No past papers are released for the shared West Midlands entrance test. The consortium, the King Edward VI Foundation and Warwickshire County Council each publish the format, and GL Assessment publishes familiarisation material and practice booklets. What a child needs is a complete paper in that format, sat under real timings.
Are there 11 plus past papers for the West Midlands test?
No, and it is worth being blunt about it, because the search results will tell you otherwise. No past paper for this test is published, so anything sold as one is a reconstruction written by somebody who has not seen the real paper.
The reason is administrative rather than mysterious. The test is reused. King Edward VI Foundation states that “the test is provided by GL Assessment”. Source: King Edward VI Foundation, entrance test information, checked 6 September 2026. A question that has been published cannot be used again, so a publisher whose whole business is question banks has an obvious reason not to publish them. Pathway Eleven is an independent service and is not affiliated with or endorsed by GL Assessment.
What GL Assessment does offer parents directly, on its own 11 plus site, is familiarisation material and practice books. Its free-materials page states: “We recommend children familiarise themselves with the multiple-choice layout of the test, content and examples of some types of questions they will face”, and that “familiarisation papers are in PDF format for home printing, while practice papers come as printed booklets”. Source: GL Assessment, free 11 plus materials, checked 6 September 2026. Read the whole site and you will find familiarisation papers and practice papers for sale. You will not find past papers, because there are none to find.
So the honest version of the query is not “where are the past papers”. It is: what is published, what is worth buying, and what does a child actually need to have sat before September?
What the consortium and the schools publish instead
Quite a lot, and most families never read it. Three separate bodies publish something about this test, and each publishes a slightly different description, so it matters which one you are reading.
The West Midlands Grammar Schools consortium publishes the format. Its entrance-test page states that “candidates will sit two papers, each approximately 50-60 minutes long (which includes time for instructions and example questions)”, that “each test paper is divided into smaller individually timed sections that test: English Comprehension, Verbal Reasoning, Mathematics, Non-Verbal/Spatial Reasoning”, and that “all questions are multiple choice and children record their answers on a separate answer sheet”. It also publishes the weighting: “the weightings for the test results are 50% for English/verbal reasoning, 25% for non-verbal reasoning and 25% for mathematics”. Familiarisation questions sit at the foot of that page. Source: West Midlands Grammar Schools, the entrance test, checked 6 September 2026.
The King Edward VI Foundation publishes its own description for the Birmingham schools, and its figure is not identical. It states that candidates sit “two papers, each approximately 60 minutes long (which includes time for instructions and example questions)”, that “there are no sections of writing within the test”, and that “question booklets are not marked, only the separate answer sheets are marked”. A full familiarisation guide is available to download from the same page. Source: King Edward VI Foundation, entrance test information, checked 6 September 2026.
Warwickshire County Council publishes a third description. It says the tests “contain four sections: English, Verbal Reasoning, Non-Verbal Reasoning and Mathematics”, in “a multiple-choice format”, and that each of the two tests “will take around 60 minutes to complete (including spoken instructions at the start and explanations of the practice items)”. Source: Warwickshire County Council, the 11 plus test, checked 6 September 2026.
We have not reconciled the timings, because reconciling published figures is guessing. Three bodies describe one arrangement and two of them print different numbers of minutes. Individual schools print shorter figures again. Plan for a paper of about an hour, built out of shorter timed sections, and read the letter your allocated test centre sends.
Why 11 plus exam papers from other regions can mislead you
This is the trap. Search for eleven plus papers and you will be offered downloads from several selective systems at once, none of them labelled clearly. They are not interchangeable, and two of them are not even the same kind of object.
