An 11 plus glossary explains the words parents meet in admissions letters and school policies: the test itself, such as raw scores, standardised scores and qualifying scores, and the process around it, such as oversubscription criteria, preference forms and appeals. Every definition below stands on its own.
Why does the 11 plus have its own vocabulary?
Most families meet the 11 plus through a letter or a school website, written by people who use these words daily. Nothing in them is deliberately obscure. The difficulty is that the words arrive from three directions at once: the test, the admissions system behind it, and the practice material families buy in between.
So a parent can follow every sentence in an admissions policy and still not know what it means for their own child. The definitions below are grouped the same three ways. Find the word you came for, read it, and stop. Nothing here depends on the entry above it.
One warning. Wording differs from place to place, so where a term is about to shape a decision, the document your own admissions authority publishes is the one that counts.
What do the words about the test and its marking mean?
- 11 plus (11+)
- A selective entrance test used by grammar schools and some independent schools, sat near the start of Year 6 at ten or eleven. It is not compulsory and no child is entered automatically.
- Entrance exam
- Any test a school uses to decide who it admits, rather than to measure what a child has already learned. The 11 plus is one kind of entrance exam.
- Pre-test
- An early test that decides whether a child goes forward to a school's later admissions stages. Many independent senior schools use one, often a year or more before the place itself begins.
- ISEB pre-test
- An online pre-test used by many independent senior schools, covering English, mathematics, verbal reasoning and non-verbal reasoning. A child normally sits it once and the result goes to each school the family applies to.
- CAT4
- A cognitive abilities test many schools use to understand how a pupil learns and to track progress. It is not an 11 plus entrance paper, though some 11 plus papers use similar reasoning question types.
- GL Assessment
- An assessment publisher that produces 11 plus papers for many selective areas, including the shared West Midlands Grammar Schools entrance test. A family usually meets the name in the admissions arrangements rather than on the paper itself.
- Multiple choice
- A format where the child picks one of several printed options, usually marking a separate answer sheet read by machine. Marking the wrong line is a real risk, so the sheet needs practice.
- Standard format answer sheet
- A paper where the child writes each answer out instead of choosing from printed options, in the booklet or on a sheet beside it. Some tests mix both formats.
- Raw score
- The plain number of marks a child scored on a paper, before any adjustment. On its own it says very little, because papers differ in difficulty and children differ in age.
- Standardised score
- A raw score converted onto a common scale so marks from different papers can be compared, with an adjustment for the child's age. It is the number that decides a child's place in the order.
- Age standardisation
- The step that adjusts a score for how old a child is in months, so that a summer-born child is not measured against someone almost a year older on the same raw mark.
- Qualifying score
- The standardised score a child has to reach to count as selective in that admissions process. Reaching it puts a child in the running. It does not on its own secure a place.
- Pass mark
- A phrase parents use, though most 11 plus processes do not have one. Places are usually allocated in rank order until schools are full, so the score that succeeds moves each year.
- Rank order
- The list of children ordered by score, highest first. Where places are allocated this way, a school works down the list until full rather than admitting everyone above a fixed mark.
- Cut-off
- The lowest score that actually secured a place in a given year. It is worked out afterwards rather than set in advance, so last year's figure is a guide, never a promise.
- Access arrangements
- Adjustments to how a child sits the test, such as extra time or a modified paper. They are agreed in advance, need evidence from the school, and have their own deadline.
Pathway Eleven is an independent service and is not affiliated with or endorsed by GL Assessment.
What do the words about applying for a place mean?
- Grammar school
- A state secondary school that selects its pupils by ability, using an entrance test. It is free to attend, and exists in some parts of the country and not others.
- Selective school
- Any school that decides who it admits partly on the strength of a test rather than only on where a family lives. Grammar schools and many independent schools are selective.
- Superselective
- A selective school that fills its places in score order alone, with distance from home used only to settle ties, or not used at all. Living nearby brings no advantage.
