7 Plus Exam Preparation in London
De-Risking the 7 Plus Exam Lottery
Passing the 7 Plus exam requires parental commitment, child resilience and an education partner with deep knowledge of the exams and how to get children to the required standard. We have an exceptional track record of getting children to pass 7 Plus exams for schools such as Highgate, Westminster Under, City Junior, Alleyn’s, Dulwich College, UCS, NLCS and others.
We go beyond simply providing a capable tutor. Instead, we take your child and you on a comprehensive journey to de-risk the process and ensure the best chance of success. Our teachers have a proven track record and we supplement this with a comprehensive pedagogy and a programme to support your child at every stage.
Understanding the 7 Plus Exam
The 7 Plus exam is widely considered the hardest exam a child will take before their A-Levels. It is used by London’s most competitive independent schools to select children for Year 3 entry. The exam typically covers English (comprehension and creative writing), Mathematics, and Reasoning (verbal and non-verbal). Many schools also include interviews and group assessments as part of their selection process.
Success requires children to be working one to two years ahead of the National Curriculum in Maths and English. The exams are time-pressured and academically challenging. However, every year children do pass the 7 Plus exam — and they are more often than not our children.
Our 7 Plus Exam Preparation Programme
We build curriculum knowledge, resilience and exam technique. Our teachers are 7 Plus experts and we supplement with testing, mock exams and holiday courses. Our programme is around six times more successful than the standard odds. Our most successful candidates start with us in pre-reception, but you can start later in Reception, Year 1 or even Year 2.
7 Plus Exam Services
We offer a complete range of services to prepare your child for the 7 Plus exam:
1-2-1 Tutoring Programme
We offer 7 Plus 1-2-1 classes in term time with experienced teachers. We follow a programme designed to accelerate your child to the high standard needed for the 7 Plus exam.
Our classes are run on Saturday and Sunday mornings at our schools in Dulwich and Hampstead. They cost £2,200 per term and include ten 90-minute lessons.
Aptitude Testing
Unsure if a particular school is within reach for your child? Unsure what your child’s actual potential is? We have access to world-leading tests by Cambridge University which give you standardised scores for potential and attainment across Maths and English and can help you with school signposting before you start tutoring.
Our aptitude testing is done at home, online with technical support from the parent. You get a detailed report and a consultation with us. This costs £500.
Baseline Testing
When you start your journey you need to know exactly where your child is versus the 7 Plus exam that they will need to pass. We have baseline tests for Reception, Year 1 and Year 2. We use these to drive tailored curriculum acquisition. We have a teacher conduct these tests with a child so we can see how they approach the problem as well as seeing the answers they give.
These tests are done at the weekend at our schools in Dulwich and Hampstead. We then take you through the results and give you an action plan. This costs £500.
Mock Exams
Even the most talented child can be thrown by the pressure of the 7 Plus exam. We offer fully invigilated exams under proper exam conditions. You take the papers which most closely correlate to your chosen schools.
We then mark the papers and give you the results. These run on set dates in the Autumn Term of Year 2. They are run from our schools in Hampstead and Dulwich at the weekend. This costs £300.
Holiday Courses
We find that most children need intensive work to get to the right standard. We offer weekly two hour 1-2-1 intensive courses in the school holidays. We have programmes suitable for all ages. They are critical to getting the curriculum acceleration that is needed.
We offer midweek dates in Easter, Summer and Autumn. These sessions cost £1,200 – £1,500 a week.
Mock Interviews
Increasingly schools are weighting their assessment days for their 7 Plus selection process. The interview is the most important part of this. We offer an interview preparation programme to give children the skill needed to excel. This sees us give your child three interviews on three different days with advice and feedback between.
This is for children in Year 2 and are run from our schools in Hampstead and Dulwich at the weekend. The programme costs £500.
The 7 Plus English Exam
The English component of the 7 Plus exam tests both comprehension and creative writing. Children need to be both creative and technically correct to succeed.
Comprehension
Comprehensions are a key part of the 7 Plus exam and children always need to practice these. In 7 Plus exam 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 what might happen next.
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, 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 to two years ahead. So by the time children take their 7 Plus exam, 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.
The 7 Plus Maths Exam
The Maths component of the 7 Plus exam requires curriculum acceleration, speed and accuracy. The syllabus varies from school to school and, as a guide, your child should be one to two years 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. Try to observe how your child best learns their times tables and build in multiple ways of learning and reinforcement. For example, some children do well with rote learning, others benefit from 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 +, -, ×, ÷ 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 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 form
- Read and write two-digit and three-digit numbers in figures and words
The 7 Plus Reasoning Exam
Reasoning papers are increasingly included in 7 Plus exams 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 tests are amongst the most time-pressured exams that children sit. Of course, if children are more familiar with these 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.
Verbal Reasoning
Typical Verbal Reasoning questions in the 7 Plus exam include:
- 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
Non-Verbal Reasoning
Typical Non-Verbal Reasoning questions in the 7 Plus exam include:
- Logical sequences and ordering
- True/False
- Related numbers
- Number sequences
- Nets
- Brain teasers and logic problems
We are so pleased that Charlotte has had offers from both Alleyn’s and JAGS. It’s been hard work for everyone but what a relief! Thank you to everyone on the team for all the amazing help. We couldn’t have done it with you. Now we have decisions to make!
Join our 7 Plus Programme Today
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