How to prepare for the Eltham College 11+ exam

Exam format not yet verified. We have not confirmed this school's exam board or paper format from an official source. Where this guide describes the test, treat it as a working assumption and check the school's admissions page before relying on it.

The exam at a glance

For 2028 entry, Eltham College uses the school’s own 11+ assessment process. The tested subjects are Maths, English, Verbal Reasoning and Non-Verbal Reasoning, and the format is a GL Assessment-style paper across those four areas. For families, the practical takeaway is simple: children need broad, steady preparation rather than heavy focus on just one subject.

The school’s admissions information for the current published cycle explains that external applicants for Year 7 sit entrance examinations in early January. the information in our directory (not yet verified with the school) says the delivery as mixed, so it is sensible to prepare your child to work comfortably through standard timed sections and to switch between different question styles without losing concentration.

On the day, children should expect an assessment built around the four tested areas rather than a single all-in-one paper. Because the school does not publish a detailed public breakdown of section lengths for 2028 entry, it is best to prepare for the kind of pacing commonly needed in GL-style work: careful reading, quick method selection in Maths, and accurate processing under time pressure in reasoning sections.

Board/format: school’s own 11+ assessment process, using a GL Assessment-style paper
Subjects: Maths, English, Verbal Reasoning, Non-Verbal Reasoning
Delivery: mixed
Entry point: Year 7 for external candidates

If you are planning ahead for 2028 entry, the most useful preparation is balanced practice across all four subjects, with timing introduced gradually and then used regularly once methods are secure.

Registration and key dates

Eltham College handles registration for its own 11+ admissions. The school’s Year 7 admissions page for the currently published cycle includes an online registration route for 11+ applicants and states that a registration fee of £234 including VAT applies.

For the published 2027 entry cycle, the school states that the registration deadline is 9 November 2026. It also says that candidates will sit the 11+ entrance examinations on either 5 or 6 January 2027. Scholarship assessments are listed for 21 to 29 January 2027 (marked by the school as to be confirmed), with offer day on 12 February 2027 and an acceptance deadline of 3 March 2027 at midday.

Because you are applying for 2028 entry, those are not yet the dates you will use. At the time of writing, Eltham College has not published the full 2028 Year 7 admissions timetable on its website. The safest way to plan is to use the current cycle as a guide only: registration appears to run through the autumn term, the deadline was in early November for the published cycle, and the exam was scheduled for early January.

Typical rhythm, based on the published 2027 entry page:

Open events: autumn term
Registration deadline: early November
11+ exam: early January
Offers: mid-February
Acceptance deadline: early March

The school also lists a whole school open day on 19 September 2026 for the current cycle. For 2028 entry, check the admissions page regularly and sign up for updates if offered. You can also keep track here: Free email alerts for this school's key dates.

Before registering, have the basic applicant details ready and follow the school’s online process on its admissions page. If the school asks for supporting information for your child’s application in the 2028 cycle, use only the documents listed by Eltham College for that year.

Who can apply: catchment and admissions

Eltham College is an independent coeducational school, so there is no catchment area in the state-school sense. Entry is not based on distance from the school.

For Year 7, ElevenReady’s directory (not yet verified with the school) school facts confirm that there are 120 places in the cohort each year. The school’s admissions information says that around 120 students join Year 7 each year, with approximately half coming from Eltham College Junior School. The remainder come from Blackheath Prep and more than 30 other schools.

That matters because not all places are equally open to external applicants. ElevenReady’s directory (not yet verified with the school) admissions notes confirm that pupils at Eltham College Junior School move up automatically without further assessment if they wish, and that Blackheath Prep pupils who apply at 11+ have a distinct priority entry arrangement that is not available to other feeder schools.

For families applying from other schools, the practical implication is that competition is for a limited number of remaining places after internal progression and priority routes are taken into account. Eltham College does not publish a cut-off score or a pass mark for 11+ entry on the sources reviewed, so parents should not rely on unofficial figures. Always use the school’s own admissions page for the latest position.

School type	Independent, coeducational
Catchment	No catchment area
Year 7 places	120
Internal progression	About half the cohort comes from Eltham College Junior School
Priority route	Blackheath Prep has a separate priority entry arrangement

A month-by-month preparation plan

For a child aiming at the autumn and early-January admissions season before September 2028 entry, it helps to think in stages rather than trying to do everything at once. A calm, regular routine usually works better than very long sessions.

