How to prepare for the 7 Plus exam

Everything you need to know about the 7 plus exam

The 7 Plus exam is the first part of the admissions process to give children a place in Year 3 at competitive independent schools.  Children sit the 7+ exam in the January of Year 2. It is usually the first significant academic test a child takes. Although this seems early to sit formal exams, parents often choose this entry point hoping to avoid the stress of 11 Plus entry. The admissions process can include:

• Formal written exams in Maths and English.
• Often a Reasoning exam.
• Sometimes a Dictation or Listening exercise.
• A detailed reference from the child’s current school.
• A second stage assessment incorporating interviews, assessed classroom activities and groups tasks.

The 7 Plus is a difficult endeavour which will involve serious commitment from the whole family. Key considerations for parents to think about are:

• Emotional maturity. Is your child resilient? Do they worry about failing or get anxious about tests or competitions?
• Readiness for formal testing. Is your child ready for structured preparation and serious written exams?
• Academic attainment. Could your child be a year ahead of their peers by the beginning of Year 2 and manage extension Maths and English? Can they cope with the acceleration of the entire Year 2 syllabus? Could they potentially learn a new subject such as Reasoning?

Your child’s academic performance in the exam is usually the deciding factor in determining whether they are offered a place, particularly for more academic schools. However, interviews are playing a growing role in the 7 Plus assessments and all schools are looking for children that they would like to teach. Schools want children who will be happy and thrive in their environment and who will make the most of the opportunities afforded to them. 

The 7+ Exam – how to prepare?

The 7+ exam is a very competitive process and the odds of an offer are not necessarily better than at 11+. At one popular school in South London this year, 440 children applied for 8 places, (4 places for girls and 4 places for boys). Only 40 candidates were taken through to the second stage, a full day’s assessment at the school. The 7+ exam includes elements of the Year 2 and Year 3 Maths and English syllabuses that are not part of the taught National Curriculum at this point, and therefore, you must find a way to accelerate these topics for your child. This extension work can be done by your child’s current prep school, you as parents or a tutor. Often all three are needed and work together for at least 18 months to 2 years. However, we find the most success comes from those candidates who accelerated their learning even before school with programmes such as our Pre School programme.

Tuition at such a young age is sometimes a contentious topic and we understand that parents sometimes feel they are imposing a burden on their six year olds. Honestly, if your child is very resistant, this alone may rule them out as a candidate. Children who are academically mature enough tend to enjoy their 7+ extension work and find it inspiring, not something they dread. Our advice is also to be realistic about what you as parents can achieve consistently week in week out, and make sure that some family time remains for relaxation and fun. However, you decide to prepare, lessons should be light-hearted, fun and in gentle increments.

Tips for success with the 7 Plus Exam

When it comes to the 7 Plus exam, it is very hard to predict outcomes.  Unlike the 11 Plus, where there are often scores and trends to rely on, the 7 Plus is a whole different ball game. Children at this age are still developing at vastly different rates, and it is not just about academics — areas like emotional maturity, focus, and how they handle the stress of the exam day itself can make a huge difference.

We believe however, that there are some crystal clear indicators of success:

• Starting early – children who start extra literacy and numeracy in Pre School or Reception and having a long, gentle run in, do better.
• A team effort – parents who try to outsource all the preparation are left disappointed. Parents who work closely with our education team and support their child to read, write and count as part of daily life do better.
• The right teachers – children who learn from teachers who are qualified, nurturing and good at building confidence do better. 
• The right teachers – Teachers who are trained specifically on the 7 Plus exam are more effective.
• The right programme – children who follow a structured programme to accelerate the whole of the Year 2 curriculum do better.

For further considerations about when to start, please see here.

How we can help you with the 7+ exam

We partner with you in every aspect of 7+ exam preparation. Our services include:

• Academic assessments in conjunction with Cambridge University to understand your child’s academic strengths and weaknesses and help you with school signposting.
• Consultations with our Director of Education to discuss your child’s odds of success at a competitive school 7+ exam.
• Our 7 Plus programme. This is a proprietary tutoring programme that accelerates the relevant curriculum in time, bespoke to each child and bespoke to each target school. This is overseen by our Director of Education.
• Tuition in person, 1-2-1, at one of our London locations, Hampstead or Dulwich.
• Tuition online by 7+ experts.
• Qualified teachers trained by 7+ experts on the exact requirements of the exams in a 12 part training course.

