Maths
The maths itself is the maths you already meet at school. What the 11+ really tests is how carefully you read the question, choose the right step, and set out your working.
Of the four subjects, maths is the most familiar, because it’s taught in class from the very start. That’s reassuring. The difference in the 11+ is that it asks for the same maths a little faster, and often tucks it inside a word problem, so the skill becomes as much about reading closely and picking the right method as about the sums themselves.
Number is by far the biggest part of the paper, so it’s worth feeling really sure there before anything else. Nothing below has to be done in order, though. Each topic explains itself from scratch, so start wherever you like.
Worth knowing: number does most of the work. In a typical paper there are far more number questions than any other kind, often around five times as many. So time spent getting quick and confident with the four operations, fractions, decimals, percentages and ratio is time very well spent.
Numbers & place value
What each digit is worth, reading and writing large numbers, rounding, estimating, and negative numbers. It sits underneath every other topic, so getting comfortable here makes everything that follows easier.
Start hereThe other topics
Each one stands on its own, so there’s no set order. Explore whatever looks interesting, or follow them roughly top to bottom if you’d rather build up.
The four operations
Adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing, including the longer written methods, doing them in the right order, and checking your answer with the inverse.
ExploreFactors, multiples & special numbers
The building blocks of numbers: what divides into what, primes, square and cube numbers, and the quick tricks for spotting them.
ExplorePercentages, decimals & fractions
Three ways of writing the same idea, a part of a whole. How to handle each one, and how to switch smoothly between them.
ExploreRatio & proportion
Sharing things out fairly and scaling them up or down. Once you read it as “for every… there are…”, it tends to click into place.
ExploreAlgebra & sequences
Letters standing in for numbers, missing values to find, and number patterns that follow a rule you can work out and carry on.
ExploreMeasures: money, time & units
The everyday maths of amounts and reading scales: money and change, length, weight and capacity, converting units, and telling the time.
ExploreShape, space & position
Everything to do with shapes: their properties and angles, area and perimeter, symmetry, and moving them around a grid.
ExploreHandling data
Making sense of information: averages and range, and reading charts, tables and diagrams to pull out what they’re telling you.
ExploreHow each topic works
Explanation
A plain, jargon-free description of the idea and the trick to it.
Worked example
One question taken slowly, step by step, so you can see the thinking.
Your go
A set to try yourself, with instant feedback that explains each answer.
Nothing here is timed, scored or saved. Get it wrong as many times as you like, that’s how it’s meant to work.
Every topic, covered
Maths in the 11+ follows the Key Stage 2 curriculum, stretched into Year 6 and a little beyond. Here is everything it covers, grouped into the areas above. Not every paper reaches every corner of this, so treat it as the full map rather than a to-do list.
Numbers & place value
The four operations
Factors, multiples & special numbers
Percentages, decimals & fractions
Ratio & proportion
Algebra & sequences
Measures: money, time & units
Shape, space & position
Handling data
One more thread runs through all of it: problem solving, the multi-step word problems, choosing the right operation, logic puzzles, and speed–distance–time. Rather than sit in a topic of its own, it’s built into the practice everywhere, because that’s exactly how the exam uses it.