January to March in Year 5

A good point to begin gentle familiarisation.
Aim for 1 to 1.5 hours a week in total, split across two or three short sessions.
Focus on core arithmetic, careful comprehension, spelling and vocabulary building, and introductory reasoning skills.
Read widely every week: fiction, non-fiction and short articles.

April to June in Year 5

Increase to 1.5 to 2 hours a week.
Cover all four tested subjects in rotation.
Start practising question recognition: what the task is asking, which method fits, and how quickly your child can settle into a new section.
Keep work mostly untimed, but add occasional mini-tasks with a light time limit.

July to August before Year 6

Keep momentum without turning the summer into a grind.
Around 2 hours a week is enough for many children.
Use short mixed exercises, vocabulary review, arithmetic fluency and a little reasoning practice.
Towards the end of the summer, introduce the first short timed sections if your child is secure on methods.

September in Year 6

Move to 2.5 to 3 hours a week, spread over several sessions.
Check the school’s admissions page and register as soon as the 2028 cycle opens.
Start regular timed practice in short sections rather than full papers.
Review mistakes carefully: rushing, misreading, weak topic knowledge, or poor checking.

October in Year 6

Keep to 3 to 4 hours a week if your child is coping well.
Now is the time to begin fuller mixed papers, though not too many.
Do one paper or one substantial set of timed sections each week, then spend longer reviewing than marking.
Continue building stamina gently.

November in Year 6

Maintain 3 to 4 hours a week.
By now, your child should be working regularly under time pressure in all four subjects.
Use a simple error log to spot patterns: for example, cloze vocabulary, multi-step Maths, or spatial rotation in NVR.
If confidence is dipping, reduce volume and focus on accuracy.

December in Year 6

Keep work steady but not exhausting.
Complete a small number of realistic timed papers.
In the final two weeks, prioritise light review, routine and sleep.
Avoid cramming new topics right at the end.

Early January

Do only brief refreshers.
Prepare practical arrangements, travel and stationery if required.
Aim for calm confidence, not one last push.

Subject by subject: what to practise

Maths

For Eltham College’s GL-style Maths preparation, focus on secure Key Stage 2 number skills first: the four operations, place value, fractions, decimals, percentages, ratio basics, measures and straightforward geometry. Then add speed and selection of method. Children often know the method in untimed work but lose marks when they hesitate under pressure.

Practise short sets that mix arithmetic fluency with worded problems. Encourage your child to underline key information, estimate before solving, and check whether an answer is sensible. As timing increases, the goal is not frantic working but steady, accurate progress.

English

English preparation should cover both comprehension and written language control. In GL-style work, children may need to read short passages carefully, infer meaning, identify vocabulary in context and apply spelling, punctuation or grammar accurately.

Useful practice includes reading varied texts, discussing why an answer is supported by the passage, learning precise vocabulary, and improving sentence control. If your child tends to rush, teach them to return to the text and prove the answer rather than guessing from memory.

Verbal Reasoning

Verbal Reasoning rewards familiarity with the task types as much as raw ability. Children should learn to handle common patterns such as codes, letter and number relationships, word connections, vocabulary-based tasks and carefully sequenced instructions.

Build this subject gradually. First teach one question type at a time, then mix them. Vocabulary matters here too, so regular reading and word study are genuinely helpful. Once your child knows the common formats, short timed drills can make a big difference.

Non-Verbal Reasoning

Non-Verbal Reasoning usually tests pattern recognition, similarities, rotations, reflections, shape sequences and visual logic. Many children improve quickly once they learn how to look systematically at shapes rather than guessing.

Practise by asking the same questions each time: what changes, what stays the same, is there a movement, a rotation, a shading rule, or a change in number? Keep explanations brief and visual. Repetition helps this subject more than long theory sessions.

Practice papers and mock exams

Practice papers are most useful when they are used sparingly and reviewed properly. It is much better to complete one paper carefully and analyse every mistake than to race through several without learning from them.

Start with untimed or lightly timed practice so your child can learn each question type.
Move to timed sections once methods are secure.
Use full papers later, mainly to build pacing and concentration.
After each paper, sort mistakes into three groups: knowledge gaps, misreads and timing errors.
Redo incorrect questions a few days later to check whether the issue has actually been fixed.

