths paper or use the ISEB pre-tests. The consequences for how you prepare are real.

A GL-style maths paper is often multiple-choice, with an answer sheet a child marks separately from the question booklet. That format brings its own skills: reading the options, eliminating wrong answers, transferring answers accurately to a separate grid, and never leaving a blank because there is usually no penalty for a wrong guess. A child who has only ever written answers straight onto a question can lose easy marks simply because the mechanics of the answer sheet are unfamiliar on the day.

A school-set paper, by contrast, is more likely to be standard format, where a child shows working and earns method marks. That rewards a different habit — laying out working clearly, so that a partly-correct answer still scores. Some regions and consortia also set their own combined papers, and some use a two-stage process where an initial test is followed by a second round. The practical rule is simple: find out precisely which format each of your target schools uses before you buy a single practice pack, and prepare for that format specifically. The maths underneath is similar; the exam skills on top are not.

Speed and accuracy come first

The single highest-value thing most children can do to prepare is get faster and more accurate at the number facts underneath everything else. In a timed 11+ paper, every second a child spends working out six times seven is a second not spent reading and solving the actual problem. Times-table recall, number bonds, quick doubling and halving, and confident mental methods for the four operations are what free up the thinking time the harder questions demand.

Fluency is built by short, frequent practice, not by occasional long sessions. Ten focused minutes a day on the specific facts a child hesitates on does more than an hour once a week. This is also where a parent can genuinely help without being a maths specialist: quick-fire questions over breakfast or in the car, aimed at the two or three tables or bonds a child keeps getting wrong. Find the exact gap first with a fast diagnostic across all the tables, then drill only the weak ones rather than the whole set. Accuracy matters as much as speed here — an 11+ paper punishes careless slips, so the goal is a child who is both quick and reliable, not merely quick.

Problem-solving is a separate skill you have to teach

The questions that decide the 11+ maths result are rarely bare sums. They are worded problems that ask a child to do several things in order: read the question and work out what is actually being asked, choose the right method, carry out the calculation, and check the answer makes sense. Many able children can do the maths but lose marks because they misread the question, miss a step in a multi-part problem, or panic when a question looks unfamiliar.

You teach this with real practice questions worked slowly, not at exam pace to begin with. Sit with a child and ask them to say out loud what a question is asking before they pick up a pencil. Get them into the habit of underlining the numbers and the key command words. For multi-step questions, teach them to break the problem into parts and to write down each stage, so a slip in step three does not wipe out the whole answer. Crucially, teach a child what to do when they meet a question they have never seen before — read it twice, identify what maths it is really testing, and have a go rather than freeze. That composure under an unfamiliar question is often what separates the children who pass from the equally-able children who do not. Only once the method is secure do you add the clock and build up to full timed papers.

How to check a tutor is actually credible

If you bring in a tutor, the hard part is not finding one — it is knowing whether the confident profile in front of you is real. Anyone can write "grammar-school specialist, ten years' experience, DBS checked" in a bio. On most listings you are trusting the claim, and the checking is left entirely to you.

This is the problem Tutorwise is built to solve. On Tutorwise a tutor's credibility is not a self-written sentence; it is a computed score built from signals the platform verifies directly. An enhanced DBS check and a verified identity sit inside that score, alongside confirmed qualifications, the outcomes a tutor has actually delivered, and reviews from real families. The platform will not even produce a score until a tutor has cleared identity verification or completed onboarding, so an unverified profile cannot quietly sit in your shortlist looking as credible as a checked one. Because those checks are built into the score rather than left as claims, the tutors you compare have already cleared a safeguarding and credibility baseline before you ever message one. You are not reading a bio and hoping; you are looking at an earned, checkable score — the difference between a directory that lists whoever signs up and a marketplace that stands behind who it shows you.

For the 11+ specifically, that verification is worth more than a headline hourly rate. A grammar-school place is competitive and the preparation runs over many months, so the tutor you choose is a long commitment with a lot riding on it. A verified score lets you filter to tutors who have genuinely prepared children for the format your target schools use, and who have cleared the safeguarding checks, so the shortlist you start from is already trustworthy. That is the proprietary part: the credibility is computed and stands behind the platform, not asserted by the tutor and left for you to verify.

A realistic timeline to work back from

Here is what steady 11+ maths preparation tends to look like when it is planned around an autumn exam, rather than crammed.

Through Year 5, the focus is quietly building fluency and filling curriculum gaps, with no exam pressure attached. A child who ends Year 5 genuinely fluent in the four operations, fractions and times tables has the foundation the exam sits on. This is also the year to find out exactly which schools you are aiming at and which format each one uses.