- Comprehensive school
- A state secondary school that admits children of all abilities with no entrance test, using its published admissions criteria when there are more applicants than places.
- Independent school
- A fee-paying school outside the state system, often called a private school. Many set their own entrance tests, and their timetables and question formats can differ from the state 11 plus.
- The body that decides who is offered a place at a school. For some schools that is the local council; for academies and several others it is the governing body or trust.
- Consortium
- A group of schools running one shared test and registration, so a child sits a single paper instead of one per school. The schools still make their own offers.
- Catchment area
- The geographic area a school gives priority to. Living inside it is not a guarantee of a place, and at a superselective school it may carry no weight at all.
- Registration
- Putting your child's name forward to sit the test, a separate act from applying for a secondary place. A child who is not registered does not sit it, however well prepared they are.
- Closing date
- The last day a registration is accepted. It usually falls months before the test, sometimes in the summer term of Year 5, and it is the deadline families most often miss.
- Oversubscription criteria
- The published rules a school uses to choose between applicants when there are more of them than places. Typical criteria include children in care, siblings already at the school and distance from home.
- Preference form, or common application form
- The council form on which you list secondary schools in order of preference, due by 31 October in Year 6 in England. Schools are not told where you ranked them, so an ambitious first choice costs nothing.
- National offer day
- The day councils in England send secondary school offers to families: 1 March, or the next working day if that falls at a weekend. Every family finds out together.
- Appeal
- A formal request for an independent panel to look again at a refused place. It is a hearing about whether the admissions rules were applied properly, not a resit.
- Waiting list
- A list of children who missed out but may still be offered a place if one comes free. Position on it follows the school's admissions criteria, not the order families applied in.
- EHC plan
- An Education, Health and Care plan: a legal document setting out a child's special educational needs and the support that has to be provided. Where it names a school, that school must admit the child.
Words sorted. Want to know where your child actually stands? Start a free week of Pathway Eleven and the Starting Assessment tells you in one sitting.
What do the words about question types and practice mean?
- Verbal reasoning
- Word puzzles that test how a child thinks with language: codes, letter sequences, analogies, hidden words and odd ones out. Schools rarely teach the formats, so they feel strange the first time.
- Non-verbal reasoning
- Shape and pattern puzzles with no reading and no arithmetic. A child sees a set of figures, works out the rule behind them, then applies it to a new figure.
- Spatial reasoning
- A close relative of non-verbal reasoning that asks a child to picture objects moving: rotations, reflections, folded nets and cube views. Some tests treat it as a section of its own.
- Comprehension
- A reading passage followed by questions about it. The passage is usually longer and older in style than a child meets in class, and marks come from going back into it.
- Inference
- Working out something a writer implies but never states. Questions that start how do we know, or what does this suggest, want an inference, and the evidence must come from the passage.
- Cloze
- A question where letters or whole words are missing from a sentence and the child supplies what fits. It leans on spelling, on vocabulary and on an ear for how a sentence should run.
- Mock test
- A full paper sat under real conditions: proper timing, no help and no stopping. It shows how a child performs under pressure, which is different from what they know.
- Past paper
- A test used in an earlier year, or a published paper written to resemble one. Useful for familiarity, but it is not marked or standardised the way the real test is.
- Timed drill
- A short block of questions worked against the clock, aimed at pace rather than teaching. It earns its place once a child is already accurate without a timer running.
- Tutor
- A teacher paid to work with a child privately, one to one or in a small group. What a tutor supplies is structure, marking and a weekly decision about what next.
- Year 6
- The final year of primary school in England, the year children turn eleven. The 11 plus falls near its start, and secondary preferences are due later in the same autumn term.
- Key Stage 2
- Years 3 to 6 of primary school in England. Most 11 plus English and mathematics content sits inside this curriculum, asked faster and with more steps hidden in the wording.
