Most parents are relieved to hear that 11+ maths is, at heart, school maths. There’s no secret syllabus. What makes it feel different is the way it’s asked: quickly, often in words, often with two or three steps, and with a set of answer options designed to catch the most common slips.
This post covers what the maths papers draw on, the main topic areas, the traps that cost marks, a handful of worked examples to try together, and how to practise without turning the kitchen table into a battleground.
What 11+ maths actually covers
GL Assessment, which says its 11+ tests are used by the majority of grammar schools in the UK, describes its maths tests like this in the parents’ guide to its free familiarisation papers: they “assess mathematics in line with the new National Curriculum and cover a variety of curriculum areas taught in schools up to the start of Year 6”, typically including “aspects of number, measurement, geometry and statistics”. Its FAQ puts it slightly differently: English and maths tests are “based mainly around curriculum content reached during the early part of Year 6”.
In short: Key Stage 2 maths up to the end of Year 5, with some papers reaching a little into Year 6. That matters because a few big topics, including ratio and proportion and algebra, only appear as their own sections in the Year 6 programme of study in the national curriculum for maths. A child sitting the test in September of Year 6 may not have met them at school yet.
Two more things are worth knowing. First, not every 11+ area tests maths at all: local authorities and schools decide which subjects to include, and GL notes that an authority may add its own questions. Second, the format varies. GL’s own familiarisation papers are multiple choice with five options per question, answered in pencil on a separate answer sheet, and its guide says calculators are not allowed in the real tests. Your admissions authority’s website is the place to confirm what your child will sit.
The main topic areas
- Number and arithmetic. Place value, the four operations, mental maths, and times tables (the curriculum expects recall up to 12 × 12 by the end of Year 4). Order of operations is a Year 6 topic.
- Fractions, decimals and percentages. Equivalents, ordering, fractions of amounts and percentages of amounts. Percentages are introduced in Year 5.
- Ratio and proportion. Sharing in a ratio, scaling recipes, “for every” problems.
- Algebra and sequences. Simple formulae, missing-number problems, number sequences and finding pairs of numbers that fit a rule.
- Measurement. Area and perimeter, volume of cuboids, converting units, time and money.
- Geometry. Angles (on a straight line, at a point, in triangles), properties of shapes, coordinates.
- Statistics. Reading tables, timetables, bar charts and line graphs. The mean and pie charts are Year 6 topics.
- Word problems. Not a topic so much as a wrapper around all of the above.
The traps that cost the most marks
When children lose marks in 11+ maths it’s more often a slip than a gap in knowledge. Four slips come up again and again.
- Misreading the question. “Which is NOT”, “the smallest”, “how many more”. One skipped word turns a right method into a wrong answer.
- Units. The question gives grams and asks for kilograms, or gives minutes and asks for hours and minutes. Multiple-choice options often include the right number in the wrong unit.
- Stopping halfway. In a two-step problem, the answer to step one is very often sitting there as one of the options.
- Place value with decimals. Thinking 0.65 is bigger than 0.7 because 65 is bigger than 7.
Worked examples to try together
These are our own 11+-style questions. Cover the answer, have a go, then talk through the method. The talking is where most of the learning happens.
1. Decimals and place value
Which of these is the largest: 0.65, 0.7, 0.607, 0.072?
Answer: 0.7. Line the numbers up by the decimal point and compare the tenths first: 0.7 has 7 tenths, 0.65 and 0.607 have 6, and 0.072 has none. A neat trick is to give them all the same number of decimal places: 0.700, 0.650, 0.607, 0.072.
2. Percentages
A coat costs £60. In a sale it has 15% off. What is the sale price?
Answer: £51. 10% of £60 is £6 and 5% is half of that, £3, so 15% is £9. Then £60 − £9 = £51. The trap option here would be £9, the discount rather than the price.
3. Ratio
Ava and Ben share 35 stickers in the ratio 2 : 3. How many does Ben get?
Answer: 21. There are 2 + 3 = 5 parts. 35 ÷ 5 = 7 stickers per part, so Ben gets 3 × 7 = 21. Check: Ava gets 14, and 14 + 21 = 35.
4. Sequences and algebra
A sequence starts 4, 7, 10, 13, … What is the 20th number?
Answer: 61. The sequence goes up by 3 each time. To get from the 1st number to the 20th you add 3 nineteen times, not twenty: 4 + (19 × 3) = 4 + 57 = 61. That “nineteen, not twenty” is exactly the kind of slip the answer options are built around.
A follow-up: if 3y + 5 = 26, what is y? Take 5 from both sides to get 3y = 21, so y = 7.
5. Area and perimeter
A rectangle is 8 cm long and 5 cm wide. A 3 cm by 2 cm rectangle is cut out of one corner, leaving an L shape. What are the area and perimeter of the L shape?
Answer: area 34 cm², perimeter 26 cm. The area is 40 − 6 = 34 cm². The perimeter surprises people: cutting a rectangle out of a corner pushes two edges inwards but doesn’t change their total length, so the perimeter is the same as the original rectangle, 2 × (8 + 5) = 26 cm. Drawing it on squared paper makes this click.
6. A multi-step word problem with units
A recipe uses 250 g of flour to make 10 biscuits. Maya wants to make 24 biscuits. How much flour does she need, in kilograms?
Answer: 0.6 kg. One biscuit needs 250 ÷ 10 = 25 g. 24 biscuits need 24 × 25 = 600 g, and 600 g = 0.6 kg. Expect both “600” and “0.6” to be among the options, which is why underlining the unit in the question pays off.
7. Angles and data
An isosceles triangle has one angle of 40° between its two equal sides. What size is each of the other two angles?
Answer: 70° each. Angles in a triangle add up to 180°, so the other two share 180 − 40 = 140°, and because they’re equal, each is 70°.
Five spelling scores are 6, 9, 4, 7 and 9. What is the mean? The total is 35, and 35 ÷ 5 = 7.
How to practise, calmly
- Secure the basics first. Quick, accurate times tables and number bonds free up working memory for the wordy part of a question. Little and often usually works better than one long session.
- Practise without a calculator. If the real test doesn’t allow one, home practice shouldn’t either.
- Read, underline, estimate. Underline what the question asks for and the unit it wants. Make a rough estimate before calculating, so a silly answer stands out.
- Use scrap paper properly. Writing down step one stops a child stopping at step one.
- Untimed first, timed later. Build accuracy before speed. Our post on timed practice and anxious children explains when a timer helps and when it doesn’t.
- Look at the official familiarisation papers. GL offers free familiarisation materials, including maths, which show the multiple-choice layout and the answer sheet. Check first which provider your area uses.
- Go back over wrong answers together. Sort them into “didn’t know how” and “knew how but slipped”. The second pile is usually bigger, and it’s the quickest to fix.
If you’d like a quick, low-pressure sense of where your child is, the free practice check is ten questions, with no sign-up. When you want more, our 11+ maths hub breaks Puzzitron’s 11+-style maths practice down by topic, from fractions and ratio to algebra and data handling, with a retro-arcade look that helps children come back for another go.
Useful next reads
- 11+ practice overview: how maths fits alongside verbal and non-verbal reasoning.
- 11+ in 2026 to 27: a parent’s guide by region: which areas test what.
- KS2 SATs-style practice: the same curriculum maths, if your child is also heading for Year 6 SATs.
- How to talk to your child about a result: for after the practice papers start coming back marked.