Where do children make most mistakes in 11 Plus English Exams?

In 11 Plus English tests children often make silly mistakes on the comprehension sections where they have a multiple choice set of answers. Examiners will often put answers in which are very close and in these situations it is quite common for children to leap at the wrong one because it is nearly right rather than completely right.

Most of the marks dropped by children are not ‘mistake’ driven, they are caused by a lack of core knowledge (weak vocabulary, spelling, grammar, punctuation or too low a reading age).

Parents will often find their children reach a plateau very quickly when they move onto 11 Plus English papers. This normally is because children have reached the limits of their current reading or vocabulary knowledge. Doing a succession of papers will not lead to further improvement. The only way children can improve is by boosting their core English skills.

Where parents are reading this at the outset of their 11 Plus preparation process we hope it will encourage you to focus on core skills development before doing any 11 Plus English test papers.