An 11 plus mock exam is a full paper sat in one sitting under real timings, with every section clocked separately and an answer sheet your child completes the way the real test asks for it. It is marked the moment it is submitted, and it comes back to you as a report.
11 plus questions fall into four strands: English comprehension and grammar, mathematics, verbal reasoning and non-verbal reasoning. A mock puts all four in one sitting, in the multiple-choice format the West Midlands test uses, and every question a child meets here is written and checked by a qualified teacher.
What is a Pathway Eleven mock test?
Many 11 plus mock exams sold to families are a printed paper and a marking key. This is not that. A mock here is a full paper in the two-paper shape of the regional entrance test, sat from start to finish in one sitting, with no help and no pauses.
The regional entrance test is set by GL Assessment, so our mocks rehearse the published format of the West Midlands test: the two-paper shape, the section timings and the answer-sheet mechanics a child will meet on the day. The papers themselves are our own, written in house, with every question reviewed and approved by a qualified teacher, and they are not GL Assessment papers and not past papers.
Pathway Eleven is an independent service and is not affiliated with or endorsed by GL Assessment.
Each section carries its own time limit rather than one clock running across the whole paper, which is how the real thing works and why pacing matters. The clock stays on screen throughout, next to a progress bar showing how far through the section your child is. Questions arrive one at a time, and the answer sheet is completed in the format the test asks for, so nothing about the mechanics is a surprise on the morning that counts.
You choose mock day during setup. The paper stays locked until that date arrives, which stops a child sitting one on a restless Tuesday and keeps it as something the week is built around.
How is a mock marked?
Automatically, the second your child presses submit. There is no waiting for a tutor to hand a paper back the following week, and no evening at the kitchen table with a mark scheme deciding whether an answer counts. The result is on screen before your child has left the chair.
A paper marked a week later is a paper a child has stopped thinking about.
From "How is a mock marked?"
That matters more than it sounds. A paper marked a week later is a paper a child has stopped thinking about, and the questions they got wrong are questions they can no longer remember attempting. Marked immediately, a mock can be talked through while the reasoning is still fresh.
What does the parent report show?
Every completed mock becomes a report rather than a score. It opens with the overall result, breaks that down subject by subject, and then breaks each subject down by question type, so you can see that the marks were lost on letter codes rather than across verbal reasoning as a whole.
Beside the accuracy sits the pace: how long your child spent and where the time went. Each skill carries a line on what to work on next, and the days of revision that follow respond to it, which is what turns a mock from a verdict into a plan.
Reports live in the PIN-protected parent area with the rest of your child’s work. You can reopen any paper months later and see exactly what happened, question by question. Your child sees their own work; the reporting is yours.
When do mocks unlock, and what does the free week give you?
Straight answer: mocks are part of the paid plan. They unlock when the free week ends and the subscription starts, and they are not available inside the trial. We would rather say that here than have you hunting for them on day two.
Free for 7 days, then £49 a month. Cancel any time.
The free week still does real work. It opens with the four-subject Starting Assessment, which is what the daily plan is built from, and then runs that plan: guided teaching on whatever the assessment found shaky, revision across the rest, and timed practice on the subjects that are already reliable. Seven days in, you know where your child stands and what a week of this looks like in your house.
The order is deliberate rather than commercial. A full paper sat in week one measures preparation that has not happened yet: it frightens a child and tells a parent almost nothing. By the time mocks unlock there is something worth measuring.
Ready to see where your child is starting from? Start your free week, and mocks are waiting on the other side of it.
How does a mock differ from the rest of the practice week?
Different kinds of practice do different jobs, and a plan that uses only one of them leaves something out. All four are part of the same subscription.
| Kind of practice | What it is for | Clock | What you get back |
|---|---|---|---|
| Daily revision | Keeping every skill area moving and giving weaker skills extra attention. | No | A record of what was covered and how it went. |
| Guided Practice | Teaching a skill that is new or has gone wrong, one step at a time. | No | Explanations, and repair work on the misunderstanding. |
| Timed Drill | Building pace on a single subject once it is already reliable. | Yes, short | Accuracy and pace on that subject. |
| Full mock paper | Rehearsing the whole test: stamina, pacing and switching between skill areas. | Yes, full length | A complete report, question by question. |
How should a mock result be read?
