Questions to Ask at Parents' Evening Before the 11+
Questions to ask at parents' evening in Year 4 or 5 if your child might sit the 11+: reading, times tables, pace, independence, and what the answers mean.
Year 5
87 posts on this. Written by Mat and Alicia, who prepare pupils for the Buckinghamshire Transfer Test every week in Winslow.
The grid is faster than your head
Six facts about five children is thirty things to keep track of, and that is too many to hold in your head. Draw the grid, cross out the repeats on the first pass, tick on the second.
Mirror first, then jumps
The two letters in a pair can move by different amounts and in different directions. Check for a mirror before anything else, write both jumps down, and remember the alphabet is a loop.
Start where the clue is tightest
Three times in a word is a demanding thing to ask, and usually hands you the answer. Once in a word can leave you holding nine possibilities. Choose your starting clue deliberately.
Look for the rule, not the odd shape
Four of the five share something. Find that, and the odd one falls out on its own — go hunting for the strange-looking one instead and you will be pulled straight to whatever was drawn to catch your eye.
Nothing floats: counting cubes you cannot see
If a cube has air under it, something you cannot see is holding it up — and it counts. Counting first is the cheapest check on the paper, and turning a block never changes the total.
Unfold backwards, one crease at a time
Reverse the last fold first and mirror every hole across it. And count the layers under the hole rather than the number of folds — because a fold that is not exactly in half does not double everything.
What comes next, and what came before
When the gap is at the end you are extrapolating, not filling in — there is no square on the far side to check against. And when the gap opens the row, the rule has to be run backwards.
Two rules at once: series questions
One rule is a Year 4 question. Two rules running at the same time is the standard 11+ one — and half right is still wrong, because an option is printed for each half.
The pair on the left defines the change
A is to B as C is to what. The first pair is not an example to copy — it is an instruction to apply. And the commonest wrong answer is a copy of the second figure.
The answer often looks least like the examples
A pentagon and a house shape look nothing alike and have five sides each. Visual similarity is the trap; a real rule eliminates four options, and a feature that eliminates one is a distraction.
Repeats first: cracking a vertical code
Find a letter that appears twice, ask what those two figures have that the others don't, and the letter has told you what it means. One position at a time, and check every letter before you commit.
Which side of the landmark?
A cube-built solid has twenty-four square-on positions and is the same solid in every one. The mirror image survives the cube count, the outline and the silhouette — and fails only on how the parts are arranged around a landmark.
Skip one square, and write the three pairs down
Six faces means three pairs, always. Squares that touch fold up side by side, so skip one along a line to find opposites — and on a bent net, look for the zig-zag.
Ring the gap before you calculate
Two sides, one gap, and a mark that goes to whoever remembers what they were looking for. Do the complete side first, then fill the gap — and check you wrote the gap, not the total.
Right across, wrong down: matrix questions
A grid is a series you can read in two directions, so everything about series applies twice. One option is always built to be right along the row and wrong down the column.
Read the question first, then go hunting
Tables and fact blocks are not read, they are searched. Know what shape of answer you want, find the right row and the right column, and never re-read the whole thing.
Compare, then test
Six rules to choose between, and the one that costs the marks takes two steps rather than one. The number you get halfway is the tempting wrong answer.
Write it out, then cross it off
The backwards position is twenty-seven minus the forwards one, the middle letter is count, add one, halve — and once a letter is crossed off it stops existing.
Every letter is already on the page
Nothing is hidden in an anagram question — the letters have only been shuffled. Cover, guess, sort, check, and pull the ending out before you build the front.
Could be true is not must be true
If a sentence could be false in any way the gaps might be filled in, it is out. Ask 'can I break it?' — and read the last line again, because must and cannot sit next to each other on purpose.
The trap is not the maths, it is the order
Letters stand for numbers, the arithmetic is easy, and the marks go on order, a dropped step and a misread sign. Count the operators before you start — that is how many steps you owe.
Count the piles, not the cubes
A stack of four cubes is still one square from above. Height shows from the front and not from above; depth never shows at all — and both views are usually sitting in the options.
Read past the gap: cloze passages
A passage with words missing, and the answer is often decided by what comes after the gap rather than what comes before it. How to fill them without guessing.
Stated, implied, or neither: inference questions
The answer is not written down anywhere in the passage — you have to work it out. Point to the Proof, and the third pile of answers that sound sensible and have nothing in the text behind them.
The little two does not mean times two
Seven squared is forty-nine, not fourteen. That single mistake costs more marks than anything else on this topic — and the squares to 144 are worth knowing cold.
You cannot borrow from nothing: subtraction
Subtracting through a row of zeros is where this topic is won and lost. What actually happens when you exchange, and why the estimate matters even more here.
