7 Plus
We're here to help you and your child navigate the admissions process from start to finish.
The 7 Plus Syllabus
7+ candidates should have mastery over the National Curriculum one year ahead of their average peers. As guidance, and not considered to be exhaustive, here is a tick list for you, as parents, to check. You can discuss this with your child’s school, their tutor, or work through this yourself.
Our comprehensive 7+ programme builds your child gradually and holistically to cover the whole of the 7 Plus syllabus.
The 7 Plus English Syllabus
Comprehension
Comprehensions are a key part of the 7 Plus syllabus and children always need to practice these. In 7+ comprehensions children will be expected to read and extract relevant information from a passage, which could be from a variety of different writing genres. They will need to explain language choices and make inferences about the content of the passage.
The 7 Plus Writing task
For the 7 Plus writing task children are usually given a prompt and should be able to write a simple story with a clear beginning, middle and end, which should include some descriptive language.
Though the marking criteria emphasises composition and effect, the children will also be assessed on their spelling and ability to use simple punctuation reliably. We would expect them to spell many commonly occurring words correctly and have a good sense of spelling rules and patterns.
Here is a link to 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 Maths Syllabus
This varies from school to school and again, as a guide, consider your child should be one year ahead in the National Curriculum. They should certainly be able to do the following:
• Read and write two-digit and three-digit numbers in figures and words
• 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.
The 7 Plus 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 Verbal Reasoning
• Find the Odd Word Out
• Word Associations
• Similar Meanings
• Opposite Meanings
• Changing a letter to make new words
• Finishing and starting words
• Missing letters
• Anagrams
7 Plus Non Verbal Reasoning
• Logical sequences
• Ordering
• True/False
• Related numbers
• Number sequences
• Nets
• Brain teasers
• Logic problems
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.