Start with the temptation to resist: a single number. A raw score on a paper of unknown difficulty, with no cohort to compare against, is not a measure of readiness, and treating it as one is how a useful exercise turns into a bad weekend. What the report can tell you is where the marks went. Sort the wrong answers into three groups.
- Ran out of timeQuestions left blank or rushed at the end. A pacing problem, fixed by more short timed sections rather than more content.
- Misread under pressureQuestions your child can do calmly but got wrong here. A decision-making problem, and it improves with repetition of the conditions.
- Genuinely did not knowQuestions that would have been wrong with unlimited time. The only group that calls for teaching, and usually the smallest of the three.
Most disappointing results are dominated by the first two, which is good news: they respond quickly. Reacting to a low score by piling on new content, when the marks were lost to the clock, makes the next paper worse rather than better.
What to say to your child afterwards: tell them what a mock is for before they sit it, so the result cannot feel like a verdict. Afterwards, ask which questions felt rushed rather than which ones they got wrong. It is a more useful question and a kinder one.
Common questions about 11 plus mock exams
How are Pathway Eleven mock tests marked?+
Automatically, the moment your child presses submit. Nobody waits for a paper to come back and no parent sits down with a mark scheme. The result and the full breakdown are on screen straight away, while the questions are still fresh enough to talk about.
Are mock tests included in the free week?+
No. Mocks are part of the paid plan and unlock when the free week ends and the subscription starts. The free week gives you the Starting Assessment, the daily plan it builds, guided teaching and timed practice, which is what a first paper needs to sit on top of.
What does a mock report actually show a parent?+
The overall result, then the same result subject by subject, then question type by question type inside each subject, with pace alongside accuracy and a line on what to work on next. It stays in the PIN-protected parent area, so you can reopen it months later.
When do mock tests begin?+
Mock tests begin in Year 4. Before that, the plan stays on daily revision, guided learning and relaxed timed drills at double the usual time per question, because a full paper in Year 3 measures stamina rather than ability. Starting at the right age protects confidence, and the steady work that comes first is what makes a paper worth sitting at all. Being available is not the same as being due, though: most families sit their first full paper later still, once the content has been broadly covered.
When should my child sit their first mock test?+
Once the content has been broadly covered and shorter timed sections feel manageable, which for most families is the summer term of Year 5. A paper sat before that measures unfinished preparation and tends to frighten a child rather than inform anyone.
Are online 11 plus mock exams as useful as sitting one in a hall?+
For rehearsing pace, stamina and decision-making under a clock, an online mock does the same job and can be repeated far more easily. A hall adds the unfamiliar room and the other children, which is worth experiencing at least once if it is available locally.
Where to go next
- 11 plus mock exams in Birmingham, in-person centres against timed papers at home, and the five things a mock must replicate.
- 11 plus past papers, why no past paper exists for this test, and what to rehearse with instead.
- How to prepare for the 11 plus, the full guide to the four skill areas, timing and routine.
- 11 plus preparation in Year 5, a term-by-term plan including where the first full paper belongs.
- Free 11 plus practice papers, printable sets to work through before a mock.
- What is the 11 plus?, the test explained from scratch, including how standardised scores work.
- 11 plus exam stress, how to talk about a disappointing result before it arrives.
- What Pathway Eleven costs, one plan, one price, mocks included.
- Pathway Eleven or Atom Learning?, which plans on each platform actually include mock rehearsals.
- Pathway Eleven or Bond 11 plus books?, paper mocks against online ones, with published prices.
- Free 11 plus maths papers, worked through in the format the test uses.
- Free 11 plus English papers, a full unseen passage with every question worked through.
- Free 11 plus verbal reasoning papers, each type worked through so the method is visible.
- Free 11 plus non-verbal reasoning papers, the drawn questions worked through family by family.
- The Year 5 term planner, term by term, what to cover and when.
- GL Assessment and the 11 plus test, who provides the paper, and what they publish about it.
Timed papers, marked the moment they are submitted and returned as a full report, inside a daily routine that responds to the result.
Start your free week