Year 5 11+ Preparation: Your First 90-Day Plan

Starting Year 5 can make the 11+ feel suddenly very real.

You may find yourself asking whether you have started early enough, whether your child should already be doing practice papers, or simply how much work is reasonable to expect.

These are completely natural questions, and the reassuring answer is that successful Year 5 11+ preparation is not about doing as much as possible, as quickly as possible. It is about doing the right things in the right order.

By Christmas, your child does not need to have mastered the 11+. They simply need to be moving forward with clearer priorities, stronger foundations and a preparation routine that feels manageable.

Short on Time? Here Is the 90-Day Plan

If you only take one thing from this guide, make it this:

• Days 1–30: Diagnose. Understand the exam your child will sit and identify where they are already secure and where they need support.
• Days 31–60: Build. Strengthen the specific English, maths, vocabulary or reasoning skills that are limiting progress.
• Days 61–90: Strengthen. Begin combining skills, building independence and introducing timed work where your child is ready.

You do not need to fill every spare evening with 11+ work, and you do not need to rush into full practice papers. The aim of the first term is to understand what your child needs next, and to make sure their preparation is focused on that.

Want more support putting this plan into action for your child? WhatsApp Tutor Rise and we will guide you through the right steps. 

Before You Start: Know Which 11+ Your Child Is Taking

There is no single national 11+ examination. Depending on the school or admissions authority, an 11+ test can cover:

• English
• Maths
• Verbal reasoning
• Non-verbal reasoning

Individual schools or local authorities decide which areas are tested and how they are weighted. The last Bexley Quest Assessment, for example, tested verbal ability, English comprehension, numerical reasoning and non-verbal reasoning. Independent school entrance tests can differ again — the ISEB Pre-Tests cover English, mathematics, verbal reasoning and non-verbal reasoning.

Before choosing books or practice papers, establish:

• which schools your child may apply to;
• which 11+ exam board or assessment they use;
• which subjects are included;
• approximately when the assessment takes place.

Working this out early saves unnecessary worry and wasted effort, and it prevents a surprisingly common problem: a child working hard on material that does not closely match the exam they will actually sit. Whether your child is sitting the Bexley Quest test, a Kent grammar school’s GL exam, or an independent school pre-test, the starting point is always the same — know the exam first.

Tutor Rise Tip: Before buying resources, make sure you know exactly what your child is preparing for. Once that is clear, the teaching, practice level and materials can be chosen far more intelligently.

Days 1–30: Diagnose Before You Push Ahead

The first month of Year 5 should give you a clearer picture of where your child currently stands. There is no need to rush into full-length papers every weekend.

A useful starting assessment should show you not only which questions your child gets wrong, but why. Common gaps show up in areas such as:

• comprehension
• vocabulary
• arithmetic
• problem solving
• reasoning

If verbal or non-verbal reasoning appears in your child’s exam, they may also need time to get used to question types they rarely meet at school. That unfamiliarity is expected, and it does not mean your child is behind.

The goal at this stage is not to produce an impressive-looking score. It is to answer a much more useful question: what should your child work on next?

Do Not Look at Scores Alone

Your child’s percentage only tells you part of the story. They may not understand the underlying topic. They may understand it but rush. They may struggle with vocabulary, or simply be unfamiliar with the question format — and each of these needs a different response.

This is why effective 11+ preparation looks at the pattern behind your child’s mistakes rather than the total score. Personalised 11+ online tuition can be particularly valuable here, helping identify what is actually causing marks to be lost so that your child’s next stage of preparation is based on need rather than guesswork.

Days 31–60: Build the Skills Behind Better Scores

Once your child’s main gaps are clearer, the next stage should focus on improving them, keeping one distinction in mind: practice on its own is not the same as teaching. Another paper may confirm that your child struggles with inference, fractions or a particular reasoning question type, but it will not automatically teach them how to improve.

The middle part of the first term should focus on the specific skills holding your child back, without overwhelming them with unnecessary volume.

English: Build Stronger Comprehension Habits

Strong 11+ comprehension requires more than finding information in a passage. Your child may need to infer meaning, understand unfamiliar vocabulary, and recognise why a writer has chosen certain words.

You can support this quite naturally when reading together. Occasionally ask, “What makes you think that?” or “Which part of the text gives you that impression?” Questions like these encourage your child to justify ideas using evidence from the text, rather than guessing.

If comprehension remains difficult, simply giving your child more passages may not address the underlying problem. Tutor Rise can help identify whether the main difficulty is inference, vocabulary, evidence selection, or something else entirely.

Vocabulary: Build It Gradually

Vocabulary influences both comprehension and verbal reasoning, so Year 5 is a good time to develop it more deliberately. Encourage your child to notice unfamiliar words, think about their meaning from context, and revisit useful new vocabulary later.

You do not need enormous word lists. The aim is to build vocabulary steadily enough that your child can recognise, understand and use new language with growing confidence. For more ideas, read our guide: How To Help Improve Your Child’s Vocabulary.

Maths: Secure the Foundations First

It can be tempting to move quickly onto increasingly difficult 11+ maths questions. However, harder questions usually depend on secure underlying skills — if basic calculations still require a lot of effort, your child has less capacity available for the reasoning part of the problem.

A sensible progression looks like this:

Understanding → Fluency → Application → Reasoning → Speed

rather than jumping straight from one difficult question to an even harder one.

If the same maths difficulty keeps appearing, the important question is why. Tutor Rise can help make sure the next piece of practice is pitched at the right level: challenging enough to create progress, without leaving your child feeling constantly out of their depth.

