Questions parents ask about 11+ practice

Yes, for now. Remelia is free while we make sure it works well for families. We will introduce a price later; we will tell you in Remelia Parents and by email well before anything changes, and nothing will ever be charged without you choosing it. Families who join while it is free will get a period of free use after a price is introduced; we will say how long when we announce the price.

Open app.remelia.co.uk in the web browser on the laptop, tablet or phone your child will use. There is nothing to install, and no account is needed to start.

Add your child: a first name, the year group, and the school they go to if you like.

Then choose the schools: tick every school your child might apply for, as many as you like, or choose “General 11+ preparation” to follow the curriculum with no exam date. None is chosen for you; you can skip it, and change it at any time in Settings. A short skills check then finds where your child is.

When you are ready, create your account in Remelia Parents at parents.remelia.co.uk, add your child, and type the code it shows into the app where your child practises. Linking is optional: without it, the child’s record stays on the device. The four steps to begin.

A web browser on a laptop, Chromebook, tablet or phone. There is nothing to install. A parent’s account is only needed to link them, and to read the letter and change settings on your own phone.

No. Remelia is not in any app store. It opens in the web browser: your child’s app is at app.remelia.co.uk, and Remelia Parents is at parents.remelia.co.uk.

Not to practise. A child can practise on one device with no account at all, and the record stays on it.

A parent’s account is what links the laptops, tablets and phones your child uses and brings the weekly letter to Remelia Parents, where you can also change the settings from your own phone. It is an email address and a password, and nothing else about you. For each child it holds the first name and year group you type, and what their linked devices send. Sign-in is Remelia’s own service, and no service based in the United States processes your data. Everything the account holds.

Yes. Maths and English, Years 3 to 6. English is grammar, punctuation, spelling and vocabulary most days; a weekly reading day from Year 5 when a chosen exam plan includes English; and short timed writing pieces a grown-up marks with ticks, when a chosen exam includes writing. Where a chosen exam sets verbal or non-verbal reasoning, or science, it practises those too. Reasoning starts in the autumn of Year 5: a child in Year 3 or Year 4 has none until then.

Two: the reading day and the writing pieces. For every child who studies English there are grammar, punctuation, spelling and vocabulary questions most days, and from the spring of Year 4 a passage each week to read with a grown-up, with questions for you to ask. Ten of the 249 exam plans leave out English or maths, and another 52 set reasoning only and leave out both. With only such exams open, what is missing is kept up to the national standard for Years 3 to 6, with core topics and practice papers. It is not counted towards those exams or included as a section of their mocks.

The weekly reading day, from the autumn of Year 5, comes with a chosen exam plan that includes English: one unseen passage and 9 questions on it (249 of the 249 exam plans include English). The short timed writing pieces, which a grown-up marks with ticks, come with an exam that includes writing (87 of them do): one a fortnight from the spring of Year 4, one a week from the autumn of Year 5.

Years 3 to 6, for children aged about 7 to 11. The year group is set when a child is added, and it moves up by itself each September.

Maths has 228 topics (the curriculum calls them objectives): 199 for Key Stage 2 (the ones for those years, and problem-solving strategies and puzzles that go beyond them) and a Year 7 head start of 29, which opens after the Year 6 SATs (straight after the last exam, for a child aiming only at independent schools), or earlier if a grown-up turns it on. English has 90. What it teaches, in full.

As closely as it can. New maths topics come in the order of your child’s school’s scheme: White Rose Maths, Power Maths (current edition), Power Maths (first edition, 2018), Maths No Problem! or Oak National Academy. It follows White Rose Maths unless a parent chooses another. Remelia is not associated with or endorsed by White Rose Education or Oak National Academy. The topic order for Oak National Academy is based on Oak’s published units, used under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

The School page shows this half-term’s topics, with an email you can send the teacher to check them, and the plan can be changed to match. By default new topics are only what school has taught or is teaching now; once all of that has stuck, the next topic opens early. Near a chosen exam, what it needs comes in early.

Yes. Year 6 SATs practice: printable papers in the style of the national tests, covering arithmetic, mathematical reasoning, grammar and punctuation, spelling and reading. A grown-up can run a timed mock using all six papers, mark the answers and see an estimated scaled score as a rough guide. A parent can choose the SATs in Remelia Parents, alone or beside schools. For a child with a school chosen they also open on their own, within a few weeks of the last chosen exam. They do not open by themselves in time for SATs after a 13 plus test sat in Year 7 or Year 8 (22 of the 249 exams): the SATs week comes first, so a parent chooses them. The same applies to an unlisted-school Pre-Test chosen for Year 7 or Year 8. Year 6 SATs: the dates, the papers and what is practised. KS2 scaled scores: every raw mark, test by test.

Yes. Times tables check practice: a weekly practice check from March of Year 4, the same length and pace as the real check: 25 questions, with six seconds to answer each one. It comes on its own for a child who studies maths, with nothing to choose. The Year 4 times tables check.