| Body | What it publishes | Use for the West Midlands test |
|---|---|---|
| GL Assessment | Free familiarisation papers as PDFs, and practice papers as printed booklets to buy. Its frequently asked questions describe “10 hours of free familiarisation materials”. | Directly relevant. This is the publisher the Foundation names. |
| CSSE, Essex | Free downloadable familiarisation papers for its ten member schools, and practice packs to order. | Different system, different paper. Useful as extra reading practice, misleading as a rehearsal. |
| Cambridge Select Insight, at the cem.org address | A digital assessment of “numerical, verbal and non-verbal ability”, average duration sixty minutes. | Not a paper at all. A child rehearsing on screen is rehearsing the wrong mechanics. |
| ISEB Common Pre-Tests | “A series of four online, adaptive and shared entrance assessments used as part of the admissions process to many of the UK's leading independent schools.” | Independent-school route, adaptive and online. A different question experience entirely. |
The distinction that matters most is paper against screen. A child who has only ever answered on a device has not practised the one mechanical skill this test demands: transferring an answer to a numbered row on a separate grid, without slipping a line. An answer entered a row down costs a run of marks rather than one, and children almost never notice.
Want the format rehearsed for you rather than assembled from downloads? Start a free week of Pathway Eleven and the daily plan is built from a Starting Assessment in the same four areas.
How do you rehearse properly without a past paper?
By reproducing the conditions rather than the questions. The questions are not the scarce part. What a family cannot easily improvise is the shape of the thing, and that is published in full, so it can be copied exactly.
- Two papers, not one long one.Stamina across a second paper is the part most home practice never touches. Sit them the way the consortium describes them, with a break between.
- Time each section separately.One clock across a whole paper teaches the wrong habit. A child who spends too long in comprehension cannot borrow that time back from mathematics, because the section has closed.
- Use a separate answer sheet.Ours is a grid of A to E ovals, one row per question, which is the shape our own papers use. If the sheet is a nuisance at home, it will be a nuisance on the day.
- Weight the preparation the way the marks are weighted.The consortium publishes fifty per cent for English and verbal reasoning together. Most families spend their weekends on shape puzzles instead, because shape puzzles feel like exam practice.
- Sit whole papers rarely and short sections often.A complete paper is a measuring instrument, and measuring the same thing every seven days tells you nothing new. In our experience the useful pattern is frequent short timed work with a complete paper occasionally, so that each one still tells you something.
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If it has not appeared in a few minutes, look in the junk folder, then email info@pathwayeleven.co.uk and we will send it again.
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Which 11 plus practice papers are actually worth your time?
Judge a paper by three things, none of which is the word on the cover.
First, does it match the published format? Four areas, multiple choice, a separate answer sheet, sections timed individually. A paper that puts every subject in one long block is testing something the real arrangement does not.
Second, are the answers explained or merely listed? A key tells you a child was wrong. An explanation tells you whether they misread the question, chose the wrong method or ran out of time, and those three failures need three different responses from you.
Third, is there more than one? A single paper is a single morning in your house. Two comparable papers, sat weeks apart with work in between, show you a direction, and a direction is the only thing a home paper can honestly give you.
What we would not pay for: anything described as a past paper for this test, anything that promises a percentage converted into a standardised score, and anything with no answer sheet. Scores here are standardised for age, and the published thresholds sit on a scale no home paper can reproduce.
Where Pathway Eleven's papers fit
Our free pack is two complete practice papers, each with its own answer sheet and a worked mark scheme, written in house for the multiple-choice format described above. Each paper runs nine individually timed sections in the published order: English comprehension, spelling, punctuation and grammar, three verbal reasoning sections, two non-verbal reasoning sections, spatial reasoning and mathematics. They are our own papers. They are not GL Assessment papers and they are not past papers, and every question in the bank they are drawn from is reviewed and approved by a qualified teacher before it is released.
Beyond the printable pack, Pathway Eleven is an online 11 plus preparation service that gives each child a personalised daily plan of revision, guided teaching and timed practice, built from a Starting Assessment in the four areas the test samples. Full mock rehearsals are part of full membership rather than the trial, and they unlock from Year 4. One monthly price of £49 covers every subject from Year 3 to the test, and the first week is free.
The reason we would rather you sat a marked mock than printed a paper is not commercial. It is that a paper marked a week later is a paper a child has stopped thinking about, and the questions they got wrong are questions they can no longer remember attempting.
