11+ guide · By BrightEleven editorial · Last reviewed 16 September 2026
When to start 11+ preparation
A calm sequence by school year, the signs that it is too early, and why the start date matters less than the shape of the weeks in between.
The short answer
There is no single right date, and anyone who gives you one is guessing about a child they have not met. What matters is that the preparation fits the child: short, regular, unhurried, and stopped before it sours. A child who starts in Year 5 with a calm routine is well placed. A child who started in Year 3 with a stack of papers is not necessarily better off, and may well be more tired of the whole idea.
The one hard date is registration. In a number of areas the window to register for the test closes before Year 6 begins, so whatever you decide about practice, look up your area's registration date while your child is still in Year 5. Our exam-dates tool lists what we currently understand, with a label showing whether each entry has been verified.
What counts as preparation
Most of what helps a child with a GL-style test is not test practice at all. Reading widely and talking about words builds the vocabulary that verbal reasoning and comprehension draw on. Fluent number facts make the maths paper feel unhurried. Puzzles, board games and spotting patterns lay the ground for non-verbal reasoning. None of that has a start date; all of it is worth doing whether or not a test is coming.
Test-specific preparation - learning the question types, practising short sets, eventually sitting a timed paper - is a narrower thing, and it is the part that benefits from being timed well.
A calm sequence by school year
Year 4: foundations, no papers
Reading for pleasure, times tables, mental arithmetic in everyday moments, word games. If your child enjoys puzzles, a few reasoning-style puzzles are fine as puzzles. There is no need for anything that looks like a test, and much of the maths on a GL-style paper has not yet been taught at this stage.
Year 5: gentle familiarity, little and often
This is when most families begin. The aim over the year is familiarity with the four subjects and the question styles, in short sessions that end while the child still has something left. Untimed first, so that accuracy and method come before speed. Towards the end of the year, a first look at a timed paper - one, not many - shows the child what the format feels like.
The summer before Year 6, and the autumn term
For areas that test in the autumn term, this is the run-up. A steady routine continues; timed mocks are added so that the timing and the answer sheet are familiar; and the last week is kept light. Nothing new is introduced in the final days. Our exam-day guide covers the last stretch.
Our separate guide on Year 4 or Year 5 goes into the choice between those two years in more detail.
Signs it is too early, or too much
- Sessions end in tears, or begin with a negotiation.
- The child meets maths on the paper that they have not yet met at school and concludes they are bad at maths, rather than that the question is early.
- Practice is displacing sleep, sport, friends or unstructured time.
- You find yourself checking results more often than the child does.
Any of these is a reason to pause or shorten, not a reason to push through. A few weeks off costs very little; a child who has come to dread the subject costs a great deal more to bring back.
What matters more than the start date
Consistency over intensity: short sessions on most days do more than a long session at the weekend. Explanations over marks: a wrong answer with a clear explanation teaches something; a wrong answer with a cross teaches nothing. Sleep and ordinary life over extra minutes. And a parent who keeps the test in proportion - one afternoon, one route among several - over any particular plan. Our guide to how much practice is enough sets out what a sensible week looks like, and preparing without a tutor covers what a parent does and does not need to be.
Before any of this, check the test is GL-style at all: our guide to which exam board your school uses explains the families and who BrightEleven is not built for.
Practise this adaptively
Whenever you begin, BrightEleven starts with a short, untimed placement quest and adapts from there, so a child who starts in Year 5 and a child who starts later each get practice at their own level.
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