Verbal reasoning, yes, but only when a chosen school’s exam sets it: 23 question types (number series and sums, letter series and analogies, codes, logic puzzles, word puzzles and word meanings), mixed into the sessions and counted towards that exam. These cover the 21 types in GL Assessment’s familiarisation papers, plus two additional types tested by Quest Assessments. Plans for the ISEB Common Pre-Test exclude three types: number series, letters for numbers and complete the sum. 217 of the 249 exams it plans for set it.

Non-verbal reasoning, yes, on the same terms: 13 question types from the exam boards’ own sample material (shape series, grids, complete the pattern, shape pairs, similarities, odd one out, shape codes, rotation, reflection, hidden shapes, fold and punch, cube nets and nets of solids), each a drawing with five options. 214 of the 249 exams it plans for set it.

Reasoning starts in the autumn of Year 5: a child in Year 3 or Year 4 has none until then.

58 of the 249 exams it plans for set GL Assessment’s spatial reasoning. It is partly taught: Remelia practises hidden shapes, and folding and punching paper, as part of non-verbal reasoning. The real section may set other types, which need practice elsewhere.

50 of the 249 exams it plans for include reasoning it does not teach, such as quantitative reasoning. Your child would need to practise that elsewhere. Each exam guide says what the exam covers that Remelia does not: find your school’s exam guide.

Yes, but only when a chosen school’s exam sets it: the Key Stage 2 science programme of study for Years 3 to 5 (and Year 6 for an exam sat from November of Year 6), asked as reasoning over a table, a drawing or a short text (fair tests, tables and graphs, circuits, keys, food chains, and 104 short scenarios), mixed into the sessions and counted towards that exam. Science goes by school year, so it starts in Year 3. Ten of the 249 exams it plans for set it. Year 6 science is in the plan too: all 15 of its objectives have notes, and one so far has questions; the rest are named as not covered yet.

329 schools, across 249 entrance exams. The tests are GL Assessment’s (89 exams), Quest Assessments’ (90), the ISEB Common Pre-Test (61) and FSCE’s (9). They are counted for a child in Year 3 this school year. Most are sat in Year 6; 22 are 13 plus tests sat in Year 7 or Year 8. The Trafford test and King’s Chester’s have guides written by hand:

• Trafford grammar schools (FSCE): maths and English only, Years 3 to 5. For five schools: Altrincham Grammar School for Girls, Altrincham Grammar School for Boys, Sale Grammar School, Stretford Grammar School and Urmston Grammar School.
• The King’s School, Chester (Quest): maths, English and non-verbal reasoning only, Years 3 to 6.

A child can prepare for more than one; the nearest exam comes first. Every exam has a guide that keeps to what the schools have published, with its sources. All the schools, A to Z.

Each exam plan is dated from your child’s year group: Remelia works to the sitting for the September they start Year 7. A school without a plan of its own may still have its test under “Can’t find a school?”. Tick it, then choose its school year and month; Remelia plans for that provider’s usual test at the sitting you choose. If it is not there, choose “General 11+ preparation” for the Key Stage 2 curriculum with no exam date. No school is chosen for your child: when you set them up you tick the schools they might apply for, as many as you like, or choose “General 11+ preparation”. Until you choose, they learn the Key Stage 2 curriculum with no exam date; the schools can be changed at any time in Settings.

Yes. Under “Can’t find a school?” you can tick the test it sets: GL Assessment’s test, Quest Assessments’ test, the ISEB Common Pre-Test or FSCE’s test. Remelia then plans for that provider’s usual test: its usual subjects, with reasoning where the provider sets it. Without a date choice the boxes work to September of Year 6 for GL Assessment’s, January of Year 6 for Quest Assessments’, November of Year 6 for the ISEB Common Pre-Test and June of Year 5 for FSCE’s. A parent can choose any month in the supported school years: Year 6 for GL Assessment, Year 6 for Quest Assessments, Year 6, Year 7 or Year 8 for the ISEB Common Pre-Test and Year 5 or Year 6 for Future Stories Community Enterprise. Only sittings still available for your child’s year are offered; Year 8 Pre-Test is not offered before Year 7. The plan’s lighter last 14 days and its end follow that choice. The plan does not hold the school’s own date, parts or papers: the school’s letter says those. If the test is none of these, or you do not know it, choose “General 11+ preparation”: the Key Stage 2 curriculum with no exam date. With no exam chosen, Remelia follows the Key Stage 2 maths and English curriculum in school order: in English, grammar, punctuation, spelling and vocabulary most days, and from the spring of Year 4 a passage each week to read with a grown-up. Tell us which school you are preparing for at info@remelia.co.uk.

Every exam sets its own dates for registration, the test, results and offers, and state school places follow national dates. The 11+ year, stage by stage puts them in order by school year and term, with each exam’s own dates and their sources.

It gets lighter. In the last 14 days before a chosen exam, a session is at most 8 minutes, whatever the usual setting, and nothing new is introduced: only reviews of topics your child has already met.

The aim is to arrive rested, with what is known fresh, rather than to cram.

