11+ Maths
Multi-step Maths questions written in prose — extracting the calculation from the story under exam timing.
Word Problems appears in 106 of our 338 ready papers (445 tagged questions). It averages 4.2 questions a paper worth about 2.06 marks each. The typical question allows around 56 sec.
Word problems are where many otherwise strong mathematicians drop marks. The arithmetic is often straightforward; the difficulty is deciding what to calculate, in what order, and which information to ignore. 11+ papers pack these into Numbers, Money, Time and Ratio contexts. Children who rush into the first number they see, or who stop after one step of a two-step question, consistently underperform. The fix is deliberate practice: underline the question, list the facts, choose the operations, then compute — and always re-read the last sentence before boxing an answer. Independent papers especially like unused numbers and multi-clause stems. Teach a short “plan, calculate, check” habit so method survives when the story is long and the clock is short.
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 word problems is the problem? Mark any past paper on 11plusSolved and the report tells you which topics are costing marks — and how many.
