Numbers in the 11+ — Questions, Worked Answers and Practice Papers

What examiners actually ask

Numbers appears in 149 of our 338 ready papers (3891 tagged questions). It averages 26.1 questions a paper worth about 1.84 marks each. The typical question allows around 49 sec. It appears in 2 CSSE papers we hold.

“Numbers” is how many papers label the bulk of arithmetic questions. It is not one skill — it is the parent strand that contains place value, the four operations, fractions, decimals, percentages, rounding, factors and number properties. Parents searching for “11 plus numbers practice” usually need a diagnosis of which sub-skill is leaking marks, not another generic worksheet. Use this hub as a map: the papers table shows where Numbers-tagged questions cluster, and the related hubs below take you into the specific skills examiners actually mark. Teach children to name the sub-skill before they calculate (“this is place value”, “this is a fraction of an amount”) so revision stays targeted. Under timed conditions, a wrong Numbers label in a report still points here first — then drill the linked hubs that match the weakest rows.

Common mistakes

• Treating every Numbers question as “just sums” and skipping the underlying skill (fractions, place value, etc.).
• Rushing multi-step number problems without deciding the operations in order.
• Ignoring units or place value when answers look numerically tidy but are wrong.
• Practising only one Numbers sub-skill when the paper mixes several in one section.

Papers with the most Numbers questions

Ranked from our tagged catalogue — open a paper to practise the questions that actually test this topic.

Related topics

• Place Value
• Fractions
• Decimals
• Multiplication
• Addition and Subtraction
• Rounding