How to prepare for the Felsted School 11+ exam

The exam at a glance

For September 2028 entry, Felsted School’s Year 7 assessment uses the school’s own paper format, with questions across Maths, English, Verbal Reasoning and Non-Verbal Reasoning. ElevenReady’s verified information is that this is sat on a computer and is timed, so children need practice not only in accuracy but also in moving steadily through questions on screen.

Felsted’s own admissions information says Year 7 applicants attend entry testing and also have an interview with the Head or Deputy Head. In practice, that means preparation should cover both the academic side and the softer skills of listening carefully, answering calmly and speaking about school in a natural way.

Because the assessment includes four areas, preparation needs to be balanced. A child who is strong in English but unfamiliar with reasoning questions can be caught out, and equally a quick maths learner can lose marks if they have not practised reading carefully on screen. A sensible plan is to keep all four subjects in the routine each month, with one or two as the main focus at any given time.

What the day looks like can vary slightly from year to year, but parents should expect a structured admissions visit rather than a single short test only. The school’s Year 7 admissions page describes testing and interview as part of the process, and the wider admissions pages explain that children may also attend experience or assessment events depending on the stage of application.

Registration and key dates

Felsted runs its own admissions process, so parents should start on the school’s admissions pages rather than through a local authority 11+ portal. The clearest official route for Year 7 is the school’s age-11 admissions page and the wider admissions section.

The school’s published guidance for the current cycle is not a confirmed timetable for 2028 entry. Its Year 7 page says the key dates shown are a guide for September 2027 entry and may be subject to change. Because of that, it is safest to treat the published timings as indicative only and check the school website again when your child is in Year 5 and early Year 6.

What the school does confirm is:

applications for the 2027 entry testing and award assessments open at the beginning of September 2026;
the main admissions page recommends registration by the September one year prior to entry;
a whole-school open morning was listed for Saturday 3 October 2026 for that cycle.

For families aiming at September 2028 entry, the sensible working assumption is that registration will usually open around the beginning of September in Year 6, with testing in the autumn term, but you should treat that as typical timing based on the school’s published guide for the previous cycle, not as a confirmed 2028 deadline.

When you register, expect to complete the school’s own enquiry or application route and then receive information from admissions about the next stage. Independent schools commonly ask for core pupil details and current-school information, and Felsted’s admissions pages invite families to contact the admissions team directly for help with the process.

Useful school links for staying organised:

The Felsted School 11+ guide (format, catchment, dates): /schools/felsted-school
Free email alerts for this school's key dates: /school-alerts?school=felsted-school

If 2028-specific dates are not yet live when you check, set a reminder for the end of the summer term before Year 6 and again for late August, so you can catch the opening of registration promptly.

Who can apply: catchment and admissions

Felsted is an independent co-educational school and there is no catchment area for Year 7 entry. That is helpful for families because eligibility is not tied to a home address in the way many grammar-school systems are.

ElevenReady’s verified directory information for 2028 entry is that the school usually has around 20 places for Year 7 and limits applications to around 80. That gives a useful sense of scale: there are not huge numbers of places, so children benefit from steady preparation, but this is also not the same as a very large selective consortium where applicants are competing for several hundred places across multiple schools.

Felsted’s own admissions pages make clear that Year 7 entry is open both to UK applicants and to overseas full boarders from Year 7. The school also explains that Year 7 candidates are assessed through testing and interview, which means decisions are not based on one mark in isolation.

The school website should always be your first source for the latest admissions rules, including whether any scholarship or award assessments are running alongside the standard Year 7 process in a given year. If you are considering boarding, overseas application or a scholarship route, contact admissions early because those paths sometimes involve extra steps or earlier planning.

Felsted does not publish a catchment boundary because it does not use one, and we did not find any published Year 7 pass mark or standardised score threshold on the sources reviewed. Parents should therefore avoid online claims about a “safe score” and rely on the school’s own admissions guidance instead.

A month-by-month preparation plan

The most effective preparation for Felsted is steady and balanced. For most children, starting in the spring or early summer of Year 5 is enough. Earlier than that is usually unnecessary; later than that can make the autumn of Year 6 feel rushed.