11 plus papers by subject
The published format samples four areas, and each has its own worked page here, with original questions in the five-option layout the real answer sheet uses.
- 11 plus maths papers, ten worked questions with the method beside each answer.
- 11 plus English papers, an original comprehension passage worked through question by question.
- 11 plus verbal reasoning papers, the code, letter and word types with their reasoning shown.
- 11 plus non-verbal reasoning papers, drawn items with the rule behind each one named.
- Download a full practice paper with its mark scheme, two complete papers sent to your inbox.
If you are outside the West Midlands, the body that sets your child's test decides which of these is even relevant. Our page on whether CEM is still used sets out what each arrangement publishes.
Common questions about 11 plus past papers
Where can I download 11 plus past papers?+
Nowhere, for this test. No past paper for the shared West Midlands entrance test is published by the consortium, by the schools or by GL Assessment. Anything sold as one is somebody's reconstruction. What is published is familiarisation material, and what is worth buying is a practice paper that copies the published format honestly.
Are 11 plus exam papers from other areas any use?+
As reading and reasoning practice, yes. As a rehearsal, no. Essex sits a different paper, and the Cambridge Select Insight and ISEB assessments are taken on a computer rather than on paper, so a child practising on those has not practised transferring answers to a separate sheet.
How many practice papers should a child sit?+
Fewer than most families expect, and further apart. A complete paper is worth sitting when there is something to measure and time afterwards to act on what it shows. Sit them a week apart and each one tells you less than the one before, because nothing has changed in between.
Do the papers include a writing task?+
The King Edward VI Foundation states that there are no sections of writing within the test and that all questions are multiple choice, with answers recorded on a separate answer sheet. Check your own area's published description, because the schools do not all word it identically.
What is the difference between familiarisation papers and practice papers?+
GL Assessment's own site draws it: familiarisation papers are free PDFs for home printing, and practice papers are printed booklets that are bought. Familiarisation shows a child the layout and the question styles. Practice gives them enough questions to build pace.
Are Pathway Eleven's papers past papers?+
No. They are our own papers, written in house for the published multiple-choice format, with every question in the bank they come from reviewed and approved by a qualified teacher. They are not GL Assessment papers and we say so on every page that offers them.
Where to go next
- A free full practice paper, sent with its answer sheet and worked mark scheme.
- 11 plus maths papers, worked sample questions in the five-option format.
- 11 plus English papers, what the comprehension section asks and how to practise it.
- 11 plus verbal reasoning papers, the code and letter types worked through.
- 11 plus non-verbal reasoning papers, drawn items with their reasoning explained.
- GL Assessment 11 plus explained, who publishes the test and what each body says about it.
- 11 plus mock tests online, sitting a full paper under real timings and reading the result.
- What is the 11 plus?, who sits it and how the marking works.
- What Pathway Eleven costs, one plan, one price, every subject.
A Starting Assessment finds the level, and the daily plan works the four areas the published format names.
Every page quoted above, and the day we read it
Every quotation on this page was read at its own published address on 6 September 2026.
- West Midlands Grammar Schools, the entrance test, the two papers, the section areas, the multiple-choice answer sheet and the weighting. Checked 6 September 2026.
- King Edward VI Foundation, entrance test information, the sixty-minute description, the absence of writing sections, the answer sheet and the test provider. Checked 6 September 2026.
- Warwickshire County Council, the 11 plus test, the four sections and the around-sixty-minutes figure. Checked 6 September 2026.
- GL Assessment, free 11 plus materials, familiarisation papers as PDFs and practice papers as printed booklets. Checked 6 September 2026.
- GL Assessment, 11 plus frequently asked questions, the ten hours of free familiarisation material. Checked 6 September 2026.
- CSSE, the Consortium of Selective Schools in Essex, its member schools, free familiarisation papers and practice packs. Checked 6 September 2026.
- Cambridge Select Insight, entrance assessments, the digital format, the sixty-minute average duration and the three ability areas. Checked 6 September 2026.
- ISEB, Common Pre-Tests, the four online adaptive assessments and the schools that use them. Checked 6 September 2026.