When should my child start 11 Plus preparation?

The single most common question we hear from parents is some version of "when do we start?" — usually mixed with a quiet worry that they've already left it too late. The honest answer is that the right starting point depends on three things: what kind of preparation, what kind of child, and what kind of school you're aiming for. There is no single magic month.

This guide gives you a practical timeline across Year 3 through Year 6, separating out the things that genuinely help from the things parents commonly worry about but don't really matter.

The short answer

For most families, structured 11 Plus preparation begins in the spring or summer of Year 5, about 12–18 months before the test. Light, reading-rich groundwork starts much earlier — often in Year 3 or 4 — but it doesn't look like "prep" in any formal sense.

What matters far more than the exact start date is what you do once you start. A child who practises consistently for nine months will almost always outperform a child who crammed for two intense months, even if the second child started "earlier" in calendar terms.

Year 3 — too early for papers, perfect for habits

Don't buy practice papers in Year 3. Don't enrol in tutoring. Don't talk to your child about "the 11 Plus" as a thing.

What you can do in Year 3 is build habits that pay off two years later:

• Daily reading. This is the single highest-leverage habit you can build. 20–30 minutes a day of varied fiction and non-fiction — read aloud or independently — does more for 11 Plus vocabulary and comprehension than any paper.
• Times tables. Up to 12×12 by the end of Year 3 puts your child well ahead of where they'll need to be.
• Logical puzzles, board games, word games. Scrabble, chess, Sudoku, Codenames, riddles. These are non-academic ways to build the kind of reasoning the 11 Plus tests.

Year 3 is also when many parents start researching local grammar schools and consortia. That's worth doing — every region has different deadlines, formats and admissions quirks (see GL Assessment vs CEM — the complete guide for the format breakdown). But your child doesn't need to know any of this yet.

Year 4 — start gentle reasoning

Year 4 is the right time to introduce the kinds of question types the 11 Plus uses, without putting any pressure around it. Most families do this through:

• Short reasoning workbooks (Bond, CGP, Letts) — 15 minutes, two or three times a week
• Family word games that lean into verbal reasoning skills — synonyms, antonyms, hidden words, compound words
• Mental maths practice — quick arithmetic, halving, doubling, percentages of 100

The goal in Year 4 is exposure, not mastery. Your child should encounter every major question type they'll see in the 11 Plus at least a few times over the year, so the formats feel familiar by Year 5 rather than alarming.

If you have access to a free walk-through resource like our Beginners section, Year 4 is the ideal time to use it — three EASY questions per skill area, just to introduce what each category feels like.

Year 5 — the real start

The autumn or spring term of Year 5 is when serious, structured preparation typically begins. For most families this means:

• A weekly practice paper or two — full timed conditions, gradually moving from 30 minutes up to the real exam length
• Daily 10–20 minute practice on weaker skill areas (this is where adaptive learning becomes valuable — see below)
• Honest tracking of where your child is strong and where they need work

The 12–18 month runway from Year 5 spring to the test in September of Year 6 is well-matched to how children develop at this age. Too compressed and you risk burning them out; too stretched and momentum is hard to maintain.

A few practical Year 5 markers:

• By end of autumn term: your child knows what the test format looks like and can do a 20-minute timed section without panicking
• By end of spring term: full timed papers, identifying weaknesses
• By summer: focused practice on weak areas, full mock papers under exam conditions

Year 6 — the final stretch

By the time Year 6 starts, the test is just weeks away. Year 6 preparation should be maintenance and refinement, not new learning.

The September test feels close, so the temptation is to crank up the intensity. Resist that. Children who arrive at the test confident and well-rested perform meaningfully better than children who arrive exhausted from August cramming.

A sensible Year 6 summer plan:

• Two full mock papers per week, alternating subjects
• Daily 15-minute practice on the one or two skill areas that are still weakest
• Reading and family time — not a single extra workbook
• An honest conversation with your child the week before the test about what happens regardless of result

"But what if we're starting in Year 5 / Year 6?"

You can still make a meaningful difference starting in Year 5 spring or even Year 6 summer — children at this age learn fast, and a focused six months with the right materials beats a sprawling two-year plan with no structure.

The real risk of a late start isn't that there's not enough time to learn the content. It's that you compress an already stressful process into a smaller window, which can spike anxiety. If you're starting in Year 6, prioritise short daily sessions over long weekend ones, and resist comparing your child's pace to families who started earlier.

What "preparation" should actually look like

A common parent trap is to equate preparation with sheer volume — more papers, more questions, more hours. Past a fairly modest threshold, that doesn't work. What does work:

1. Consistency over intensity. 20 minutes a day, every day, beats two hours on Sundays.
2. Targeted practice. Time spent on weak skills is worth far more than time spent on already-strong ones. A good adaptive practice tool makes this automatic.
3. Full-length timed mocks to build stamina, but only every week or two — not every day.
4. Reading time stays in the schedule, not gets sacrificed for more practice papers. Vocabulary and comprehension gains compound over years, not months.

Signs your child is ready (or not ready) to step up

Not every child is ready for structured 11 Plus prep at the same age. Look for:

• Can sit and concentrate for 30 minutes without prompting
• Reads age-appropriate books for pleasure
• Can describe what's frustrating them without melting down
• Has the basic Year 4 number facts (times tables, place value, simple fractions) solid

If three of those four aren't there, push the start date back a term. The exam doesn't go away, and a child who starts later but ready will outperform a child who started earlier but wasn't.

The honest answer

Most parents are too worried about timing, and not worried enough about what they actually do once they start. Begin Year 5 with a steady, low-pressure schedule, and use the runway to build habits rather than to drill questions. By the time September of Year 6 arrives, your child should walk into the test having seen this exact kind of paper many times — calmly, familiarly, with no surprises.

If you'd like to try the kind of practice that fits this approach, our free practice papers give you a sample paper per subject — no payment needed to start, just to see what 11 Plus practice can look like when it's not a battle.