Estimated reading time: 12 minutes
Reading comprehension is a key paper in entrance exams for grammar schools, such as the 11 plus (or 11+). A common misconception is that comprehension exams will only test understanding of the given text. In fact, your child will also be assessed on elements like vocabulary, grammar, and implied meaning as well.
How would you build your child’s reading comprehension skills for the exam? Our team of expert teachers have put together this 11 plus exam preparation guide below for you to learn more.
How will your child’s comprehension skills be tested in the 11 plus exam?
The comprehension exam is typically one of two English papers in the 11 plus, although this may differ from school to school. This will test your child’s ability in some or all of the following areas:
- Understanding and making sense of a passage
- Knowing word meanings
- Grasping implied meanings using contextual evidence (‘reading between the lines’)
- Forming opinions on the given text and explaining these opinions clearly
- Being able to identify and define language devices and grammatical terms, such as adverbs, similes, onomatopoeias, etc.
Comprehension exam format and question types
The 11 plus comprehension exam will typically include a passage of up to 750 words followed by 20 questions relating to the text. These may be either questions with written answers, or multiple-choice questions.
The passage itself could take a variety of forms, including non-fiction, classic texts, or poems. It’s important for your child to read a variety of books from different genres, as this is one of the key strategies for your child’s success in the 11 plus comprehension exam.
The questions in the exam are generally divided into four categories:
- Retrieval questions - your child will need to retrieve the answer from the text. These questions usually use the five Ws: ‘who’, ‘what’, ‘where’, ‘when’, and ‘why’. Example questions include “Who is Mr Rochester’s ward?” or “When did Mr Rochester first marry?”
- Analytical questions - your child has to summarise or explain the answer using their own words, based on information from the text. For example, “Explain in your own words why Jane is angry.”
- Inference questions - your child will have to use context clues from the text to form an opinion themselves. These clues can include the tone of voice, word choices, etc. The Point-Evidence-Explanation method is useful for these questions. Examples include “Why do you think the fire occurred?” or “How does the writer show that St. John feels envious?”
- Vocabulary and grammar questions - these questions will ask for the meaning of a specific word or phrase in the text, or ask questions on language devices used. For example, “What does the word ‘bilious’ mean in this sentence?” or “Which of these phrases is a simile?”
Use workbooks or online tools like Bond Online Premium to practise the different question types that appear in the 11 plus comprehension exam. The platform contains thousands of test practice questions modelled after the 11 plus, along with an AI that identifies knowledge gaps and suggests the next topics to work on based on their performance.
Comprehension strategies to succeed in the 11 plus exam
Building up reading comprehension skills is essential for success in 11 plus exams for independent or grammar schools. The following comprehension strategies can help your child in their 11 plus exam preparation.
Before the exam
Children sitting the comprehension test should be confident in reading quickly but thoroughly, along with having a broad and diverse vocabulary. Both of these are crucial for success in the 11 plus exam. Here are three ways to support those skills.
Develop reading habits
The best way to develop these comprehension skills is to read, read, and read! Encourage your child to start reading regularly from an early age, and engage with them by discussing what they’ve read afterwards. Encouraging them to explain their thoughts and build a narrative can help develop the skills needed to answer inference and summary questions in the 11 plus exam.
Build vocabulary
Your child should make a note of any unfamiliar words they encounter while reading in a vocabulary journal. Encourage them to use context clues to figure out their meanings, or to look it up in a dictionary. Go through their definitions together and start using them in your everyday vocabulary to help your child remember them.
While reading, your child should also take the opportunity to familiarise themselves with language devices like metaphors and similes, as these often come up in the exam.
Practice exam questions
In the build up to the exam, use past papers and practice questions to become familiar with the comprehension exam’s structure. Study tools like Bond Online Premium provide plenty of test questions for your child to practise with. As a parent, you can easily track their performance and spot their strengths and weak points in each subject. With these insights, you can coach them through the topics they struggle with and watch them improve as they go.
During the exam
It is best for your child to start by thoroughly reading the passage first while doing the following:
- Highlight or make annotations about key information, such as names, dates, and places, to easily refer to later. Make sure not to highlight too much as it may become confusing!
- Take note of any sub-headings which can also be an easy reference point for key details. If there aren’t any, it may be helpful to tag each paragraph with a brief note or word as a reference.
Find which of these techniques works best with your child, and continue practising from there. We also recommend reading through the passage only once before answering the questions, as re-reading it takes up precious time your child could be using to answer questions. When moving on to the questions, your child can use their notes and highlighted points to quickly get the information they need.
Overcoming common challenges in 11 plus comprehension
Even with plenty of exam preparation beforehand, many children encounter difficulties during the exam. Let’s look at some common challenges children face in the 11 plus comprehension exam, and how they can overcome them:
Not knowing the meaning of a word
If your child is unfamiliar with a word in a passage and gets stuck, do not panic. Using context clues can usually give a good understanding of the sentence regardless.
Relying on memory
Some students read through the text, then rely on memory to answer questions instead of referring to the text. Ensure that your child checks all their answers against the text, even if they are confident they can remember the answer from memory. This doesn’t necessarily involve re-reading the text all over again, but instead referencing the sub-headings and annotations they’ve made to ensure their answers are correct.
Overthinking the answer
Some children might spend too long thinking of what the right answer might be, which may lead to them second-guessing or confusing themselves. Usually, the comprehension exam is recommended to take up to 30 minutes, which means your child should spend around 1 minute per question. This leaves enough time to double check and cross reference their answers with the passage.
Motivating children to improve their comprehension skills
One of the best ways to motivate your child in building their comprehension skills is by taking part yourself. Make reading a shared activity that you can enjoy together.
Ask them questions about the books they are reading: What do they think will happen next? Why do they think a character acted in a certain way? What would they do if they were in a similar situation? Not only is this practice great for motivation, but it also helps to improve their comprehension skills overall by understanding context and identifying common patterns in narrative.
To really help their preparation, try reading different materials to help them become familiar with a range of texts and writing styles. Encourage them to read an article from the newspaper every day, or pick a book in a genre that is new to them. Besides being a great way to keep your child interested and engaged, this is also effective in preparing them for the wide variety of passages that they will encounter in the 11 plus comprehension exam.
Developing strong reading comprehension skills should be a key part of your child’s 11 plus exam preparation for independent or grammar schools. Sign up for a free 7-day trial of Bond Online Premium to practise hundreds of comprehension questions modelled after the 11 plus!
For more information on Bond Online Premium and how it can help boost your child’s abilities in the 11+, visit our website to learn more or register for an introductory webinar.
