Each of these books presents practice papers, complete with answers and full explanations. Mutiple disciplines are covered, including:

• Comprehension
• Verbal Reasoning
• Non-Verbal Reasoning
• Numerical Reasoning

Practice is the key to success. Pupils need experience in deciding and documenting their answers efficiently. They need total familiarity with the spectrum of multiple choice questions, and with the layout of question papers and response sheets.

The Eureka! 11+ Confidence series of Practice Exam Papers provides:

• Question papers laid out in modern, multiple-choice format

• Answer sheets laid out in modern format (in places requiring digit-by-digit entry)

• Full answers with explanations

• Supplementary books giving very detailed methods, tips and tricks on the more challenging aspects of Numerical Reasoning

In supporting your child’s preparation for the exam:

• Do as much exam paper practice as possible. Variety helps retain attention.

• Cut out the multiple choice answer sheet and use it to record the answers. Maximizing authenticity now minimizes exam-day anxiety.

• Do these practice exams formally: seated alone, away from television and radio.

• Immediately afterwards, encourage the pupil to mark their own work.

• Insist on discussing the questions which were not answered correctly. Do not set aside any errors as “silly mistakes”. All mistakes are silly. The key to 11+ is attention to seemingly small details.

Doing exam papers is a learning opportunity. Underline the importance of discovering how errors were made and how they may be prevented in future. Thoughtful support from parents can be crucial for pupils in the run-up to examinations. Use the Eureka! Practice Exam Papers and training workbooks to help them reach their full potential.

Pupils approaching the 11+ Examination face many challenges, including lack of time, uncertainty over what is required, and an ever-changing and secretive testing environment. Plain “mathematics” questions are progressively being replaced with more demanding “numerical reasoning” questions. Selective schools are increasingly interested in not only rote recall of methods but also the ability to understand questions expressed in prose and skilfully apply (sometimes several) mathematical principles to arrive at an answer.

The Eureka! 11+ Challenging Maths and Numerical Reasoning series of books provide focused preparation for pupils and their busy parents. Questions are expressed in words, with the pupils learning the habit of extracting the relevant numbers and key facts. Most questions are multi-part, reflecting the trend in examinations to challenge pupils skills at progressively higher levels as the question unfolds.

These questions are the upper echelon of what is tested at 11+. Although they need only Key Stage 2 concepts, they are challenging because they require good command of multiple skills simultaneously. Pupils, and perhaps even parents, will find very few of these questions to be very easy. Thankfully, the real exam will contain many easier questions, but preparation time is best spent on those which present greater challenges and therefore more learning opportunities.

When answering the questions

• Set yourself a target, e.g. “3 questions in half an hour”
• Write down clearly your steps of working in full to make checking easier

Go through the answers soon after doing the questions

• Do not be sad if you have made mistakes: learn from them
• Many questions cover areas where even strong pupils are prone to errors
• Watch out for the Traps described
• Incorporate the Tips into your methods in future
• See if the Method suggested is quicker or less open to error than yours

For any examination, diligent practice, carefully analysing errors, mulling over methods, and developing and testing your own preferred approaches pay enormous dividends.

These books form a tough, concentrated training course for the Verbal Reasoning section of the Eleven Plus exams.

Each book contains over 500 modern-style Verbal Reasoning questions structured into intense training sessions, covering:

• Synonyms
• Antonyms
• Odd One Out
• Analogies
• Spelling ("Find the Missing Letters")
• Cloze ("Find the Missing Word")

The course is designed to boost vocabulary and understanding, and focuses on words that pupils at 11+ level find challenging. A key feature is the detailed answer section including not only the correct answer but word definitions and explanations, so that your child can learn on their own.