An 11 plus maths paper draws on the primary curriculum: place value, the four operations, times tables, fractions, decimals, percentages, ratio, simple algebra, measure, time, perimeter, area, volume, angles, shape, coordinates and data handling. The difficulty is not the topics but the steps hidden inside each question.
What maths topics come up in the 11 plus?
Below is the whole territory as a checklist: the topic area, what a child has to do inside it, and the sign that it is not secure yet. That third column is the useful one. A mark out of ten tells you little. A child who reaches for a written method to work out 300 minus 198 has told you something precise.
| Topic area | What your child has to be able to do | The sign it is not secure yet |
|---|---|---|
| Place value and number sense | Order and round whole numbers and decimals, and estimate an answer before working it out. | An answer ten times too big passes unnoticed. Rounding 4.96 to one decimal place gives 4.9. |
| The four operations and mental fluency | Work all four operations accurately on paper, and do the easy ones in their head. | Column subtraction appears for 300 minus 198. |
| Times tables, factors, multiples and primes | Recall every table to twelve instantly in random order, division included, then find factors, common multiples and primes. | A pause before 7 x 8. Factors of 36 listed with 4 or 9 missing. |
| Fractions | Simplify and compare fractions, find equivalents, and use all four operations with them. | Numerators and denominators are added together. Everything stalls when the denominators differ. |
| Decimals and percentages | Calculate with decimals, find a percentage of an amount, and increase or decrease by a percentage. | 10% is fine, 15% is a struggle. Decimal points land in the wrong place. |
| Converting between the three forms | Turn a fraction into a decimal or a percentage and back at speed, with no written method. | A calculation gets started in order to make three quarters into 75%. |
| Ratio and proportion | Share an amount in a given ratio, scale a recipe, and use the unitary method. | A ratio is read as a fraction of the whole, so £30 shared 2:3 gives £20 instead of £12. |
| Algebra, at a simple level | Fill in a missing number, continue a sequence and describe its rule, and substitute into a short expression. | The letter n stops everything, though the same question in words is answered correctly. |
| Measure and unit conversion | Convert between millimetres and centimetres and metres, between grams and kilograms, between millilitres and litres. | Multiplying where the answer should get smaller. Adding 60 cm to 1.2 m and writing 61.2. |
| Time and timetables | Read a timetable, work out a duration that crosses the hour, and use the twenty-four-hour clock. | Times are subtracted like decimals, so 10:15 to 11:05 comes out as 90 minutes. |
| Perimeter, area and volume | Find the perimeter and area of rectangles and compound shapes, the area of a triangle, and the volume of a cuboid. | Area and perimeter are used interchangeably. Compound shapes are attempted without splitting them up. |
| Angles and shape properties | Use angles on a line, in a triangle and around a point, and name the properties of 2D and 3D shapes. | Angles are guessed from the diagram. 11 plus diagrams are rarely to scale. |
| Coordinates and transformations | Plot and read coordinates in four quadrants, and reflect, rotate or translate a shape accurately. | The y value is read first. A reflection slides the shape instead of flipping it. |
| Averages and data handling | Find the mean, the median, the mode and the range, and read a bar chart or a line graph. | Mean and median are muddled. Axis labels go unread. |
| Multi-step word problems | Read a problem, decide which operations are needed and in what order, then check the result. | The question asked is "do I times or divide?" The arithmetic is fine once it is chosen. |
Why is 11 plus maths hard when the content is not?
Read that list again and notice what is missing. Almost nothing on it sits outside the primary curriculum. A capable Year 5 child has met nearly every line of it in class, so a parent can be forgiven for wondering where the difficulty comes from. It comes from two places, and neither is content.
The first is the number of steps. A school question asks for 15% of £240. An 11 plus question says a coat costs £240, is reduced by 15% in a sale, then has a further tenth off at the till, and asks what is paid. Same arithmetic. Three steps instead of one, and each has to be right for the last one to be right.
The second is that the question hides the operation. Children are taught in blocks, so during the fractions unit the method is settled before the words are read. An 11 plus paper takes that scaffolding away. Nothing announces itself. The real work is deciding what kind of question you are looking at, and that happens in the reading, not the working.
Which number facts have to be automatic?
Fluency is not an extra sitting on top of understanding. It is what makes understanding usable under a clock.
A child who is still counting up to work out 7 x 8 will run out of time regardless of how well they understand ratio. That is not a judgement about their maths. It is arithmetic about attention: working memory holds a few things at once, and if two slots are busy rebuilding a times table, nothing is left for the problem itself.
The facts worth drilling until they arrive without effort:
- Every table to twelve, both ways round. Not chanted in order. Asked at random, answered in about two seconds, with division as an equal partner: 56 divided by 7 as quick as 7 x 8.
- Doubles and halves to 100, and of simple decimals such as 2.4 or 0.35.
- Number bonds to 100 and to 1000, because they carry almost every mental subtraction.
- The equivalents that keep coming back. A half, a quarter, a fifth, a tenth and a third, in all three forms, known rather than calculated.
- Square numbers to 12 x 12, and the primes below 30.
Five minutes in the car does more than twenty minutes at a table, and it does not feel like revision. Ask in random order, mix in division, and keep it going all year.
