FREE 11+ Vocabulary Pack (Instant Download)

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We’re excited to announce the release of our new 11+ vocabulary packs which have specifically been designed for children who want to significantly improve their vocabulary in preparation for their school entrance exams.

Each pack contains a series of key words that are commonly found in 11+ Verbal Reasoning and English papers. They’re also useful regardless of whether your child is preparing for the ISEB, CSSE, GL Assessment, CEM or The Northern Ireland Transfer Test.

Why Is Vocabulary Important For The 11+?

If your child is preparing for any school entrance exam at a selective school, they will most likely be required to sit a Verbal Reasoning and/or English test.

Both of these subjects assess a child’s ability to recognise and understand the meanings of a variety of challenging vocabulary words and these are usually not the sorts of words that are taught in school or covered within the Key Stage 2 National Curriculum.

Furthermore, there are endless advantages to helping your child improve their vocabulary as research shows that children who have stronger vocab knowledge significantly outperform their peers in school.

How can I Improve My Child’s 11+ Vocabulary?

There are so many things you can do to improve your child’s vocabulary in preparation for the exam.

Here are some of our favourite tips, tricks and activities for helping your child to quickly pick up the meanings of new words, as well as their awareness and knowledge of synonyms and antonyms.

Encourage your child to be an engaged reader. However, when it comes to reading, it’s not just about getting them to sift through dozens and dozens of books, it’s about encouraging your child to be an engaged and active reader. What does that mean? Encourage them to not just read the books but actually understand what they’re reading, learn about the characters and understand the subtle messages within the story or poem. This is incredibly important for building their comprehension skills.

Become best friends with pen, notebook and highlighter. 😊 This might sound like a silly tip but it’s actually incredibly important for vocabulary building. Whenever your child reads, they should always have a notebook with them and ideally, the notebook should be specifically for writing down the definition, synonyms and antonyms of key vocabulary words as well as words that they do not know the meaning of.

Once they find the word in the book/text, they should write it down in their notebook and also write down its meaning.

Furthermore, they should underline or highlight the word in the story or text so that they can refer back to it in future (if needed).

Read The Cadwaladr Quests. We’re always harping on about this incredible series of books but it’s for a reason. We love The Cadwaladr Quests by SL Ager because it’s simply amazing and was written by an 11+ mum who was preparing her child for the exam.

Each book contains a built in dictionary which makes it incredibly easy for your child to learn the meanings of new words whilst also becoming engaged in a gripping story.

To spruce things up, read the books with your child and also go through the workbooks with them.

Make it fun. Our founder has held several talks where she’s discussed a range of vocabulary-building ideas such as flashcards, Scrabble, Crosswords and Word Searches. You can check out these talks by joining the 11+, SATS, ISEB, GCSE and A-Level group on Facebook.

Communicate. Children pick up vocabulary from the world around them and one of the best ways to improve their vocabulary is to expand the types of words they hear on a daily basis. You can do this quite easy by encouraging them to listen to new words rather than just read them. Some of the best ways to expand their vocabulary are by:

  • Encouraging them to listen to audiobooks. There are dozens available on Youtube and hundreds of age-appropriate ones on Audible.

  • Encourage them to watch the news. Journalists and presenters often use high-level vocabulary words when speaking so it’s great for your child to learn new words by hearing them in the context they’ve been used.

  • Encourage your child to listen to radio broadcasts and political debates. This is incredibly important, especially for children who are preparing for 11+, 12+ and 13+ interviews.

Get Tooled Up. The wonderful Dr Kathryn Weston of Tooled Up Education shares some of the best tips on preparing your child for the 11+ and 12+ exams on her website and in her live talks at some of the country’s top schools.

We highly recommend checking out her website and subscribing to her newsletter for excellent tips not just on helping your child with the 11+ but also on developing their emotional wellbeing and confidence.

Vocabulary FAQs

Do I Have To Pay To Download The 11+ Vocabulary PACK?

No, it’s absolutely free and there is no charge for them.

Is The Pack Printable?

Absolutely. Simply download the pack by clicking the link on this page and print them. It’s straightforward and incredibly simple to do. We’ve created them in pdf form to make things really easy for you.

To save ink, you can print them in black and white but if your child is a visual learner then we’d recommend printing them in colour.

Up-levelling Sentences: KS2 and Year 5 English Tutorial

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As tutors, we often come across tutees that are really bright and hard-working but struggle to write engaging and interesting sentences that capture the heart of the reader (or teacher).

It’s a very common problem and most children at some point will struggle with how to write in a way that’s clear, concise and that also shows off their vocabulary knowledge.

To help with this, I held a free Facebook Live tutorial back in February where I shared some tips on how to write better sentences.

