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

What examiners actually ask

Percentages appears in 74 of our 338 ready papers (133 tagged questions). It averages 1.8 questions a paper worth about 1.74 marks each. The typical question allows around 45 sec. It appears in 2 CSSE papers we hold.

Percentages appear steadily across 11+ Maths — often as “find 15% of…”, percentage increase or decrease, or conversion questions that link fractions and decimals. Children who only memorise “divide by 100” without understanding what 1% represents struggle when the percentage is awkward (12%, 17.5%) or when the question asks for the original amount after a change. Build from 10% and 1% building blocks, then move into multi-step word problems so the method survives exam wording. Independent papers especially like percentage change wrapped in shopping or population contexts. Always decide whether you need a percentage of an amount, or what percentage one amount is of another, before you calculate — those two question types look similar and trip children up under time pressure. Leave a quick estimate check for the end.

Common mistakes

• Finding a percentage of the wrong base amount after an increase or decrease.
• Treating “increase by 20%” as multiply by 0.2 instead of 1.2.
• Rounding too early and drifting from the exact answer the mark scheme expects.
• Confusing “what percentage is A of B” with “what is A% of B”.

Papers with the most Percentages questions

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

Related topics

• Fractions
• Decimals
• Ratio and Proportion
• Word Problems
• Money
• Algebra