Essex 11 Plus

Click on the blue links below to open pages that prepare for: CEM 11 Plus Exams, Essex CSSE, Northern Ireland PPTC Transfer Tests, AQE CEA, North London Independent Girls’ Schools’ Consortium, GL Assessment 11 Plus Maths, English, Verbal Reasoning, Non-Verbal Reasoning Click here for a demo of our interactive online tests and membership sites

Visuteach is interested in past Essex CSSE maths and English papers in order to generate more questions that help pupils prepare for the Essex CSSE 11 plus exam. We are interested in Essex CSSE 2003 maths papers as well as maths papers prior to 2002. We are interested in Essex CSSE English papers prior to 2008. We are prepared to pay for the Essex CSSE maths papers.

We are also interested in any maths sample papers from independent schools or grammar schools which set their own papers. We hope to use these to generate similar style questions that help pupils prepare for entrance to these schools. If you have any of the above papers, please contact us at visuteach@hotmail.com

The majority of grammar schools in Essex are part of the Consortium for Selective Schools in Essex (CSSE). The 11 plus exam in these schools consists of a CSSE English paper, a CSSE maths paper and a GL Assessment verbal reasoning paper.

Chelmsford County High School for Girls is not part of the CSSE, and its 11 plus exams are CEM 11 plus exams. Visuteach provides preparation for the English/verbal reasoning part of the CEM 11 plus tests in our online interactive English membership site. For information on our CEM 11 plus preparation materials, please click on our CEM 11 Plus Exams page.

Visuteach provides CSSE style maths and English papers and GL Assessment style verbal reasoning papers. Our practice papers are available for immediate download on our Purchase page.

Our Essex CSSE style maths papers contain explanations for the questions (not just answers).

In CSSE 11 plus exams, verbal reasoning accounts for 50% of the overall mark, maths for 25% and English for the remaining 25%. Therefore, it is particularly important to practise and get a good score on verbal reasoning tests.

In addition to our verbal reasoning papers, we also provide an online interactive membership site for verbal reasoning. This provides access to the 1920 questions from our paper tests in an online format where the questions are arranged by each of the 21 possible question types. Our 3 month verbal reasoning membership site also gives access to all of our 24 verbal reasoning papers in an online format. This provides 24 complete online 80 question, 50 minute tests, and the same questions are also provided in a shorter format of 20 question, 12.5 minute tests.

Demos of our verbal reasoning interactive online membership site can be seen by clicking on the grey images below.

Verbal Reasoning Membership Demo 1 Demo of one each of the 21 types of question (with answers immediately after each question)
Verbal Reasoning Membership Demo 2 A short 20 question, 12.5 minute timed test (with answers at the end of the test)

For more information on our interactive online verbal reasoning tests, please click Visuteach Verbal Reasoning Membership Site.

To open free sample papers for our tests, click on the blue underlined links in the Sample Paper column below. To download the free sample papers, right-click on the blue links and choose ‘Save Target As’ from the pop-up menu.

Essex 11 Plus GL Assessment Style Verbal Reasoning Papers

The Essex CSSE verbal reasoning paper is a GL Assessment verbal reasoning paper. The questions that appear on this paper can be drawn from any of 21 possible GL Assessment question types. We think it is unlikely that all 21 types will appear on the test paper, because the CSSE sample verbal reasoning paper contains questions drawn from 12 of the 21 types, and the sample verbal reasoning papers in GL Assessment pack 2 contain questions drawn from 15 or 16 of the possible 21 types. For more information on the 21 types of question, please see our Verbal Reasoning page.

Visuteach provides 24 GL Assessment style verbal reasoning papers.
Visuteach verbal reasoning papers 1-12 contain questions drawn from 15 of the possible 21 question types, and papers 13-24 contain questions drawn from all of the possible 21 types.

Visuteach verbal reasoning papers 1-12 contain questions drawn from the 15 types used in Kent and other counties (e.g. Buckinghamshire, Essex, Lincolnshire, Wiltshire, Gloucestershire and Wirral). Each test contains 80 questions drawn from any 13 of the possible 15 types. So, to cover all 15 types, you will need to buy more than one paper. This is the way that GL Assessment papers are laid out in GL Assessment sample pack 1.