If you want school-specific practice, use these free ElevenReady resources:

Mock exams can help some children, especially if they need practice managing nerves in an unfamiliar setting. They are most helpful once your child already knows the material reasonably well. If taken too early, they can dent confidence without teaching much. Usually, one or two realistic mocks in the later stages of Year 5 or the start of Year 6 is enough.

On the day

Keep the day calm and predictable. Lay out clothes, any required equipment and travel plans the night before. Aim to arrive in good time so your child is not carrying stress into the first paper.

Choose a familiar breakfast and keep hydration sensible.
Avoid last-minute teaching on the morning itself.
Remind your child that some questions are meant to feel stretching.
If one section feels difficult, encourage them to reset mentally before the next one.
Use simple pacing habits: read carefully, keep moving, and do not let one question steal too much time.

The most reassuring message for children is that they do not need perfection. Eltham College is looking at overall performance across the assessment process, so calm accuracy is far more valuable than panicked speed.

After the exam: results, allocation and appeals

For the currently published 2027 entry cycle, Eltham College says that offers are made on 12 February 2027 and that the acceptance deadline is 3 March 2027 at midday. For 2028 entry, wait for the school to publish the new dates rather than assuming they will be identical.

As an independent school, Eltham College runs its own admissions process rather than the local authority secondary allocation system used by state schools. That means families apply directly to the school and receive the school’s decision directly.

The sources reviewed do not publish a pass mark, cut-off score or ranked waiting-list threshold for Year 7 entry. If your child is not offered a place, contact the admissions team politely to ask about next steps, including whether a waiting list will operate for that cycle and whether there is any review or appeal route under the school’s admissions procedures.

If your child is offered a place, note the acceptance deadline carefully and return any required paperwork promptly. Independent school timelines can move quickly between offer and acceptance.

What has changed recently

From the official and reputable sources reviewed, there is no clearly announced change in the last two years to Eltham College’s Year 7 tested subjects for 11+ entry. The school’s current admissions page continues to present an entrance examination route for external candidates.

The main published update visible for families now is the 2027 entry timetable, which sets out the current cycle’s registration deadline, January examination dates, scholarship assessment window, offer day and acceptance deadline. For 2028 entry, parents should wait for the school to publish the next admissions cycle rather than relying on the 2027 page.

The school’s wider group structure has also changed in recent years through the merger bringing Blackheath Prep into the Eltham College family, which helps explain the priority entry arrangement noted in current admissions information and the school’s wider group announcements.

Frequently asked questions

Does Eltham College have an 11+ exam for external applicants?

Yes. Eltham College admits external pupils into Year 7 through its own entrance assessment process.

What subjects are tested for Eltham College 11+?

For 2028 entry, the tested subjects are Maths, English, Verbal Reasoning and Non-Verbal Reasoning.

Is Eltham College 11+ a GL Assessment exam?

the working assumption for this guide is the school's own paper using a GL Assessment-style format across the four subjects.

How many places are there in Year 7 at Eltham College?

There are 120 Year 7 places. Around half the cohort comes from Eltham College Junior School.

Does Eltham College have a catchment area?

No. It is an independent school, so there is no catchment area in the state-school sense.

When is the Eltham College 11+ exam usually held?

For the published 2027 entry cycle, the exam is on 5 or 6 January 2027. For 2028 entry, the school has not yet published final dates, but the current cycle suggests an early-January exam.

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Sources

Eltham College admissions: Entry at 11: Eltham College admits external pupils at 11+ into Year 7; registration is run by the school; registration fee is £234 including VAT; 2027 entry registration deadline is 9 November 2026; candidates sit exams on 5 or 6 January 2027; scholarship assessments are 21 to 29 January 2027 (tbc); offer day is
Eltham College website: School identity and official admissions host website.
Eltham College admissions: Official school admissions information and route to registration/open events.
The Good Schools Guide: Eltham College: Reputable coverage noting Year 7 intake pattern from junior and other feeder schools.

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Written by ElevenReady from the school's published information and reviewed by a person before publishing. Last reviewed 4 October 2026. Exam arrangements change. Check the school's admissions page for the current year.