Days 61–90: Strengthen and Become More Exam-Ready

By the final part of the first term, preparation can gradually become more exam-focused. That might include:

• mixed question sets;
• more independent working;
• carefully chosen timed exercises;
• unfamiliar question formats;
• structured review of mistakes.

This does not necessarily mean full 11+ papers every weekend. Full papers are most useful once your child has enough underlying knowledge and exam familiarity to learn from them, rather than simply feel tested by them.

At this stage, it helps to think about three separate areas:

• Accuracy — can your child answer the question correctly?
• Speed — can your child answer it efficiently enough?
• Independence — can your child recognise what to do without prompting?

Your child may be strong in one area and still developing another, which is entirely normal. It is also one reason personalised preparation tends to work better than simply working through a generic workbook from cover to cover.

When Should Timed Work Begin?

Timing matters in many entrance examinations, but speed should never come before understanding. If your child does not yet understand the method, asking them to work faster usually just produces faster mistakes.

Once your child is reasonably secure with a skill or question type, short timed activities can help them build efficiency and grow more comfortable working under pressure. Some children are ready for this sooner than others, and Tutor Rise can help distinguish whether slower performance comes from a knowledge gap, hesitation, inefficient technique, or simple lack of familiarity — the solution depends on the cause.

When your child is ready to experience more realistic exam conditions, Tutor Rise also offers 11+ Mock Tests.

Treat Mistakes as Information

One of the most valuable habits your child can develop during 11+ preparation is learning from mistakes properly. When a question goes wrong, ask why. Did your child not know the underlying concept? Misunderstand the wording? Not know a word? Rush? Make a calculation error? Run out of time?

The answer helps determine what should happen next. Simply marking the question wrong and moving on misses much of the value of the exercise.

Mistakes are not evidence that your child is failing — they are useful clues about what support will help next. Over time, the goal is not to eliminate every mistake, but to reduce the same avoidable errors your child makes repeatedly.

What Should Progress Look Like After 90 Days?

You may naturally want to know what score your child should be achieving by Christmas. There is no single useful percentage — different tests, papers, difficulty levels and starting points make simple comparisons unreliable.

Instead, look for signs such as:

• a clearer understanding of your child’s strengths and weaknesses;
• a consistent preparation routine;
• stronger maths fluency;
• more confident comprehension;
• improving vocabulary;
• greater familiarity with relevant reasoning questions;
• fewer repeated errors;
• more independent working;
• gradually improving pace.

There is one more indicator worth watching closely: your child is still willing to engage. A preparation plan that produces high scores in November but leaves your child exhausted by February has not really succeeded. Steady, sustainable progress matters more than trying to force everything at once.

What You Should Avoid During the First Term

Too many full practice papers. Practice papers are useful, but repeatedly testing a weakness without addressing it rarely fixes the weakness. If your child is not ready for full papers yet, that does not mean they are behind.

Buying too many resources. More books do not automatically produce better results. It is usually better to use a smaller amount of well-chosen material than to jump between several different programmes. If you are unsure what your child should use next, Tutor Rise can help narrow the options and keep preparation focused.

Prioritising speed too early. Help your child secure the method first, then improve efficiency.

Comparing your child with others. Another child’s progress tells you very little about what your child needs next. The most useful comparison is usually with your child’s own previous performance.

Following a generic plan too rigidly. Your child’s preparation should change as they progress. If comprehension improves while mathematical reasoning remains difficult, the balance of work should change too — that flexibility is one of the main advantages of personalised tuition.

Your First-Term 11+ Roadmap

The framework is simple, but your child’s individual plan should not be generic. The exact materials, level of difficulty and balance of work should depend on what your child actually needs.

Frequently Asked Questions About Year 5 11+ Preparation

Is Year 5 a good time to start preparing for the 11+? For many families, Year 5 is when preparation becomes more structured, because there is still time to strengthen underlying skills before greater emphasis is placed on exam technique and timing. If you are only beginning now, focus on what your child needs from this point onwards rather than worrying about what someone else may already have done. Read our guide on How and When to Prepare Your Child for the 11+ Exam to find out more.

Should my child already be doing full 11+ practice papers? Not necessarily. Early practice is most useful when it identifies weaknesses and leads to better-targeted teaching. A paper is valuable when the information it gives you changes what your child works on next.

Which 11+ materials should we use? Start with the actual exam your child will sit. Because 11+ formats vary between schools and admissions areas, materials should be selected accordingly, and there is little benefit in buying every resource available. Identify what your child needs first, then choose material that addresses that need. Tutor Rise can recommend 11 Plus Practice Papers and other resources suited to both the exam and your child’s current stage.

The Real Goal of the First 90 Days

The first term of Year 5 is not about getting your child through the 11+ syllabus as quickly as possible. It is about creating clarity.

By the end of the first 90 days, you should have a better understanding of what your child is preparing for, what they already do well, which areas need attention, and what should be prioritised next. Your child, in turn, should be developing stronger skills, better habits and growing confidence.

Some areas may improve quickly. Others may take longer, and that is a normal part of the process. By Christmas, your child does not need to have mastered the 11+. They need to be moving in the right direction, with preparation that is appropriate to them.

Not Sure What Your Child Should Work on Next?

Knowing that your child needs to prepare for the 11+ is the easy part. Knowing which skills to prioritise, which materials are appropriate, and when your child is ready to move on, is where expert guidance makes the process far clearer.

You do not need to have every answer yourself. Tutor Rise can help identify your child’s most important gaps, adapt their preparation as they progress, and make sure they are working at a level that is both challenging and achievable. It is this personalised approach that has helped 95–100% of Tutor Rise students who complete our full course go on to pass their 11+ exams.

WhatsApp Tutor Rise about building a clearer, calmer 11+ preparation plan for your child.