Mirror check first: letter codes
Every letter code question hands you the rule in the pair it gives you. Why writing down every jump matters, the three rules to tell apart, and four to try.
One letter at a time: making words from a rule
Work out where each letter in the bracket came from, then copy those positions across. What to do when a letter could have come from either word, and four to try.
Split first, always: letter sequences
Two letters per step, two independent tracks, and two different rules. Why splitting before you think is the whole method, and four to try.
Match, map, mine: number codes
Four words, three codes, printed in a random order. How to work out which code belongs to which word, and what to do when the easy clue is missing.
Count the main clauses: simple, compound, complex
Once clauses make sense, sentence types are counting. Why a comma alone is not the way to join a compound sentence, and the trap to watch for in these questions.
Effect, not meaning: why the writer chose that word
When a question asks why the writer chose a word, a definition is not the answer. The swap test that turns a definition into an effect, and what each paragraph is for.
True, and still misleading: reading a graph critically
A misleading graph almost never has wrong numbers on it. Every value is correct and the impression is false — and spotting how is a skill worth more than the mark.
Both sets, every time: words with two meanings
One word that fits two different brackets, where a wrong option is often a real synonym of one of them. Why naming both meanings first is what makes the question quick.
The pair that leaps out is usually wrong: opposites
Two brackets and one pair that means most nearly the opposite. Why the words that feel like they belong together are the trap, and six to try.
Write the jumps underneath: number sequences
Five common rules to choose between, and not long to do it in. Why writing the jumps down is faster than not, and five sequences to try.
The link has to survive both brackets: analogies
A is to B as C is to what. Why a correct link that fails on the second bracket is still the wrong link, and the Link Ladder we teach.
Meaning, word type, closest: finding the nearest word
Two brackets, three words in each, and one pair that means most nearly the same. The Three-Step Check, the larger version of the question, and six to try.
Two jobs, one mark: apostrophes
An apostrophe does one of two entirely separate things, and mixing them up is where the marks go. Missing letters, belonging, and where the s sits.
Solve the most constrained run first: word grids
A grid, a word bank and a few given letters. Why the order you solve the runs in decides whether the puzzle is easy or impossible, and what a contradiction is telling you.
The front leaves it alone, the end may not
A prefix leaves the spelling of the root word alone. A suffix sometimes changes it. One difference decides most of these questions, and the prefix that changes shape catches the rest.
Can you lift it out? punctuation
By Year 5 you know the marks; what you need is an order to apply them in. Four questions, and the test that decides where a pair of commas belongs.
Which rule am I in? spelling patterns
By Year 5 the difficulty is not knowing the rules but knowing which one applies. Four questions in a fixed order, and the plurals that have to be learnt.
Meaning, swap, check: synonyms and antonyms
Four options, and every one of them put there for a reason. What each wrong answer is doing, and why the routine matters more than the vocabulary.
When the spelling hides the sound
Knowing the definitions is the easy part. The harder questions in this type use words where the spelling and the sound disagree.
What relationship is it showing? connectives
A connective joins two ideas and tells you how they relate. Choosing the right one is choosing the right relationship — and which kind you use decides the sentence type.
It sounds right is not a test: proofreading
A sentence with one deliberate error, and four places it could be. Where the errors are planted, and why reading it aloud is not enough on its own.
Passive is not past: verb tenses
The tense says when. The voice says who is doing it. Confusing the two is the trap in this question type, and a sentence can be present tense and passive at once.
Same word, different job: naming word classes
A list of nouns and a list of verbs will let your child down, because the same word does different jobs in different sentences. The Word Job Test, and three traps.
The exact name, and the test for it: abbreviations, irony and idioms
This part of the paper usually asks for the precise name. Initialism or acronym, idiom or proverb, verbal or situational irony — each has a test that helps settle it quickly.
From the sale price back to the original: money
Same unit first, then label every amount. Why working backwards from a sale price is where almost everybody trips, and how to compare two packs honestly.
Same form, then compare: fractions
Fractions, decimals and percentages are one idea wearing three coats. Convert everything into the same coat before comparing, and per cent means out of a hundred.
The first calculation is not the answer: word problems
The number you can work out first is almost never the one being asked for. Count the steps before calculating any of them, and check you answered the actual question.
Write every gap, with its sign: number sequences
Write the gap between every pair before naming any rule. When the gaps themselves change, the pattern is in the second row rather than the first.
Label the sides the diagram left blank: perimeter
You already know perimeter is the distance round the edge. On a real paper the question is working out the sides nobody labelled — and there is a rule for that.
Make the move yourself first: transformations
Two moves at a time, diagonal mirror lines, and one option in every row designed to look right. Do the move before you look at the answers.