7 Plus Exam – Tutor, In Person

7 Plus tutors for children in Reception, Year One and the first term of Year Two. Lessons are individual and take place in Dulwich or Hampstead schools on Saturday and Sunday mornings.

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7 Plus Exam – Tutor, Online

7 Plus tutors for children in Reception, Year One and the first term of Year Two. Lessons are individual and at your convenience online.

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7 Plus Exam – Mock Exams

7 Plus mock exams are a vital aspect of preparation for the 7 Plus exam. We offer fully invigilated and marked mock exams with the full theatre of the 7+.

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7 Plus Exam – Interview Preparation

7 Plus interview preparation is now a major aspect of 7 Plus readiness. Six-year-olds need to practice individual and group interviews. Book here for our comprehensive, gold standard interview preparation.

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7 Plus Exam – Academic Assessments

We offer in depth Academic Assessments in conjunction with Cambridge University. Following the assessment you will have a data rich conversation with our Director of Education to discuss school signposting.

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7 Plus Holiday Courses

We offer intensive 7 Plus Holiday Courses in the Easter holidays and over the Summer holidays for Year 1 students who need to maintain pace and learning as they head into into 7 Plus exam season in the Autumn of Year 2.

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Should I take the 7 Plus Exam?

Advantages of moving your child at 7

The main advantage to the 7 Plus exam is chance to get them into the long-term school of your choice as early as possible. In many fiercely competitive London day schools, there will be 1,500 candidates for 150 places at 11+, with nearly all the applicants bright, tutored, and well-practised. This is a very stressful situation and difficult odds.

If your child is doing well at junior school, they are given an automatic place into the associated senior school. Note that they may still need to sit the entrance exam. However, if the school do not believe they are suitable candidates, you will likely be told the year before. This gives you lots of time to make alternative arrangements, but is also rare and often related to the development of additional needs that were unknown upon entry.

When your child does move up to the senior school, it can be an smoother transition as they are already familiar with the grounds and teaching staff. They are also likely to move up with a ready made friendship group.  

Finally, even if a child does not win a place at 7, parents are still in a really strong position. There are more chances between ages 8 and 11, and parents will have already worked hard to get their child to a high academic standard.

Disadvantages of moving your child at 7

If your child is in Reception or Year 1, it is early to have a clear sense of their attitudes to learning and you may not have picked up on any anxiety or sensitivities. You may find that they have changed a lot in Infant School or pre-prep and your thoughts around their personality and capability need to be refreshed and updated. Children that were total refuseniks in their toddler years may have become much more cooperative as they matured. Equally, children may develop anxieties and sensitivities as they grow older and start to be tested and assessed at school.

Therefore, it is wise to consider if the pressure of the entrance exam is a fair one to place on your child. Some questions to consider would be does your child:

• Worry about failing or not doing well?
• Become anxious about school tests?
• Enjoy and thrive in competitive arenas such as their hobbies, or do they shy away from competition?
• Does your child have a good understanding of phonics and numbers
• To what extent do they do things they don’t want to, to try and please you?

Another disadvantage of a prep school entrance campaign is the inevitable strain it places on family life. The process is undoubtedly demanding and difficult.

If your family values are strongly linked to relaxation and quality family time, you should consider whether it will be worth it to sacrifice weekends and holidays. Will you, as parents, find this so negative that your child will pick up on this? Equally, if you are all crazy about archery or line dancing, are you ready to sacrifice time spent on a family passion to ensure the required work is done? If you go away a lot or have caring responsibilities, this needs to be taken into account, in terms of how and when you will get the required work done.

What is on the 7+ exam?

The important message for parents to grasp about the 7+ exam is that children need to be, as a minimum, one year ahead of their peers by the time they sit their 7+ exams. Practically, this means that they must know the whole of the Year 2 Maths and English syllabus by the Autumn of Year 2 when the assessments start. Several competitive schools even bring forward some elements from the Year 3 Maths and English syllabuses to provide differentiation. As guidance, and not considered to be exhaustive, here is a tick list for you, as parents, to look through. You can discuss this with your child’s school, their tutor, or work through this yourself. Bear in mind that the assessments change every year both in style and delivery. If you would like support, our comprehensive 7+ programme builds your child’s attainment gradually and holistically to cover the whole of the 7+ syllabus in time.