Not sure which rows in the checklist are the weak ones? Start a free week of Pathway Eleven and the Starting Assessment finds them in one sitting.
Fractions and percentages are one topic, not three
Twenty per cent, a fifth and 0.2 are the same quantity wearing different coats. A child who does not feel that runs a conversion every single time, and conversions cost seconds a paper does not have.
The method worth teaching properly is building percentages from 10% and 1%. Find 10% by dividing by ten. Halve it for 5%. Divide the 10% by ten again for 1%. From those pieces a child can assemble 15% or 35% or 3% in their head. It is the most transferable trick in the paper, because percentages hide inside problems that look like they are about something else.
Ratio sits next door and is worth teaching straight afterwards. The confusion to head off early is between a part and a whole. In the ratio 2:3 there are five parts, not three.
Where do the careless marks actually go?
Ask anyone who marks 11 plus practice papers where the easiest marks disappear and you will hear one word: units.
The maths is right. The answer is written in the wrong unit, and the mark goes anyway.
From "Where do the careless marks actually go?"
The pattern never changes. The maths is right. The answer is written in the wrong unit, and the mark goes anyway. Lengths come in millimetres and the answer is wanted in centimetres. A question asks for minutes and the child writes 1.5 hours. Areas are worst, because the conversion has to be applied twice and a child who converts once is ten times out.
Instructions are the other leak. "To the nearest whole number." "How many more." "Which of these is not." Each changes the answer, and each sits in the part of the sentence a child skims on the way to the numbers.
The one habit worth drilling all year: before writing anything in the answer box, read the last line of the question again and check the unit, the rounding, and whether what was wanted is a total or a difference. Four seconds. The cheapest mark-saver in 11 plus maths.
How should a parent use this checklist?
Not as an exam. Testing a child on fifteen topic areas in one evening produces a miserable child and a list of things they were too flustered to show.
Take two rows a week instead. Ask a couple of questions in each, watch what happens, and sort what you see into three piles rather than one. There is "cannot do it", which needs teaching. There is "can do it slowly", which needs practice rather than explanation, and is the pile most families misdiagnose. And there is "did it, but did not notice what was asked", which is the units problem above.
Two more things cut against how most home practice is organised. Mix the topics up once each has been covered: a page of twenty ratio questions rehearses ratio but never rehearses recognising a ratio question. And keep the tables running all year.
How does Pathway Eleven cover these topics?
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.
The checklist above is roughly what the maths side of the plan works through, but the order is decided by your child, not a syllabus. A Starting Assessment finds the level first. After that, daily revision keeps every topic area ticking over while the weak ones take more of the time, Guided Practice teaches a method when something has gone wrong instead of simply marking it wrong, and Timed Drills build pace. Mock papers put the topics back together the way the real paper does: mixed, unlabelled.
Every session stays in a PIN-protected parent area, so when you want to know whether fractions have improved you can look rather than guess. One price covers every subject. The first week is free.
Common questions about 11 plus maths topics
What maths topics are on the 11 plus?+
The primary curriculum, more or less: number, fractions, decimals, percentages, ratio, simple algebra, measure, time, shape and space, plus coordinates, averages and data handling. What differs is the number of steps per question.
Does 11 plus maths go beyond the primary curriculum?+
Rarely in content. It goes further in pace and in the number of steps folded into one question, and it mixes topics rather than asking them in blocks.
Does my child need to know their times tables for the 11 plus?+
Yes, to the point of instant recall in random order, division facts included. A child who reconstructs 7 x 8 is spending attention on arithmetic that the harder part of the question needs.
Is there algebra on the 11 plus maths paper?+
Simple algebra turns up in most papers: a missing number in a calculation, the rule behind a sequence, or substituting a value into a short expression. Most papers stop short of equations with unknowns on both sides, though some independent school papers go further.
How do I find out which maths topics my child is weak at?+
Work through a checklist two rows at a time and watch the behaviour rather than the score. Hesitation before a number fact, or a wrong answer that goes unnoticed, tells you more than a mark out of ten.
Why does my child lose marks on questions they can clearly do?+
Units and instructions, most of the time. The answer is right but given in centimetres when millimetres were asked for, not rounded as instructed, or given as a total when the question wanted the difference.
Should my child practise maths with a calculator?+
No. 11 plus papers are almost always sat without one, so a calculator during practice hides the exact weakness that costs marks on the day.
How long does it take to fix a weak maths topic?+
A missing method can be taught in one sitting and made secure over a fortnight of short revisits. Fluency is slower: number facts take months of small daily practice, which is why tables are worth starting early.
Where to go next
- How to prepare for the 11 plus, the full parents' guide to timing and routine.
- What is the 11 plus?, who sits it and how it is marked.
- 11 plus English comprehension, the question types and the technique that saves marks.
- 11 plus non-verbal reasoning explained, the shape puzzles nobody teaches at school.
- What Pathway Eleven costs, one plan, one price.
- 11 plus maths explained, the paper this checklist is for: its format, its timing and its share of the result.
- Free 11 plus maths papers, worked through in the format the test uses.
A Starting Assessment, then a daily maths plan weighted towards whatever it finds shakiest.