11+ Maths
Reading thermometers and calculating temperature rises, falls and differences — including negatives.
Temperature appears in 25 of our 338 ready papers (46 tagged questions). It averages 1.8 questions a paper worth about 1.15 marks each. The typical question allows around 29 sec.
Temperature questions test number lines and negative numbers in a familiar context. Papers ask for rises and falls, differences between two readings, and values below zero. Children who treat negatives as “just small positives” or who subtract the wrong way lose marks. Teach a vertical number-line picture of the thermometer and count the gap carefully. Grammar and independent papers both use weather-story wording. Practise “how much warmer/colder” language so the operation matches the question. A quick sketch of the two temperatures on a line prevents most signed-number slips. For rises and falls across zero, count up to zero and then beyond rather than trying to subtract signed numbers in one mental step. Watch for two-step stems that ask for a final temperature after a rise and then a fall — track the running total on the line. Thermometer diagrams with unlabelled mid-marks need the same scale discipline as number lines: establish the step size from two known readings first. Weather-story wording (“overnight low”, “afternoon high”) is just decoration — extract the two numbers and the requested difference or final reading before you calculate. Parents can rehearse these with a drawn thermometer on scrap paper — moving a finger up and down the scale builds the same habit the exam rewards.
A real tagged question from our catalogue — method included, not paywalled.
Ranked from our tagged catalogue — open a paper to practise the questions that actually test this topic.
Not sure whether temperature is the problem? Mark any past paper on 11plusSolved and the report tells you which topics are costing marks — and how many.