- SATs
- National curriculum tests taken in the summer term of Year 6, after the 11 plus has been and gone. They measure schools rather than select children and play no part in grammar school admission.
Which 11 plus words are easy to mix up?
Some pairs sound like two names for one thing and are not. These five cost families the most, in wasted worry or in a decision made on the wrong information.
| This term | The term it gets confused with | Why the difference matters to you |
|---|---|---|
| Raw score | Standardised score | The raw score is ticks on a page. The standardised score adjusts for paper difficulty and for age, and it is the only one anybody ranks. |
| Qualifying score | Pass mark | A qualifying score puts your child in the running. It is not a fixed pass mark, and reaching it does not by itself hold a place open. |
| Catchment area | Oversubscription criteria | Catchment is one input. The criteria are the full ordered list a school works through, and distance often sits low down or nowhere. |
| Selective | Superselective | A selective school tests, then may still favour local children. A superselective one goes by score alone, so where you live changes nothing. |
| Mock test | Past paper | A mock is sat under real timing and returned as a report. A past paper is practice material. Only one shows how your child behaves under pressure. |
If you take one row from that table, take the first. Almost every anxious conversation about 11 plus scores turns out to be a raw mark read as though it were a standardised one.
What to do once the words make sense
Knowing the words is not a plan, but it changes what you can act on. Two dates are worth finding straight away: the registration closing date, which arrives long before the test, and the date your council needs the preference form. Both differ by area, and neither can be recovered once missed.
After that the work is ordinary. Find which of the four skill areas is weakest, give it more of the week without dropping the others, and sit timed papers while there is still room to act on them.
Pathway Eleven is an online 11 plus preparation service that gives each child a personalised daily plan of revision, guided teaching, timed practice and full mock papers, with every question reviewed and approved by a qualified teacher. A Starting Assessment finds the level first, so the plan starts from what your child can do, and a PIN-protected parent area keeps every completed session for you to read.
One monthly price covers every subject, with no per-subject upgrade and no long contract. Free for 7 days, then £49 a month. Cancel any time.
Common questions about 11 plus terms
What does a standardised score actually mean?+
It is a raw mark converted onto a common scale and adjusted for the child's age in months. Two children with the same number of ticks on the paper can end up with different standardised scores, because one of them is younger than the other.
Is there a pass mark for the 11 plus?+
Usually not. Most areas set a qualifying score and then allocate places in rank order until the schools are full, so the score that secures a place moves with the size and strength of each year's entry.
What is the difference between registering and applying?+
Registration puts your child forward to sit the test, and it closes months before the test itself. The application is the council preference form for secondary places, and it falls later, in the autumn of Year 6. Doing one does not do the other.
Is CAT4 the same thing as the 11 plus?+
No. CAT4 is a cognitive abilities test that schools use to understand how a pupil learns and to track progress once they are there. Some 11 plus papers use similar reasoning question types, but the two are built for different jobs.
What does superselective mean?+
It describes a school that fills its places in score order alone, with distance from home used only to settle ties, or not used at all. Living close by brings no advantage at a school that admits this way.
Where do I check the words my own area uses?+
The admissions authority publishes them, usually in an admissions policy or a parents' booklet on its website. Wording and timetables differ from place to place, so the local document beats anything written generally, including this page.
Where to go next
- What is the 11 plus?, who sits it, what it covers and what the result decides.
- How to prepare for the 11 plus, the full parents' guide to timing, routine and the four skill areas.
- 11 plus verbal reasoning question types, every word puzzle a child meets, with the method for each.
- 11 plus non-verbal reasoning explained, the shape puzzles that school does not normally teach.
- What Pathway Eleven costs, one plan, one price, everything included.
- Pathway Eleven for primary schools, a free 11 plus guide a school can hand to its parents.
- GL Assessment and the 11 plus test, who provides the paper, and what they publish about it.
A Starting Assessment, then a daily plan weighted towards the skills it finds weakest.