During their final year at primary school, students are preparing for the biggest transition in their education so far - the leap into secondary education. For anyone hoping to take the 11-plus exam for entrance to a grammar school or a private school, preparation is key.

Children will be unfamiliar with the types of questions presented to them on exam day. If their ability is to be recognised and rewarded with a coveted place at grammar school, they will need to spend time getting used to the way that they are examined. With papers on Verbal and Non-Verbal reasoning, English and Mathematics, it is helpful for the student to have practice at some or all of these papers and to brush up on their core skills ahead of the test too. 

Verbal reasoning is something that students won’t have come across in primary school; it aims to evaluate the ability of a student to think constructively and apply something that they are shown to another question or situation. It is about testing a child’s critical thinking ability and their ability to solve problems based on things that they already know. We find that lots of students really enjoy studying verbal reasoning, as a lot of the questions are fun to dissect, such as puzzles, logic problems and cracking codes. It can also involve some maths and English based questions too, so it overlaps with the other subjects that they will be tested on in their entrance exams :)

Although the 11-plus exam is the most common entrance exam to take, we can also tutor students in preparation for the lower years (such as 9 and 10-plus) and the higher years (such as 12 and 13-plus). With those getting ready to sit a paper in year 7 or 8, there tends to be a range of subjects that they will be tested on, rather than the four main areas at 11-plus… don't worry though, we are here to help with them all!