Visuteach verbal reasoning papers 13-24 contain questions drawn from the 21 types (i.e. from the 15 types used in Kent and other counties, plus the additional 6 used in counties such as Buckinghamshire, Essex, Lincolnshire, Wiltshire, Gloucestershire and Wirral). Each test contains 80 questions drawn from any 15 or 16 of the possible 21 types. So, to cover all 21 types, you will need to buy more than one paper. This is the way that GL Assessment papers are laid out in GL Assessment sample pack 2.

Our papers 1-12 contain questions similar to those in GL Assessment pack 1, and our papers 13-24 contain questions similar to those in GL Assessment pack 2. There are differences in some of the common 15 question types that appear in these two packs e.g. pack 1 contains some mirror code and reverse mirror code questions which do not appear in pack 2, and some of the Explore the Facts and Solve the Riddle type questions use a slightly different logic between packs. The same is true of our papers 1-12 and 13-24.

Essex 11 Plus CSSE Style Maths Papers

Our Essex 11 plus maths papers are pdf files that contain questions similar to those found in the CSSE maths papers. Our maths papers contain 20 standard-format questions which are to be completed in 35 minutes.

Our Essex maths papers contain explanations for the questions (not just answers).

Essex 11 Plus CSSE Style English Practice Papers

Our Essex eleven plus English practice papers are pdf files that follow the format of the CSSE (Consortium for Selective Schools in Essex) test. The test consists of an English comprehension passage and questions which test for comprehension, punctuation, spelling, grammar and vocabulary. Our Essex eleven plus English tests are 40 minute standard format tests which are useful for pupils preparing for the Essex 11-plus. They can also be used by pupils preparing for 11-plus English comprehension tests elsewhere in the country.

Essex 11 Plus English – New 2010 Format

Essex introduced a new format English test in 2010. This new test consists of 20 standard format questions, whereas the previous test consisted of 9 standard format questions. The new test has less of an emphasis on comprehension and vocabulary, and a greater emphasis on punctuation. It also tests for spelling, grammar and literary devices – areas which were not examined in the previous tests. Each new 2010 format Essex English paper consists of one comprehension passage of between 800-1000 words and 20 questions on this passage. The questions test for comprehension, punctuation, vocabulary, spelling, grammar and literary devices.

Essex 11 Plus English – Old Pre-2010 Format

The pre-2010 format Essex 11+ English test consists of an English comprehension passage and questions which test for comprehension, punctuation and vocabulary. Comprehension makes up between 60% to 68% of the test, vocabulary between 20% to 24% and punctuation between 12% to 16%. Each pre-2010 format Essex English paper consists of one comprehension passage of between 800-1000 words and 7 comprehension questions on this passage, as well as one vocabulary question (which tests 10 or 12 words), and one grammar question (which tests for 6 or 8 errors).

We are still offering our old pre-2010 Essex English tests for sale because we cannot be sure that future Essex English tests will not revert to the old format, which was used for many years. The old format also offers good practice on comprehension, vocabulary and punctuation.

 
The table below shows the approximate percentage of marks awarded for comprehension, punctuation, vocabulary, spelling, grammar and identification of literary devices in the new format and old format Essex English 11+ tests.

 

From the table, you can see that comprehension has declined in importance, but still makes up the majority of the test. Punctuation has increased in importance, and vocabulary has decreased in importance. Spelling now earns over one fifth of the marks available. Grammar questions and the identification of literary devices and techniques make up the remainder of the marks. Spelling, grammar and literary devices are all new topics examined in the new 2010 format test, and were not examined in the old pre-2010 format test.

 
The grammar questions involve the classification of a noun or nouns as any of the following:

The literary device and literary technique questions involve the identification of any of the following literary devices within the comprehension passage:

Essex 11 plus English papers are quite difficult. The comprehension passages and the vocabulary are difficult. In the past, comprehension passages have been taken from authors such as Charles Dickens, Thomas Hardy and Graham Greene. Our Essex English papers contain comprehension passages by Samuel Smiles, George Eliot, Jerome K. Jerome, Daniel Defoe and Charles Dickens among others.

Our free sample paper is in the style of the old pre-2010 format and contains 5 questions (as opposed to the full 9). The vocabulary question tests 8 words (as opposed to the full 10 or 12). The comprehension passage in the sample test is just over 500 words in length, whereas the comprehension passage in the full product is between 800-1000 words in length.