January to March of Year 5

Keep it light: around 1 to 1.5 hours a week in short sessions.
Build core skills in arithmetic, vocabulary, reading comprehension and careful working.
Introduce Verbal Reasoning and Non-Verbal Reasoning gently so the formats do not feel new later.
If your child is not used to typing, trackpads or reading from a screen, begin small amounts of computer-based practice.

April to June of Year 5

Increase to about 1.5 to 2 hours a week.
Work across all four areas each fortnight.
Start short timed drills: ten minutes of mental maths, a few reasoning questions with a timer, a quick comprehension with a word limit for written answers.
Focus on method and accuracy first, then speed.

July to August before Year 6

Aim for roughly 2 to 3 hours a week, with breaks for holidays.
Move from topic practice to mixed sets, because the real assessment draws on several skill types.
Complete occasional longer computer-based sessions so your child gets used to maintaining concentration on screen.
Review mistakes carefully. Summer is a good time to close small gaps before the pace of Year 6 increases.

September of Year 6

Increase to around 3 to 4 hours a week, spread over several days.
Register promptly once the school opens applications for your cycle.
Begin fuller timed papers or paper sections, especially in reasoning.
Practise switching between subjects so your child can reset quickly after one section finishes.

October to the exam period

Keep the load realistic: usually 4 hours a week is enough for most children.
Do one main timed session each week and shorter targeted sessions on weaker areas.
Practise pacing on screen: reading instructions once, skipping and returning when needed, checking answers if time allows.
Add light interview preparation: speaking clearly, answering in full sentences and discussing books, interests and school life naturally.

The final fortnight

Reduce new content.
Use short refreshers, confidence-building review and one or two realistic timed sessions only.
Prioritise sleep, routine and calm.

A good rule of thumb is that timed papers become useful only after a child broadly knows the question types. If you start them too early, they mainly rehearse stress. For most children, the summer before Year 6 is the right point to introduce them properly.

Subject by subject: what to practise

Maths

For Felsted, maths preparation should focus on secure Key Stage 2 number skills and quick, accurate processing under time pressure. Children should be confident with the four operations, place value, fractions, decimals, percentages, ratio basics, measures, simple geometry and interpreting tables or charts. Because the assessment is timed and computer-based, it helps to practise selecting the right method quickly rather than overworking straightforward questions.

Useful habits include estimating before answering, checking whether an answer is sensible and spotting the exact step where a mistake happened. Short mixed drills are usually better than long topic worksheets, because they build flexibility.

English

English preparation should cover both comprehension and technical accuracy. Strong practice includes reading fiction and non-fiction, identifying tone and purpose, retrieving evidence, making simple inferences and understanding vocabulary in context. On the writing side, children should revise punctuation, sentence control, spelling patterns and clear paragraphing.

Because some independent-school assessments combine reading and language skills in compact timed tasks, children benefit from reading instructions slowly and answering precisely what is asked. Regular reading aloud, discussion of word meanings and short written summaries all help.

Verbal Reasoning

Verbal Reasoning tests how well a child handles language patterns and logic rather than school-taught content alone. Practice commonly includes letter codes, word relationships, sequences, vocabulary-based logic, hidden words, instructions involving positions or order, and rapid processing of short clues.

The best way to prepare is little and often. Build vocabulary steadily, teach one question type at a time, then mix them so your child learns to recognise the method quickly. Encourage rough working where needed and train your child not to get stuck on one puzzle for too long.

Non-Verbal Reasoning

Non-Verbal Reasoning focuses on visual patterns and spatial logic. Children typically need to identify rotations, reflections, symmetry, shape sequences, similarities and differences, codes and relationships between figures. This can feel unfamiliar at first, but it usually improves quickly once the main pattern types are understood.

Use structured practice that names the pattern rule clearly, then gradually reduce support. It is especially useful to talk through why an option is wrong, not only why one is right. Since Felsted’s assessment is computer-based, include screen practice so children get used to scanning options carefully without rushing.

Practice papers and mock exams

Practice papers are most helpful when they are used as diagnosis, not just as a score. After each one, spend more time reviewing than marking: which question types were slow, which errors were avoidable, and where did confidence drop? That review is what turns practice into progress.

For Felsted, keep three things in mind:

Use mixed practice across Maths, English, Verbal Reasoning and Non-Verbal Reasoning, because the assessment covers all four.
Include computer-based timed practice, not only printed worksheets.
Do not overload your child with full mocks too early. Build familiarity first, then add timed sections, then full-length practice closer to the test.

