Finding it, not remembering it: retrieval questions in the 11+
The Short Answer
A retrieval question asks for something that is written down in the passage. The mark is not for understanding the text but for finding the answer quickly without reading it all again. Teach the hunt rather than the reading: work out what kind of fact is wanted, pick two or three unusual key words, scan for them, then read the whole sentence they sit in.
What is a retrieval question?
A retrieval question asks for something that is written down in the passage. Not implied, not suggested — stated. Your child could underline it.
These are the questions that look like the easy ones, and they are, right up until somebody starts a clock. Because the mark is not for understanding the passage. It is for finding the answer quickly, without reading the whole thing again.
That is a different skill from reading, and it is teachable in a way that general comprehension is not. A child who reads beautifully and slowly can still lose marks here, which surprises parents more than almost anything else about the 11+.
How do you teach the method?
We call it Scan and Check, and it has four steps.
Read the question and work out what kind of fact it wants: a name, a number, a time, a place, or a reason the passage gives. Knowing the shape of the answer tells your eye what to look for.
Pick two or three unusual words from the question to hunt for. Unusual is the important part — what and the appear in every question ever written and will not help.
Scan, and mean it. Sweep down the lines looking only for those key words, letting everything else go past. This is not reading and should not feel like reading.
Check the whole sentence. You have landed on the key word — now read on, all the way to the full stop. This is the step that scores, and the one children skip.
Can you show me a worked example?
The small words that flip a question
Most wrong retrieval answers are half a sentence long. The child found the right place, started answering, and stopped before the word that changed everything.
These are the ones to watch: only, except, never, unless, apart from, before, rather than.
Take whole peanuts should never be offered between March and August. A child who stops at never answers: never offer peanuts. The sentence says nothing of the sort — it names five months.
The habit that fixes this costs nothing: land on the key word, then read to the full stop before answering. Not to the end of the line. To the full stop.
Where do pupils lose marks?
Three places.
Answering from memory, which feels efficient and is not. Memory under time pressure is confident and wrong at roughly the same rate.
Stopping mid-sentence, as above.
And re-reading the passage for every question. A child who reads a long passage three times has spent their time on the part of the paper that carries no marks at all.
Try it yourself
Read this passage once, then answer without reading it again — scan back for each answer instead. "The Winslow bell tower has rung on the hour since 1847, when the parish raised forty-two pounds to replace a cracked bell that had hung there for ninety years. The new bell was cast in Leicestershire and carried to Buckinghamshire by canal, a journey of eleven days. It has been silent only twice: during the winter of 1963, when ice split the frame, and for six weeks in 2004 while the tower was repointed. The bell is rung by hand every Sunday, apart from Easter Sunday, when a recording is used because the ringers attend the morning service."
- In which year was the new bell installed?
- How long did the journey from Leicestershire take?
- How much did the parish raise?
- How many times has the bell been silent?
- On which Sunday is the bell not rung by hand?
- 1847. A date question, so scan for numerals rather than reading — the eye finds digits far faster than words.
- Eleven days. The key word to hunt is Leicestershire, but the answer is not next to it; it is at the end of the sentence. This is the habit that scores: land on the key word, then read on to the full stop.
- Forty-two pounds. Note that it is written in words rather than digits, which is exactly the sort of thing that defeats a child scanning only for numerals. If the digit hunt fails, hunt for the topic word instead — here, raised.
- Twice. The passage says so directly, and then lists both occasions. A child who counts the occasions rather than reading the sentence gets the same answer here, but that method fails as soon as a passage lists three examples of something it says happened four times.
- Easter Sunday. This is the one where the small word decides it. Apart from reverses the sentence: every Sunday except that one. A child who stops reading at every Sunday answers confidently and wrongly.
How much practice does this type need at home?
Little and often, and it does not need printed papers. Five minutes with a museum leaflet, a football programme or the back of a cereal packet, three times a week, does the job.
Read it together once. Then ask five questions whose answers are definitely in the text, and insist your child points at the sentence rather than telling you the answer. Pointing is the entire discipline: it is impossible to point at something you have remembered.
Once that is automatic, the useful next step is speed — the same exercise with a timer running, so scanning becomes the reflex under pressure rather than a technique your child remembers to use when calm.
Free: an English workbook
Questions across the English question types, with the method printed at the top and full answers at the back. One workbook for the whole strand, not a sheet per question type.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the difference between retrieval and inference?
A retrieval question asks for something the passage states, and the answer can be pointed at. An inference question asks for something the passage implies, and the answer has to be worked out from evidence. Children who treat retrieval questions as inference questions overthink them and lose time; children who treat inference questions as retrieval hunt for a sentence that is not there. Knowing which is which before starting is half the skill.
Should my child read the whole passage first?
Read it once, at a reasonable pace, to know roughly what it is about and where things are. Then do not read it again. Every answer after that should be found by scanning back, not by re-reading. The mark is for finding, and a child who reads the passage three times runs out of time on a paper that is not really testing their reading at all.
Why does my child get retrieval questions wrong when the answer is right there?
Usually one of two reasons. Either they answered from memory rather than going back — memory is confident and unreliable under time pressure — or they stopped reading halfway through the sentence. Words like only, except, never, unless and apart from reverse what a sentence means, and they tend to arrive after the part a child has already decided is the answer.
How can we practise this at home without buying papers?
Any non-fiction your child will tolerate works: a museum leaflet, a football programme, the back of a cereal packet. Read it together, then ask five questions whose answers are definitely in the text, and insist they point at the sentence rather than telling you. Pointing is the whole discipline. It takes five minutes and it builds exactly the habit the test rewards.
Do answers need to be in full sentences?
Follow what the question asks for. In multiple-choice papers the answer is chosen rather than written, so what matters is accuracy rather than phrasing. Where your child does write an answer, a short accurate one taken from the passage beats a long one written from memory. Copying the relevant words is not lazy here; it is the point.
Sources
- GL Assessment — 11+ familiarisation materials and question type descriptions Published 2025.
- Clever Clogs Academy — our own Year 4 and Year 5 lesson records, Winslow Published September 2025 to July 2026.
We are not affiliated with, endorsed by or connected to GL Assessment or Buckinghamshire Council. Test arrangements change; always check the council's own pages for the current year's dates.
We Teach This Method Every Week in Winslow
Groups of no more than six pupils with two qualified teachers, in person or online. Come and see a session before you decide.