Free 11+ past papers and familiarisation materials

Looking for free 11+ past papers? Start with the official source for the school, consortium, test provider, or local authority you are applying through. There is no single national 11+ paper bank, and a resource can be useful without being a real past paper.

Plusling helps families prepare with original practice, and links directly to the official pages below rather than copying, hosting, or relabelling their copyrighted materials.

Four labels that should not be mixed up

Official familiarisation material

Familiarisation material introduces a provider’s instructions, layout, answer method, or sample question types. It is not necessarily a paper that candidates previously sat. The GL Assessment 11+ guide explains how GL’s free familiarisation relates to the locally chosen test. GL describes its free downloads as familiarisation material and warns that local timings and question counts may differ.^[1]

A council or admissions consortium may publish its own current guide. For example, Warwickshire County Council links to a Birmingham and Warwickshire entrance-test familiarisation guide.^[3] Use the landing page for the relevant entry cycle so that you can see any updated context alongside the download.

Historic past papers

A historic past paper is an earlier paper that the responsible school, consortium, or provider identifies as a past examination. CSSE currently labels selected English and Mathematics papers and mark schemes for 2021, 2022, and 2023 entry as “Past Exam”. It also states that all CSSE examination papers are copyright-protected.^[2]

That makes those papers historic examples of CSSE examinations for the named entry years. It does not make them a specification for another area or a promise about a future CSSE paper.

Publisher practice

Commercial publishers create their own practice books, timed papers, and guides. These can provide additional work, but they are publisher material—not official familiarisation and not a school’s historic paper unless the responsible official source explicitly says so. Check the edition, the named test or area, the answer support, and the publisher’s own description before buying.

Original Plusling practice

Plusling practice uses original Plusling questions in the learning app. It is not official test-provider material, a school or consortium past paper, or a copy of those sources. You can try five original questions now, without creating an account. This is a short practice sample, not a past paper, diagnostic, standardised score, pass forecast, or admission prediction.

If you would rather choose a subject first, use the public practice library to explore English, Mathematics, Verbal Reasoning, and Non-Verbal Reasoning.

Some providers do not publish past papers

An empty search result does not mean a hidden paper should be found elsewhere. Cambridge Select Insight says it does not provide commercially available practice or past papers and instead supplies standardised familiarisation to candidates.^[4] In that situation, use the material supplied through the current admissions process.

A quick legitimacy check

Before using a file described as an “11+ past paper”, ask:

1. Who published it, and is that the organisation responsible for the named assessment?
2. Does the official page call it a past exam, a sample, or familiarisation?
3. Which area and entry year does it describe?
4. Are you on the publisher’s own landing page rather than a copied upload?
5. Does the target school’s current admissions information still point to the same format?

Use a historic paper to understand its own context. Use familiarisation to recognise current instructions and presentation. Use publisher and Plusling practice as distinct preparation material, never as evidence of a future paper’s exact content.