ElevenReady resources for this school:

Free Felsted School practice papers (one per tested subject, with answers): /schools/felsted-school-mock-tests
The Felsted School 11+ guide (format, catchment, dates): /schools/felsted-school
Free email alerts for this school's key dates: /school-alerts?school=felsted-school

If you use a mock exam outside home, choose one for confidence and familiarity rather than pressure. A single well-timed mock in early autumn of Year 6 is usually enough for most children. The aim is to practise routine, timing and recovery after a tricky section, not to create a sense that every weekend is a test.

On the day

Keep the morning simple. Aim for a normal breakfast, comfortable smart-casual clothing if the school has not specified otherwise, and plenty of time for the journey so your child is not carrying travel stress into the assessment.

Before you arrive, remind your child of only three things: read the instructions carefully, keep moving if one question feels hard, and reset mentally at the start of each new section. Long last-minute coaching rarely helps.

Because Felsted includes an interview as part of the Year 7 process, encourage your child to think of the day as a chance to show who they are, not only what they can score. Polite greetings, listening well and answering naturally matter. They do not need polished speeches; they just need to be calm, respectful and themselves.

Practical preparation also helps. In the week before the assessment, make sure your child has done a little work on screen, has gone to bed on time and knows the rough shape of the day. Familiarity reduces nerves.

After the assessment, avoid a detailed post-mortem in the car. Most children remember the hardest questions most clearly, which can give a misleading impression. A calm “well done, you handled it” is usually the best response.

After the exam: results, allocation and appeals

As an independent school, Felsted does not follow the state-school National Offer Day allocation system for Year 7 in the same way a grammar school would. Instead, families should expect communication directly from the school about the outcome of testing and interview, and then any next steps to secure a place.

We did not find a confirmed published date for when Year 7 results are issued for 2028 entry, and the school’s current key dates are explicitly described as a guide for another admissions cycle. For that reason, parents should rely on the admissions office for the exact timeline in their year.

If your child is offered a place, read the offer paperwork carefully and note any acceptance deadline. If your child is not offered a place, ask politely whether the school operates a waiting list and whether there is any review or appeal route within its admissions process. Independent schools can differ in how they handle this, so the school’s own written guidance is the key reference.

If you are comparing Felsted with state selective options, remember that the administrative process will be different. Keep a simple admissions calendar for each school so independent-school deadlines do not get mixed up with local-authority preference forms.

What has changed recently

From the official sources reviewed, the main clearly announced point is that Felsted’s published Year 7 key dates currently shown online are a guide for September 2027 entry and may be subject to change. The same page states that applications for 2027 entry testing and award assessments open at the beginning of September 2026. We did not find any separate official announcement of a recent change to catchment, places or exam board beyond the current admissions information and ElevenReady’s verified format note for 2028 entry.

Frequently asked questions

Does Felsted School have an 11+ catchment area?

No. Felsted is an independent school and does not use a catchment area for Year 7 entry.

What subjects are in the Felsted School Year 7 entrance test?

For 2028 entry, the assessment covers Maths, English, Verbal Reasoning and Non-Verbal Reasoning.

Is the Felsted 11+ done on paper or on a computer?

For 2028 entry, ElevenReady’s verified information is that the assessment is computer-based and timed.

How many Year 7 places are there at Felsted?

ElevenReady’s verified directory information is that the school usually has around 20 places for Year 7.

When should we register for Felsted Year 7 entry?

The school recommends registration by the September one year before entry, and its current Year 7 guide says applications for the 2027 cycle open at the beginning of September 2026. Check the admissions page for your exact year because the published dates are described as a guide and may change.

Does Felsted interview Year 7 applicants?

Yes. The school says Year 7 applicants attend entry testing and an interview with the Head or Deputy Head.

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Sources

Felsted School admissions: Age 11: Year 7 entry is at age 11; candidates attend entry testing and interview with the Head or Deputy Head; published key dates are a guide for September 2027 entry and may be subject to change; applications open at the beginning of September 2026 for 2027 entry testing and award assessments; whole-schoo
Felsted School admissions: Parents should use the school’s own admissions process; the school recommends registration by the September one year prior to the year of entry; admissions team contact route and school-run process.
Felsted School home page: School identity as an independent co-educational school in Essex; general school overview.

Preparing for other schools in Essex

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.