Take a look at the tutorial below:

Quick tips for instantly improving sentences:

  • Swap boring or low-level verbs and adjectives with more advanced synonyms

  • Describe nouns using adjectives

  • Use adverbs where necessary

  • Use fronted adverbials to shape the pace of your story or sentence

  • Include literary devices such as similes, metaphors, personification, alliteration etc.

11+ Prep: Is It Essential To Have A Tutor?

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In our previous blog post, we discussed how to know if your child is smart enough to pass the 11+. It was a great topic and we received sever messages from parents who found it to be useful. Today, we’re looking at a similar topic that was inspired by an email we received from an anxious parent. Take a look at her question below and scroll down to read our advice. As always, we love hearing your feedback so feel free to leave a comment sharing your thoughts below.

“We are currently preparing our son for the 11+ and everyone around us seems to insist that we need to have a tutor for our child. Is this really the case? Our son is bright and capable but we’ve never gone through the school entrance process before and we’re not sure what or who to believe. It feels like everyone has a tutor except for us.”

It would be great to hear your thoughts.

Many thanks, Kate.


This is a great question and one we get asked often. There isn’t necessarily a straightforward answer to this as every child is different and it’s important to factor in your child’s learning style and ability but hopefully some of the points outlined below will help.

To answer your question, it’s not essential to have a tutor when embarking on the 11+ process. There are dozens, if not hundreds of parents whose children have passed without the help of regular tuition.

Generally, if you decide not to hire a tutor, there are a few things you need to consider.

Do you have the skills, time and patience to teach your child yourself? 

There are many parents that hire tutors simply because they don’t have the time to teach their child or because they lack the patience to go through each topic with them thoroughly. These parents tend to be busy professionals who have limited time and find that hiring a tutor can be a helpful way to ensure that their child is learning in a way that they enjoy, without parental pressure. If you’re a very busy parent then I’d recommend hiring a tutor as it will save you a lot of stress in the long run.

If your child doesn’t pass, will you regret not hiring a tutor or are you fine with the outcome regardless of how they do?

This is an important question to ask yourself. If you’re not too fussed about the outcome of your child’s results in the 11+ then it isn’t essential that you hire a tutor for them. If however, you have all your hopes on them winning a place at a top school then it’s worth investing in a few tuition lessons.

Is your child naturally very bright? 

If your child is performing ahead of National 
Curriculum targets then there is a probability that they’ll do well in the exams without needing to have an extensive amount of support. As a rule of thumb, children who are naturally very bright tend to need less support in order to do well in the exams but this isn’t a hard and fast rule. 

Here are some things that all parents should consider when preparing for the exam:

All children, regardless of their ability, need to be familiar with the 11+ exam questions, structure and format. We never recommend that any child goes into the exam without doing any preparation whatsoever.

The exams are tough and are becoming increasingly more competitive so it’s crucial that if you’re not hiring a tutor, you purchase the right tools, materials and resources needed in order to ensure that they are familiar with the exam process. 

Your child will most certainly need to have someone explain the logic behind questions, guide them through how to fill in answer sheets and show them how to strategically answer questions within the time frame given. Timing is one of the most important aspects of the exam so it’s essential to focus on this, especially if you choose not to hire a tutor. 

There are some parents, many in fact, who ensure that their child is heavily prepared for the exam. Such parents book dozens, if not hundreds of hours of tuition lessons and often enough, their child passes. However, once their child starts at their chosen grammar or independent school, they often find themselves struggling to cope with the workload and the complexity of work taught or given. Such children tend to be less intelligent academically and have been pushed extensively which results in them passing the 11+ but struggling once they’re in secondary school.

When embarking on the 11+ process, be honest with yourself about your child’s abilities and their ability to cope if given the opportunity to attend a selective school.

Here are some quick solutions:

✔️ Hire a tutor for a few hours a week

✔️ Hire a tutor for a month or two before their exam 

✔️ Book your child into a mock test or assessment 

Finally, remember that comparison is the thief of joy. By comparing yourself or your child to others, you’ll end up far more stressed and worried, which will only make matters worse. Instead, focus on your child and do what you believe to be best for them. If that’s hiring a tutor for a few weeks each month then that’s great. If it’s teaching them yourself then that’s just as good.


We hope the advice above has been helpful and if you have any questions, leave a comment below and we’ll do our best to help.


10 Recommended Reading Books & Resources For 11+ PREPARATION

Free 11+ Compound Word List For Verbal Reasoning Prep

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At this time of the year, many pupils are preparing for their 11+ and 12+ exams. They’re therefore brushing up on all areas of their English and Verbal Reasoning skills.

In the middle of all the madness and chaos surrounding their revision and preparation, many often forget how important it is to learn compound words.

You’ll often see them included in Verbal Reasoning papers where students are expected to think of a prefix or suffix that begins one word and ends the next.

It can be quite a challenging exercise for those who struggle with such words or have forgotten to revise them.