Estimate first, then be exact: addition
By Year 5 the arithmetic is not the problem — the setting out is. Why decimals with different lengths wreck a column before it starts, and the estimate that catches it.
Name it, then write the total down: angles
Almost every missing-angle question is one of four totals with something taken away from it. Name the angle first, and check your answer against the picture.
Find the clue that rules out: properties of shape
Knowing what a rhombus is stopped being the hard part. Three clues at once, sorting tables and Venn diagrams are what the test does with them now.
Work out the scale first: charts and graphs
Reading a bar chart is not the difficulty. Scales that go up in twenties, pie charts given one slice, and graphs that have to be read backwards are.
Split it into rectangles: area
Area is length times width, which your child already knows. The 11+ asks about shapes that are not rectangles — so cut them into ones that are.
Count the structure, not the things: combinations and logic
In Year 4 you could write the whole list out. A question about forty-two fixtures will not let you. Write enough of the list to see how it is built, then count that.
Write the chain in the margin: multi-step reasoning
The last section of the paper crosses two or three topics at once, in about fifty seconds, with one number in the question you are not supposed to use.
Wanted on top, altogether underneath: probability
Writing a chance as a fraction is the easy part. The paper stops drawing you the bag, wants the fraction cancelled, and takes a counter out halfway through.
Has it got a verb? clauses and phrases
Two questions, asked in order, sort the groups of words these questions show into phrase, main clause or subordinate clause — and once you can do that, sentence types follow for free.
Packing is not dividing: volume
Volume is length times width times height. But how many boxes fit inside another box is a different question, and dividing the volumes can get it badly wrong.
Number it, track it, test it: complete a word pair
Two pairs show you the rule and the third tests you. Why the rule is about positions rather than letters, and why you should never start with the word that repeats.
Sound cannot decide it: homophones
Words that sound identical and are spelled differently. Why the ear is the wrong tool, and the handful of pairs the 11+ returns to.
Exactly two factors: prime numbers
Not one factor, not three. Exactly two — which settles both of the arguments children have about primes, and explains why 1 is not one and 2 is.
Undo it backwards: letters in maths
Swap in, order up, work down — and when the letter is what you are hunting for, take the equation apart in the reverse order it was built. Plus the index that only touches what it touches.
Getting the numbers out is half the question: averages
Mean, median, mode and range are four short jobs your child already knows. The 11+ stops handing over the numbers in a neat row, and that is where the marks go.
A simile that runs on: imagery
Similes, metaphors and personification are the easy three. The fourth device has a comparing word in it too, and two little words spend their lives pretending.
Cross out the of-the-something: subject and verb agreement
The box of apples were left by the gate sounds fine to almost everybody. Why your ear grabs the wrong noun, and the pencil mark that fixes it.
The blanks are the question: data tables
Finding a box in a table takes seconds. Working out the boxes the table has left empty, using the totals, is what the question is actually asking.
Line up the points, then pad the gaps
Calculating with decimals goes wrong at the setting-out stage, not the arithmetic. Line the points up, fill the gaps with zeros, and the sum becomes an ordinary sum.
What does the remainder mean? division
The division is rarely the hard part. Deciding what to do with what is left over — round up, round down, or write it as a fraction — is where the marks actually sit.
Into it, or out of it? factors and multiples
The two words swapped more often than any others in maths. Factors divide into a number; multiples come out of it — and finding factors in pairs means none get missed.
Bigger to smaller, multiply: measures and units
The facts are not the hard part any more. Conversions with a decimal point in them, and making everything the same unit before you compare anything.
Wrong order, wrong answer
Divide and multiply are equal partners, and so are add and subtract. The wrong-order answers are printed among the options because the exam knows exactly which mistake you will make.
If you are given a fact, use it: multiplication
The paper often hands you a multiplication you did not ask for. Spotting that the next question is the same sum ten times smaller is worth more than being quick at long multiplication.
The discount is not the answer
Twenty per cent off ten pounds fifty is two pounds ten — and that is not what the question asked. Build every percentage from ten per cent, then read the last line again.
Hop to the hour: time and timetables
Time is the one measure that does not run in tens. Working out a duration by hopping to the next hour, the 24-hour clock, and journeys that cross midnight.
Corridor then stairs: coordinates
Along first, then up. The grid does not stop at zero any more, and negatives, reflections and midpoints that land on halves are what Year 5 has to handle.
Straight through zero: negative numbers
Counting through zero rather than stopping at it, and remembering that minus six is colder than minus two. The number line does the work if you draw it.
Part to part, or part to whole? ratio and proportion
A ratio compares part to part. A proportion compares part to the whole. Getting that one distinction right decides how a child does on this entire topic.
Twenty-seven combinations, one mark: complete the sentence
Three groups of three words, one sentence that works, and no marks for getting two out of three right. Why the verb is where to start.