Click to enlargeThe Definitive Guide to 11+ English
GL-style comprehension and reading skills: 14 question types, 360 fresh questions on original passages, and two mock papers.
- 14 GL-style comprehension question types
- A strategy page for each, with the examiner traps named
- 360 fresh questions on original passages
- Two mock papers: two passages, 40 questions, 30 minutes
- Every answer with the line it comes from
Want the whole series? The full Definitive Guides series is £119, under £30 a book.
Your next step
This guide prepares your child for the GL-style paper. The 11+ English Mastery Series goes further: 27 books that teach every topic from the first term of Year 4, in order, so nothing is left to the final months.
How this book is used in our course
One question type at a time. Read the strategy page, learn the traps by name, then read the practice passage once, labelling each paragraph, and answer from the map. Mark, check every wrong answer against the line in the explanation, and redo the type until it scores 18 out of 20. Finish with the two mock papers, strictly to time.
Where it sits in the series
- This is the first book in the series.
- Next book in the series: Book 2, The Definitive Guide to 11+ Maths
What's inside Definitive Guide 1
Five real pages from the book, so you can see exactly what your child will work from. All 12 sample pages are in the viewer.
Twenty questions in fifteen minutes: why the GL English paper is a reading race, and how to win it.
A passage, then 20 multiple-choice questions: 16 on understanding, two on word meaning in context, two on grammar and technique. The guide explains how 90% scorers read the passage once, briskly but properly, labelling as they go, then answer from the map instead of re-reading. Then how every concept is taught: strategy, worked examples, practice, mock papers.
The wrong answers copy the passage's words. The right one re-words it.
Finding the facts, the most common question type in the practice papers. A six-step method, then the traps by name: the wrong-person swap, the neighbour swap, word-match bait, the general-knowledge trap and the before-and-after trap. Once a child can name the trap, the trap stops working.
Original passages in the GL style, each with 20 questions.
"The City in a Hive": an information text written for the guide, with numbered lines so every answer can be checked against the text. Set A builds the method, Set B is at the 90% Standard, and 18 out of 20 masters the question type.
Two mock papers: two passages, 40 questions, 30 minutes.
Fifteen minutes per passage, strictly to time, answers on a separate sheet, exactly as the paper is set. The mock passages are original, like every passage in the guide, so a child is reading something genuinely new under exam conditions.
Every answer with the line it comes from and why the others are wrong.
"Two million is the number of flowers visited for a jar of honey, and a thousand is the number of eggs a queen can lay in a day: both are numbers from the wrong sentence." The explanations name the trap, so the same mistake is not made twice.
All 14 question types in the book follow the pattern shown here.
Other Year 5 & 6 books in Definitive Guide
The Definitive Guide to 11+ Maths
Every GL-style maths question type: 17 concepts, 440 fresh questions, a strategy for each, and two full 50-question mock papers.
The Definitive Guide to 11+ Verbal Reasoning
All 21 GL-style verbal reasoning question types, 580 fresh questions, and two full 80-question mock papers.
The Definitive Guide to 11+ Non-Verbal Reasoning
Shapes, patterns and codes: 9 concepts, 260 fresh questions, one checklist for every type, and two mock papers.