I have been asked if there are any books that I would recommend to be worth buying to help children with the 11 Plus.
Below are some which I have found beneficial:
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Bond How To Do 11+ Maths [Paperback]
This book is aimed at parents and is a well structured guide to the maths required for the 11 Plus.
Parents of children that I have tutored have also found this book to be useful.
KS2 Maths Study Book: The Study Book
This book is aimed at 7 to 11 year olds and is written for children but is equally assessable for adults.
Each topic is clearly explained and there are lots of pictures and diagrams.
There is a sense of humour to the way that this book is written, which makes it appealing to children and very easy to read.
This book does not go into enough detail for the 11 Plus and not all subjects are covered fully, but it does explain the basics very well and is very useful, especially for homework!
Bond 10 Minute Tests 10 - 11+ years Maths
This book was recommended to me by parents of children that I tutored.
They found it very useful and found that setting a short test each morning before school really focused their child.
These books are written for student teachers to attain the required level of understanding to teach maths at Primary School level (KS2) in the UK.
These books should be helpful if you are unfamiliar with the latest methods or maybe it has just been a long while since you studied Maths!
11+ Practice Papers
GL Assessment produce the actual test papers that most children take and
are as close to the real tests as you can get.
These practise papers are essential.
Maths pack 1 contains maths tests 1,2,3, and 4 and tend to be older papers - but still valid.
Maths Pack 2 has tests 5,6,7 and 8 which are more recent.
Verbal Reasoning pack 1 has tests 1,2,3, and 4 which are also older papers.
Verbal Reasoning pack 2 has tests 5,6,7 and 8 which are more recent.
Non Verbal Reasoning pack 1 has tests 1,2,3, and 4 which are also older papers.
Non Verbal Reasoning pack 2 has tests 5,6,7 and 8 which are more recent.
The variety packs contain 1 English, 1 Maths, 1 VR and 1 NVR paper.
The actual papers included coincide with the individual test numbers.
It is also a good idea to photocopy the answer sheets so that you can use them again and again.
These practice papers are graded in difficulty and are designed to build confidence and highlight problem areas before moving on to the 'GL Assessment' papers.
There are 5 papers of each type which are graded in difficulty (Paper 1 being the easiest).
When your child has completed a paper, mark it with your child using the included marking scheme and then go through each question one by one, including the ones they answered correctly to ensure understanding.
Revise any issues that may have arisen and then when they are ready, move on to the next paper.
In this way you will be able to highlight their strengths (which builds confidence) and identify areas that you need to work on.
Emphasise that working with these papers is an opportunity for your child to demonstrate their ability and discover how to improve.
I suggest that you ensure that you have covered all the basics of Maths and gone through all the different types of Verbal and Non Verbal Reasoning questions before attempting these papers.
