The 11 plus is in September: an eight-week summer plan

Most 11 plus exams for September 2027 entry are sat in the first three weeks of September 2026, with Buckinghamshire testing on Thursday 10 September. That leaves roughly eight weeks from mid-July. Eight weeks is genuinely enough time to lift a well-prepared child from borderline to comfortable, but only with a plan that builds up and then deliberately winds down. Here is one that works.

First: check your registration and key dates

Registration for most grammar school tests closed between May and early July 2026, so if you have not registered, check your area's admissions page today; a few authorities accept late registrations with a good reason. Two dates matter for everyone: your area's test date in September, and 31 October 2026, the national deadline for the Common Application Form naming your secondary school choices, which you submit whatever the test result. Buckinghamshire's timeline is on the county council site; Kent, Essex and the London boroughs publish theirs on their own admissions pages.

Weeks 1 and 2 (mid-July): find the real gaps

Sit one full past paper or good-quality mock in each tested discipline, untimed, at the kitchen table. You are not measuring a score; you are finding out which of the four areas (verbal reasoning, non-verbal reasoning, maths, English) leaks marks and why. Mark it together, sort errors into "did not know it", "knew it but rushed" and "never seen this question type", and build the next six weeks around the first and third piles.

Weeks 3 to 5 (late July to mid-August): fix content, little and often

Four or five short sessions a week beat one long Saturday slog. Twenty-five minutes of focused practice on one weak topic, then stop. Over these three weeks rotate through the weak topics twice, and keep one light full-paper session each week so the test format stays familiar. This is also the window where one-to-one help pays off most: a good tutor turns "never seen this question type" into a taught method in a session or two, rather than a summer of guesswork. You can browse 11 plus tutors, or see our local guides for Kent and London.

Weeks 6 and 7 (late August): timed papers and exam craft

Now add the clock. Two timed papers a week, sat in the morning, marked the same day. Practise the craft that carries marks under pressure: skipping a stuck question and returning, transferring answers to the answer sheet accurately, and pacing by the number of questions rather than by feel. Keep sessions honest but low-drama; confidence in the final fortnight is worth more marks than any new topic.

Week 8 (early September): taper

The last week is a taper, not a sprint. One short, familiar exercise a day, early nights, and no new material after the weekend before the test. On the morning itself: normal breakfast, arrive early, and remind your child that no single question decides anything. Children who walk in calm reliably outperform their mocks; children crammed to the last evening reliably do not.

What if the summer already feels too short?

A child who is broadly on track needs consistency, not heroics, and this plan is enough. If mock scores are a long way off the typical pass mark for your target school, be honest about the two realistic paths: intensive focused help over the remaining weeks, or putting the energy into choosing a strong all-round school on the Common Application Form instead. Both are good outcomes when chosen deliberately. Our guide on how to prepare for the 11 plus covers the fundamentals in more depth.