How to use 11+ practice papers in Year 5

Updated 11 November 2026

Practice papers work best when they are used to find gaps and then close them, not just to collect scores. Here is a simple plan for Year 5 that keeps practice short, regular and useful.

1. Start with a baseline

Choose one paper and let your child do it without a time limit. Mark it straight away (our marking guide explains how) and write down the two or three topics that went worst. That is your starting list.

2. Little and often

Two or three sessions of 20 to 40 minutes a week is enough for most children in Year 5. Short sessions keep concentration high and make practice feel normal rather than a big event. A tired child learns very little, so stop while it is still going well.

3. Topics first, then papers

When a topic keeps coming up on the weak list, spend a session on just that topic: look at the explanation for each wrong answer together, then try similar questions. Come back to full papers once it feels secure.

4. Go through every wrong answer

The most useful ten minutes of any paper are the ones spent on the mistakes. Sort each wrong answer into one of three groups:

• Careless: knew how to do it but slipped (misread the question, copied a number wrongly).
• Didn’t know: the topic needs teaching or more practice.
• Ran out of time: a pacing problem, not a knowledge problem.

Each group needs a different fix, so this is worth doing every time.

5. Add timing gradually

Start untimed. Once your child is comfortable, give a generous time limit, then tighten it over the following months so that by the summer before the test they are working at exam pace. Bringing in timing too early can make children rush and guess.

6. Track progress over time

Keep a simple record of scores and weak topics, or use online marking, which saves each result and shows the weakest topics across all the papers your child has done. A topic that improves from 40% to 80% over a term is real progress, even if overall scores move slowly.

7. Keep reading

Wide reading builds the vocabulary that English and verbal reasoning questions depend on. Ten minutes of reading a day, with a chat about new words, does a lot of quiet good.

A sample half-term