11+ English is not one examination but two, stapled together. The first half — comprehension — is usually multiple-choice or short-answer, marked by machine or against a tight scheme, and rewards precision. The second half — writing — is judged by a human being reading your child's actual sentences, and rewards control. They test different skills, they are marked in different ways, and they respond to different preparation. Most families pour their effort into one half and quietly hope the other will take care of itself. It won't, but the good news is that neither half is mysterious.

One caveat before the detail: what "11+ English" means varies by region and by school. Some grammar school tests fold English into a broader paper; some weight it heavily as a standalone; independent schools nearly always examine it seriously, writing included. The skills below are common to virtually all versions — but check the format of your actual target test rather than assuming.

Half one: comprehension

The child reads a passage — fiction, non-fiction, or poetry, often from an older or more literary source than school texts — and answers questions against the clock. The questions come in four families:

  • Retrieval. What does the text say? Find the fact, the name, the detail. These are the accessible marks, and losing them is almost always a rushing problem, not a reading problem.
  • Inference. What does the text imply? Why did the character hesitate; what does the weather suggest; what is the author's attitude? This is where papers separate children, because inference cannot be found by scanning — it has to be reasoned from evidence.
  • Vocabulary in context. What does this word mean here? Note the last word: the question is rarely a dictionary test. A word the child "knows" often carries a different sense in the passage, and the wrong multiple-choice options are built precisely from the more familiar meaning.
  • Technical. Spelling, punctuation, grammar, and identifying word classes — a noun, an adverb, a subordinate clause. Small in number, but cheap to secure and painful to lose.

Why children lose comprehension marks

Three patterns account for most dropped marks. First, answering from the world instead of the text — the child knows things about dogs, so answers from general knowledge rather than from what this passage said about this dog. Second, first-glance multiple choice — picking the option that echoes a phrase from the text rather than the one that answers the question; test writers plant those echoes deliberately. Third, running out of passage stamina — a long Victorian extract simply exhausts a child who reads ten minutes a day, and accuracy collapses in the final questions.

All three improve the same way: with regular reading of harder, older, more varied text than the child would choose alone, plus the habit of pointing at the line that justifies an answer. "Show me where it says that" is the single most useful sentence an adult can deploy here.

Half two: writing

The writing task is usually short — often twenty or thirty minutes — and the prompt might be narrative ("continue the story"), descriptive ("describe the market"), or occasionally persuasive or personal. Two things about it surprise parents.

First: whether it is marked at all varies. In some regions the writing sample is not scored as part of the standardised result, but is kept and may be looked at later — for instance by a review panel or in an appeal. In others, and in most independent school exams, it is marked and genuinely moves the outcome. This is worth establishing for your specific test, because it changes how much preparation weight writing deserves — though never to zero, since secondary schools will ask your child to write constantly from the first week of Year 7.

Second: it is marked for control, not flair. A typical scheme rewards content and relevance to the prompt, organisation and paragraphing, sentence variety, vocabulary choice, and technical accuracy. Nowhere does it reward length. The romantic idea that examiners are hunting for the next great novelist produces over-long, under-punctuated pieces that score poorly. What scores well is almost boringly describable: a piece that answers the actual prompt, is organised into paragraphs that each do a job, varies its sentence openings and lengths deliberately, chooses a handful of precise words rather than a shower of ambitious ones, and is checked for full stops before the pen goes down.

A short piece, done well

Given twenty-five minutes, a strong routine looks like this: three or four minutes planning (not optional — the plan is where organisation marks come from), fifteen to eighteen minutes writing at a measured pace, and three minutes checking, hunting specifically for the child's own known weaknesses — usually missing full stops, tense drift, or a homophone. One vivid, well-punctuated page beats three breathless ones every time an examiner is honest about it.

Preparing the two halves together

The halves feed each other more than the workbook industry admits. Reading builds the vocabulary and sentence-rhythm that writing draws on; writing forces attention to how sentences are actually constructed, which sharpens reading. Practically:

  • Read daily, and talk about it. Ten pages plus two minutes of conversation — "why do you think she lied?" — is worth more than any comprehension drill. Include older books, non-fiction and the occasional poem; the exam passage will not be a contemporary children's novel.
  • Collect words in context, not lists. A word met in a sentence, discussed, and reused sticks. Alphabetical vocabulary lists mostly don't.
  • Write little and often. Two short pieces a week, each with one focus ("this week: varied sentence openings"), beats a weekly hour of unfocused composition. Rewrite one paragraph occasionally — improvement is more instructive than production.
  • Practise the format late. Timed passages and timed writing belong in the final months, as rehearsal. Before that, untimed accuracy and habit-building do the real work.

We should say plainly where we stand, since we build AI tutors: our English tutor teaches KS3 — the secondary curriculum your child meets after this exam — and we do not sell an 11+ English course. The habits above need a reading child, a listening adult, and time; no product replaces that. What some entrance-exam families do use is the exam countdown on the dashboard and Paper Review for talking through mistakes from a practice paper — the tutor walks a similar question, never hands over the answer to the original.

FAQ

What does 11+ English comprehension actually test?

Four broad skills: retrieval (finding what the text says), inference (working out what it implies), vocabulary in context, and technical knowledge such as spelling, punctuation and grammar. Inference and vocabulary questions are where most marks are separated.

Is the 11+ writing task always marked?

No — it varies by region and school. In some areas the writing task is not scored at all but may be looked at later, for example if an appeal or a borderline review arises. In others, including many independent school exams, writing is marked and carries real weight. Check how your target test treats it.

How do examiners mark 11+ writing?

Typically against a scheme covering content and ideas, organisation and paragraphing, sentence variety, vocabulary choice, and technical accuracy. A short, controlled, accurate piece almost always outscores a long, ambitious, error-strewn one.

What is the single best preparation for 11+ English?

Sustained reading — daily, varied, and slightly above comfort level — with conversation about what was read. No workbook replicates what a reading habit builds: vocabulary met in context, an ear for sentence rhythm, and stamina with unfamiliar text.

Duke Harewood runs aitutors.me and has a daughter in Year 8. Published 1 September 2026.