The short answer
A reliable mock does three things.
Most guides tell you to book three or four one-off mocks. We would say those give you snapshots, and what you really want is a trend, which means testing regularly rather than occasionally. Whatever you choose, check the provider marks against a real mark scheme and shows you where the marks went, not just a total.
A score on its own tells you very little. “She got 62%” isn’t a plan. What you need to know is which questions she got wrong, whether she ran out of time, and whether the ones she missed were topics she hasn’t been taught yet or ones she thought she knew.
So look for three things:
That last point matters more than parents expect. A raw score means nothing until you know whether 62% was near the top of the year group or near the bottom. Our monthly tests are marked by our teaching team, and we share the results across the year group anonymously, so you can see how your child is doing without any of it becoming uncomfortable.
“The monthly tests were probably the biggest help. It just gets the children used to the pace and the exam setup, so it doesn’t feel like a massive shock later on. They also share the results across the year group in an anonymised way, which I actually like.”
Julia, on Trustpilot
Match the mock to the test your child will actually sit, not to “the 11+” in general. This is where a lot of preparation quietly goes to waste.
GL Assessment sets the papers for the majority of grammar school admissions in England. CEM stopped offering paper-based grammar school tests in 2023, and the schools that used it have either moved across to GL or written their own.
Plenty write their own, and if you’re anywhere near us, that’s almost certainly what you’re facing. The Sutton schools use their own Selective Eligibility Test, sat in mid-September, and the Tiffin schools run their own too. A generic practice book won’t show your child a paper that looks like either of them.
That’s why we don’t write generic papers. Ours are built around what actually comes up at Nonsuch, Sutton Grammar, Tiffin, Wallington and Wilson’s, reconstructed from what children tell us they faced when they walk out of the exam hall.
The usual advice is three or four full mocks: one early for a baseline, a couple in the middle to build stamina, and a final one a few weeks before the real thing.
That’s a reasonable floor, and we’d gently push back on it. A mock is only worth sitting if there’s time to do something about what it tells you. Sit four across two years and you get four data points, most of which arrive too late to change anything.
We build testing into the course monthly instead. Children get used to the clock, the silence and the feeling of not knowing an answer straight away, and that stops being frightening long before September. You also get a running picture of progress rather than three or four snapshots.
A full 50 question maths paper with every answer worked through, free. It is the cheapest way to find out where your child actually is. Straight to your inbox, no card needed.
"*" indicates required fields
Most children do well with a steady year or two rather than a frantic few months. We start structured 11+ work with children in Year 4 and Year 5, which leaves room to build the habit without taking over family life.
Two separate things need to happen, and families sometimes only discover the second one late:
There are around 163 grammar schools left in England, across 36 local authorities, and roughly 100,000 children sit the 11+ each year. Competition is the whole reason realistic practice matters.
It’s worth doing the arithmetic on the alternative. An independent secondary school around here now costs about £25,000 a year, and often more, which is upwards of £170,000 across seven years before a single trip or uniform. A grammar place delivers a comparable education for nothing.
Private one-to-one tutors typically charge £40 to £80 an hour, and London and the grammar-heavy counties sit at the top of that range. One subject at a time, one hour at a time.
What’s included
Posted out on Monday mornings.
A private tutor
Our online course
£15 a weekA whole month costs about what a single hour with a private tutor does.
Over 15 years we’ve helped thousands of children into grammar and independent schools. The most reliable provider, in the end, is simply the one whose papers, timing and feedback look most like the exam your own child will actually sit. That match matters far more than the name on the front.
The ones parents usually ask straight after this one.
