IQ Test for 11 Year Olds

How this compares with the 11-plus

The 11-plus is still used for entry to about 160 grammar schools in England. It is usually taken early in Year 6, when children are 10 or 11, and papers typically cover verbal reasoning, non-verbal reasoning, maths and English, depending on the area.

Non-verbal reasoning papers use shape patterns, sequences and analogies, which look a lot like the puzzles here. But this is not an 11-plus mock. Our questions are not written to any exam board's format, and a result here does not predict a pass.

The most famous test of 11 year olds

In June 1932, almost every child in Scotland born in 1921 sat the same intelligence test at school, about 87,000 children. It was called the Scottish Mental Survey.

Around 70 years later, researchers at the University of Edinburgh found hundreds of those children, then in their late 70s, and tested them again. Scores at 11 predicted scores at 79 surprisingly well. It became one of the best pieces of evidence that childhood ability tends to carry through life, while still leaving plenty of room for change.

How this test works for 11 year olds

Everyone gets the same 25 puzzles and the same 12-minute timer, and the score is not adjusted for age. An 11 year old will usually get fewer right than an adult with the same relative ability, so a middling result at 11 is expected.

• Sit with them for the first question if they are unsure what to do, then leave them to it.
• Do not use the result to decide whether to enter the 11-plus. School reports and practice papers are better guides.
• Keep the tone light. It is a puzzle, not a test of worth.

What scores mean at 11

On a normed test for children, such as the WISC-V, 100 is average for an 11 year old, and a score of 130 or more puts a child in roughly the top 2% of their age group.

Grammar school pass marks are not IQ scores. They are standardised exam scores, and each area sets its own cut-off.