Over the summer before Year 6, shift towards exam-style problem-solving. Introduce worded, multi-step questions in the correct format for your target schools, worked slowly with the child talking through what each question asks. Keep the arithmetic ticking over so it does not slip. This is often where a tutor adds the most, because unpicking a child's specific errors and teaching composure on unfamiliar questions is exactly what a good one-to-one session does.

In the final weeks before the September exam, move to full timed papers in the real format, so the child gets used to the pace, the answer sheet and the pressure. The purpose here is not to teach anything new; it is to remove the surprise, so the paper feels familiar on the day. A child who has worked calmly through several real papers under time walks in steadier — and in a tightly-timed exam, calm is worth marks.

Online or in person, one-to-one or group

Both online and in-person tuition work well for 11+ maths. Online widens your choice of tutors far beyond your local area and uses shared whiteboards most children adapt to quickly, which matters for the 11+ because a specialist who really knows your target school's format may not live nearby. In-person can suit a younger or more easily distracted child who focuses better sitting beside a tutor. It comes down to your child's attention and how they respond to a screen.

One-to-one is the stronger choice when a child has a specific gap or has lost confidence, because the session can slow down to exactly what they need. Small-group 11+ classes suit a confident child who benefits from a bit of pace and the sense of a cohort, and they usually cost less per child. Match the format to the child in front of you rather than assuming one is always better. Whichever you choose, the credibility check comes first — the format is a preference, but a verified, safe tutor is not optional when the student is a primary-age child.

What good preparation is not

It is worth naming the traps, because the 11+ has more of them than most exams. Endless practice papers with no diagnosis behind them mostly reinforce what a child can already do while leaving the real weakness untouched. Preparing for the wrong format — buying generic packs when your schools set their own paper — wastes months. Cramming in the final fortnight raises stress and rarely fixes a genuine gap. And letting the exam become a verdict on a child is the deepest trap of all: the 11+ is a single test on a single morning, not a measure of how clever or capable a child is, and children who feel that weight often perform worse than they should. Good preparation is early, targeted, matched to the real format, and honest with a child about what the exam is and is not.

If you want the wider picture before you commit, our guides to 11+ maths tuition and finding an 11+ maths tutor go into the practical detail, and 11+ maths online tutor covers how good online preparation works. Since most 11+ processes test more than maths, 11+ verbal reasoning tuition is worth reading alongside this early in your planning.

Frequently asked questions

When should we start preparing for the 11+ maths exam? Most families begin in earnest in Year 5, because the exam is usually sat at the very start of Year 6 — often in September. That means the useful preparation happens across Year 5 and the summer before. If a child has a real gap, earlier is better, but short and regular practice over many months beats a heavy push in the final weeks.

Is the 11+ maths paper harder than the maths my child does at school? The content is largely the same Year 5 and Year 6 maths, but the exam is harder in three ways: it is timed tightly, the questions are more heavily worded and multi-step, and it sometimes asks a child to apply a method to an unfamiliar situation. A child comfortable in class can still find the paper a step up, which is why format-specific practice matters.

How do I know which format to prepare for? Find out exactly which schools you are targeting and which test each one uses before you buy any practice material. Many grammar schools use a standardised provider such as GL Assessment, often multiple-choice with a separate answer sheet, while many independent schools set their own paper or use the ISEB pre-tests. Preparing for the wrong format is one of the most common and costly mistakes.

How do I know an 11+ maths tutor is safe and genuinely qualified? Insist on an enhanced DBS check and verified identity before any session. On Tutorwise these are built into the tutor's computed credibility score rather than left as a claim you have to check yourself, so the tutors you compare have already cleared the safeguarding baseline — and their experience preparing children for your exam format is verified alongside it — before you message them.

What if my child does not pass? Treat the 11+ as one test on one morning, not a verdict on your child. Plenty of able children do not get a grammar place, and it says nothing about how well they will do at a good comprehensive or independent school. Keeping that perspective, and passing it on to your child, tends to help them perform better on the day rather than worse.

Prepared well, the 11+ maths exam does not need to dominate a family's year. Build the arithmetic fluency first, teach problem-solving as its own skill, prepare for the format your schools actually use, and — if you bring in help — start from a tutor whose credibility you can check rather than one you have to take on faith. On Tutorwise, browse verified 11+ maths tutors whose credibility is computed and checked before you ever get in touch.