The 7 Plus Exam – English

7 Plus Exam – Comprehension

Comprehensions are a key part of the 7 Plus exam and we find children always need to practice these. In 7 Plus comprehensions children will be expected to read with fluency and read many words by sight. Children are required to extract relevant information from a passage, which could be from a variety of different writing genres. They will need to explain the meaning of words in context and make inferences about the passage and predict wat might happen next.

7 Plus Exam – Creative Writing

For the 7 Plus exam creative writing task children are usually given a prompt and should be able to write a simple but imaginative story with a clear beginning, middle and end. This should include some descriptive and figurative language. They should understand and be able to write in the first or third person in their story.

Though the marking criteria emphasises composition and effect, the children will also be assessed on their spelling and use of simple punctuation. We would expect them to spell many commonly occurring words correctly and have a good sense of spelling rules and patterns.

You should work through the National Curriculum spelling lists. However, remember your child will need to be one year ahead. So by the time children take their 7+ assessments, children should know how to spell all the Year 2 words and all the Year 3 words that you think they will use in their creative writing task, eg. They may well use words such as ‘treasure’ in their story, which falls into the Year 3 list.

You can view more here.

The 7 Plus Exam – Maths Syllabus

This varies from school to school and again, as a guide, consider your child should be one year ahead of the National Curriculum.

Times Tables

As a parent, the best way to help your child with their 7 Plus Maths exam is to have a daily focus on times tables fluency and accuracy. If you do nothing else, help your child learn their times tables as they come home from school and more. Try to observe how your child best learns their times tables and try to build in multiple ways of learning and reinforcement. For example, some children do well with rote learning, others benefit from the many apps that gamify times tables acquisition, such as Times Tables Rock Stars. Other children enjoy learning songs and memorise tables during long car journeys.

7 Plus Maths Curriculum

The 7 Plus exam always includes a written Maths paper which draws from the entire Year 2 Maths syllabus. Recent years have seen mental maths become an increasing part of second stage interviews. At some competitive schools, there will be elements of the Year 3 syllabus in the Maths paper. Here is a checklist of topics your child needs to have covered:

• Describe and extend number sequences and recognise odd and even numbers
• Explain what each digit in a two-digit number represents and partition such numbers
• Order and compare numbers and position them on a number line using the greater than (>) and less than (<) signs
• Find one half, one quarter and three quarters of shapes and sets of objects
• Derive and recall multiplication facts for the 2, 5 and 10 times-tables and the related division facts
• Use written methods and related vocabulary to support multiplication and division
• Use the symbols +, -, x, ÷ and = to record and interpret number sentences involving all four operations; calculate the value of an unknown number in a number sentence
• Visualise and identify common 2-D shapes and 3-D solids; sort, make and describe shapes, referring to their properties
• Use lists, tables and diagrams to sort objects
• Use the units of time (seconds, minutes, hours, days) and to identify time intervals; tell the time on analogue and digital clocks
• Estimate, compare and measure lengths, weights and capacities, choosing and using standard units (m, cm, kg, litre)
• Solve word problems involving the four number operations in various contexts
• Present solutions to problems in an organised way, explaining results in pictorial or written.

– Read and write two-digit and three-digit numbers in figures and words

The 7 Plus Exam Reasoning Syllabus

Reasoning papers are increasingly included in 7 Plus assessments for competitive London day schools. Many schools and parents believe that children have an innate ability in respect of reasoning, but we absolutely do not agree with this. We believe children who have seen and practiced all the types of question, inevitably perform better.We also believe strongly that 7 Plus reasoning test are amongst the most time pressured exams that children sit. Of course, if children are more familiar with these sort of tests and have practiced them, they can complete them more quickly and pick up more marks.

Some schools combine Verbal and Non Verbal Reasoning into one Reasoning paper, whereas others include some Verbal Reasoning questions on the end of the English paper and some Non Verbal Reasoning questions on the end of the Maths paper.

Typical questions include:

7 Plus Exam – Verbal Reasoning

• Find the Odd Word Out
• Word Associations
• Similar Meanings and opposite meanings
• Changing a letter to make new words
• Finishing and starting words
• Missing letters and anagrams

7 Plus Exam – Non Verbal Reasoning

• Logical sequences and ordering
• True/False
• Related numbers
• Number sequences
• Nets
• Brain teasers and logic problems

Resources

In terms of resources we recommend the CGP ten minute test books. We comprehensively cover the 7 Plus Verbal and Non verbal Reasoning syllabus in our 1-2-1 lessons and also in our 7 Plus Easter and Summer courses.