Preparation
11 Plus Mock Exams: When to Start, How Many, and How to Use Them
Short answer: start with the free official familiarisation papers, then move to full mock exams in the final three to four months before the test. The number that matters is not how many mocks your child sits - it is how many mistakes they fix between them. Here is how to time mocks, how many to sit, and how to read the results.
Start with the free official papers, not mocks
Before any mock exam, use the free materials from the people who write the real tests. GL Assessment, the largest 11+ provider, publishes 10 hours of free familiarisation materials covering verbal reasoning, non-verbal reasoning, English and maths, and recommends children get used to the multiple-choice layout early. If your child is sitting the Bexley Selection Test, the provider is Quest Assessments, which publishes its own free sample-question booklets, a guide for children and a vocabulary list, created with Bexley Council. One caution from GL itself: the exact timings and question counts of your local test may differ from its practice materials, so always check the format for your target school.
When to start mock exams
For a September test, a sensible rhythm is: spring of Year 5, consolidate school learning and work through the official familiarisation papers; early summer, a first full mock to establish a baseline; the summer holidays, a mock every two to three weeks with full review between each; the final month, weekly mocks under exam conditions. The Bexley timeline shows why this rhythm works: for the September 2026 test, registration ran 1 to 31 March 2026, and for the current cycle Quest lists results day as early October 2027 with the secondary school application deadline on 31 October 2027. Mocks are a spring-and-summer tool - by September they are reassurance, not preparation.
How many mocks is enough?
More than one a week rarely adds anything, because the learning happens in the review. Four to eight full mocks across the summer, each followed by an honest error review, beats fifteen papers sat back to back. Watch for diminishing returns: if scores plateau and review time is being squeezed, you are sitting too many.
How to use the results
Sort every error into one of three buckets: knowledge (your child never learned it), technique (they knew it but approached it wrong), and timing (they knew it and ran out of time). Each bucket has a different fix, and only one of them needs more teaching. Remember that most 11+ tests are age-standardised, so a younger child is not compared directly with an older one - read the standardised score, not the raw percentage. Our guide to Bexley’s age-standardised scores explains what the numbers mean. And one bad mock is a data point, not a verdict: judge the trend across three or four.
Mock exams with Life Changing Tuition
Our mock exam course mirrors the real thing: full-length papers under timed exam conditions, marked with standardised score reports so you can see exactly where your child stands against the selective standard - the level roughly 30% of Bexley applicants reach, competing for around 800 places across the four grammar schools. See dates and booking on our mock exam course page. If you are earlier in the journey, start with our parent’s guide to the 11 Plus.
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