About 12 minutes by default. It is longer where a chosen exam sets four subjects or more (13 with four), so that each has its questions, and up to 15 minutes in the months before a chosen exam. With the scholarship switch on, a session can be up to three minutes longer, for a second puzzle. A parent can set a session anywhere from 8 to 20 minutes. Shorter mixed sessions may not cover every subject. Maths comes first, so an 8-minute mixed session usually leaves no time for English or reasoning questions. Each week asks for four sessions on different days; once the week’s work is done, more practice that week moves nothing on, and a missed week costs nothing.

There are three breaks a year (Christmas, Easter and August), which follow your child’s school holidays unless you set them yourself. On a break there is only a puzzle, and topics that come due simply wait.

A skills check in each subject: up to 24 questions in maths and 16 in English, pitched at your child’s year and term. Nothing is marked while it runs, “I haven’t learnt this yet” is always an answer, and three wrong in a row takes it back a year rather than carry on. The plan starts from what it finds.

Every six weeks, a re-check of 10 questions asks again about the topics standing highest. A miss brings that topic back for review sooner; a re-check never takes progress away.

Remembered, not just done. Each topic comes back for review after a gap: 1, 3, 8 and 20 days, each gap about 2.5 times the one before when the review goes well, and shorter when it does not.

A topic is secure once it has been answered correctly after a gap of about 20 days. Right answers on the same day as the last review never count towards it. After the 50-day review it is “Mastered”. Progress towards an exam is always counted in secure topics. How it works.

No. Nobody can know that in advance, and Remelia does not try.

Remelia Parents shows how many of the exam’s topics are secure now and, as a range with its assumptions written beside it, how many are likely to be secure by the exam. That is an estimate of preparation, never a prediction of a result: a place also depends on the day itself, on how other children do, and on each school’s own admissions rules.

No ranking against other children. There is no score that places your child among other children: no standardised age score, no percentile, no leaderboard. The children who sit a practice test are not the children who sit the exam, so a rank from one says little about the day. Progress is counted against the exam’s own topics instead.

No hall, invigilator or room of other children. Everything happens at home, on a device or on a printed paper. For the feel of the real thing, a hall, an invigilator and a room of children they do not know, book a mock exam near you a few months before the test.

No marking of writing by a teacher. A grown-up at home ticks what each piece of writing shows. If you would like a teacher’s view of a piece, your child’s class teacher, or a tutor if you have one, is the person to ask.

No tutoring. There is no person on the other side of the screen teaching your child. Remelia plans the practice, marks it and shows the method; when something needs explaining another way, that is a job for the class teacher or a tutor. For parents.

Yes. One account holds several children, each with their own record, plan, schools and weekly letter. Children can share a laptop, tablet or phone too: one keeps up to six children, each with a separate record. Read a whole sample letter.

In Remelia Parents, ask for a link code for your child: eight letters and numbers, shown for 10 minutes. Type it into the app on the laptop, tablet or phone your child uses. Your child never signs in.

Each laptop, tablet or phone you link then shares one record, so what was practised on the laptop on Monday is there on the tablet on Tuesday. One that is unlinked stops sending, and what is already on it stays there.

The app asks our server for each session’s questions, by topic, level and year group. It asks about schools too, with the words a grown-up types and the school chosen. It sends an anonymous device number with each request: never a name, never the child’s answers. Nothing else about the child leaves the device unless a grown-up links it to an account. Then only the child’s answers, the grown-ups’ settings and the device’s name go, and only to that account. So does the plan of a travel pack, if one is asked for. So does the list of questions the child got wrong, if a grown-up turns that on.

The apps count launches and installs as daily totals, with nothing about the family.

What your child types about their world (their friends, pet, team and hobbies) never leaves the device. Everything that is and is not sent.

No. No adverts in the app and no marketing trackers in it. No leaderboards, no comparisons with other children, and no percentages shown to your child.

This website sets no cookies and runs no tracking or analytics scripts. The sign-in pages and the apps keep only what signing in and practising need: cookies and storage on the device.

Yes. In Remelia Parents you can delete a child, or your whole account. A deleted child or account is kept for 30 days in case of a change of mind, then deleted for good; the service’s own backups are overwritten within 35 days after that. The list of questions a child got wrong, if switched on, goes at once with the child or the account. It is kept 30 days at most from the last time it was sent.

A device that was never linked has sent no answers: its record is only on that device.

You can also download a copy of everything the account holds, for one child or all of them, from Remelia Parents.

No. Remelia is not affiliated with any school, consortium or exam board, and does not speak for any of them. Each exam guide is written from the schools’ own published pages, with the sources listed and the date they were checked.

Misheli Ltd, a company registered in England and Wales; Remelia is its trading name. It started as one family’s practice: two sisters preparing for the 11+, and their mum learning alongside them. The name is made from theirs. About Remelia.

Email info@remelia.co.uk. It is the one address for everything: a question, a school you would like a plan for, or a privacy request. If a question in the app looks wrong, tap “Something wrong with this question?” on it.