Free 11+ practice questions

The parent challenge

Ten questions of the kind children practise for the 11+, with the answers explained below. Try them yourself first.

Take your time. There’s no clock.
The parent challenge
Ten 11+ style questions from our practice bank. See how you get on.
About ten minutes, at the level children practise for the test. Nothing to sign up for.
  1. Letter series
  2. Odd one out
  3. Punctuation
  4. Word problems
  5. Number series
  6. Paper folding
  7. Name the device
  8. Angles
  9. Opposites
  10. Cube nets
Topics

11+ question types and topics, subject by subject

Most 11+ tests use some mix of four subjects: verbal reasoning, non-verbal reasoning, English and maths. These are the types in the challenge, and what each one is really asking a child to do.

Verbal reasoning

Letter series
A run of letters or letter pairs that changes by a rule, and the child finds what comes next. The rule is often a jump that grows or shrinks, and the alphabet wraps round from Z back to A.
Number series
The same idea with numbers. The harder ones hide two series taking turns, so the trick is to read every other number.
Opposites
Two groups of words, and the child picks one word from each that mean the opposite. It is a vocabulary test as much as a reasoning one.

Non-verbal reasoning

Odd one out
Several shapes, and all but one share a property: the number of sides, the shading, a rotation. The child has to find the property, not just the different-looking shape.
Paper folding
A sheet is folded and punched, and the child picks what it looks like opened out. Every unfold mirrors the holes, so the count doubles with each fold.
Cube nets
A flat net and a cube, and the child works out which net folds into it. It tests holding a 3D picture in mind.

English

Punctuation
A sentence split into parts, and the child finds the part with the mistake, or says there is none. Most mistakes are small: a missing question mark, a capital letter.
Literary devices
A line of writing, and the child names the technique: simile, metaphor, personification, onomatopoeia. Knowing what each one does matters more than the name.

Maths

Word problems
A short story with numbers in it. The arithmetic is usually easy; the skill is working out which sum to do, and in what order.
Angles
Estimating or calculating angles, by comparing with ones the child knows: a right angle, a straight line, a full turn.
Answers

11+ practice questions with answers, explained

Each answer stays folded until you open it, so they will not spoil the challenge for anyone about to play.

Question 1 · Verbal reasoning · Letter seriesWhat comes next in this series? TB UC WE ZH

Answer: DL. The jumps grow by one each time: one, two, three, then four. T, U, W, Z, then four on from Z is D, going round to the start of the alphabet. The second letters do the same: B, C, E, H, then L.

Question 2 · Non-verbal reasoning · Odd one outThree of these belong together. Which is the odd one out?

Answer: C, the seven-sided shape. The shapes have 4, 6, 7 and 8 sides. Three have an even number of sides and one has an odd number. The shading is the same on all four, so it tells you nothing.

Question 3 · English · PunctuationWhich part has a mistake in its capital letters or punctuation? If every part is right, choose "No mistake". “Have you ever seen a shooting star on a clear night.”

Answer: D, "on a clear night.". The sentence asks a question, so it needs a question mark, not a full stop. The capital letters are all correct.

Question 4 · Maths · Word problemsTom has £10. Badges cost 90p each. Tom buys as many as possible. How much money is left?

Answer: 10p. Eleven badges cost £9.90 and twelve would cost £10.80, so Tom buys eleven. £10 take away £9.90 leaves 10p.

Question 5 · Verbal reasoning · Number seriesWhat comes next in this series? 22 75 26 81 30

Answer: 87. Two series take turns. The 1st, 3rd and 5th numbers go 22, 26, 30, adding 4. The 2nd and 4th go 75, 81, adding 6. The next number belongs to the second series, so it is 81 + 6 = 87.

Question 6 · Non-verbal reasoning · Paper foldingThe paper is folded and holes are punched. What does it look like unfolded?

Answer: A. The sheet is folded twice and punched twice, so it opens out with eight holes. Each unfold mirrors the holes across its fold line, which puts them in matching pairs either side of the centre. D also has eight holes, but they are shifted to one side.

Question 7 · English · Name the deviceWhich technique does the writer use here? “The old house watched the travellers through dark windows.”

Answer: Personification. A house cannot watch anyone. Giving something that is not human a human action or feeling is personification.

Question 8 · Maths · AnglesEstimate the size of this angle.

Answer: 120°. The angle is wider than a right angle (90°) and well short of a straight line (180°). Of the four choices, only 120° fits.

Question 9 · Verbal reasoning · OppositesTwo words, one from each group, mean the OPPOSITE of each other. Which pair is it? (consult contemplate conceal) (distrust disclose dismantle)

Answer: conceal and disclose. To conceal something is to hide it, and to disclose it is to reveal it. None of the other pairs are opposites: dismantle, for example, is the opposite of assemble.

Question 10 · Non-verbal reasoning · Cube netsWhich net folds into the cube shown?

Answer: C. Fold the stem first, then wrap the long tail over the top. A quick check that rules nets out: any net that puts two of the symbols you can see on opposite faces cannot be right, because opposite faces never show at the same time.

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The mistakes children actually make in spelling, times tables, number, SPaG and verbal reasoning, with the answers and a one-line fix for each.

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