To help, we’ve compiled a list of 60 popular compound words.

Here are some tips on using the list:

✅ Don't expect your child to memorise every single word and its meaning. Instead, encourage them to read a few compound words every day so that they naturally get into the habit of becoming more familiar with the words.

✅ Make learning fun. You can do this by encouraging your child to draw pictures of the words, write poems that include a few of them or create posters with several of the words. Use felt tips, gel pens and colouring pens to make things even more fun.

✅ Encourage your child to spot compound words when reading. This is a simple but effective way to make learning such words more enjoyable.

Click on the button below to download the list and let us know in the comments section if it’s helpful. 🙂

10 Recommended Story Books & Resources For 11+ Preparation

How Do I Know If My Child Is Smart Enough For The 11+?

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“Is my child smart enough to pass the 11+?’

“Dear Tutoress,

My child is currently in Year 4 and is in my opinion very bright. She attends a local state school and enjoys it there but they don’t provide me with much feedback on how she’s doing. I’ve only been told that she’s working at the expected standard for her age and that she’s doing well. With everything that has happened this year, I’ve realised how important education is and I really want her to have a great future which is why I’d like to send her to a good grammar school. How do I know if she has what it takes? Is there a way for me to know if she’s smart enough to pass the 11+?

I’d appreciate any advice.”

I was very grateful to have received this email from a parent who was obviously quite concerned about whether her child has the ability to pass the 11+ exam and I thought it would be wise to share some advice not just for this concerned mother but for other Mums and Dads in similar positions.

Whenever a parent asks me whether their child is smart enough to pass the 11-plus exam, the first thing I tell them is that it’s important to be subjective. That means that as a parent, you should look at your child’s academic ability, not through your own eyes, but someone else’s. As parents, we think our children are geniuses and whilst I do believe that every child has their own unique area of ingenuity, I also believe that it’s important for parents to look at their child from a completely separate perspective.

One of the best ways to do this is to simply look at the factual results that your child is getting rather than including any emotional factors in.

What do I mean by that?

Put simply, the only way to really gauge whether your child has the potential to pass the 11+ is to test them and then to see what sort of mark or score they get.

Once you do that, you’ll have tangible numbers to base your decision on whether to go through the process on.

Now, that’s not to say that a child that scores low marks can’t pass the real exam, quite the opposite in fact. However, it does allow you as a parent to have a clearer picture of your child’s strengths and weaknesses and then assess whether there is enough time to prepare them for the exam.

The 11+ isn’t easy and the process of going through it can be quite daunting for children and parents alike.

So how do you assess your child?

You can go the obvious route of booking an assessment with a tutor or tuition centre

OR

You can purchase 11+ practice assessments and papers on Amazon.

I’d recommend doing both.

Furthermore, I’d recommend only having your child assessed by a tutor or tuition centre if you’re considering potentially booking them onto a programme as some centres will try to push you into signing up for their services so bear this in mind.

Additionally, I would recommend giving your child a standard English and Maths test to start with as there is no point in giving them a Verbal or Non-Verbal test if they’ve never seen those types of questions before.

If however, they have started doing some NVR/VR then it’s absolutely fine to assess them in these areas as well.

Once you have a clear idea of your child’s results. Analyse them and make note of their strengths and weaknesses.

  • Where is there room for improvement?

  • Is there enough time to help them improve in these areas?

  • What kinds of mistakes are they making and why?

It’s important to ask yourself these questions and make notes so that you can figure out how to best prepare them for the exam.

Once you’ve done this, it’s time to create a revision routine that enables your child to work through exam-style questions and also build up their knowledge in key topics and areas.

Regularly monitor their progress and keep track of their scores. Our clients typically write their child’s scores down in their assessment books or in a notebook that is dedicated to tracking their scores.

Some of the other things you can work on between now and their exam are:

  • Spelling, punctuation and grammar

  • Vocabulary

  • Mental maths and arithmetic

  • Puzzles

  • Anagrams

These are all very important for helping children to develop the skills needed to solve problems that are typically assessed during the 11+ process.

If your child is preparing to sit an independent school exam then it’s also worth building their soft skills by encouraging them to take parts in mooting/debates, listen to radio debates, read speeches and stay up-to-date with local and international events.

Is your child smart enough to pass the 11+?

There is no simple direct answer. We’ve seen children who were textbook smart fail miserably and we’ve also seen children who were scoring 20% in practice papers, fly through the exams and receive multiple offers. The 11+ can in many ways be quite unpredictable but we recommend that all 11+ parents focus on building their child’s academic strength overall so that they stand a good chance of doing well. Finally, it’s important to remember that one of the benefits of going through the 11+ process is that your child will learn so much, far more than they would in a typical academic year so it’s usually worth it just for the knowledge, skills and discipline that they’ll gain from the process as a whole.

Here’s to your child’s success,

The Tutoress.