Pathway Eleven or Bond 11 plus books?

Six questions sit under the choice. A book answers some of them very well and others not at all, for the plain reason that a book is paper.

Bond is the 11 plus imprint of Oxford University Press, whose branding sits in the footer of Bond's own site, read on 6 September 2026. Its own site describes material across the four subjects an entrance test samples, English, maths, verbal reasoning and non-verbal reasoning, for ages five to twelve, in the form of books, assessment papers, mock tests and online practice.

Bond also sells online subscriptions. Its home page, read on 6 September 2026, names Online Premium, described as personalised grammar school test preparation, and Online Premium Plus, described as complete exam preparation for 11 plus and independent school exams including material from ISEB. Those are the names the page carries; this page makes no claim about how many tiers exist in total, because Bond does not set that out in one place. Bond directs a visitor to a free trial or a “find out more” link rather than showing a subscription price, so no figure is stated here. If you are comparing subscriptions rather than books, get the current price from Bond directly.

The books are the part with published prices, and they are the part most West Midlands families actually buy, which is why the rest of this page compares those.

Almost nobody chooses for or against Bond in isolation. A parent standing in a bookshop is choosing between four names, so it is worth saying what the other three publish in their own words, and where we could not read a page, saying that too.

• Schofield & Sims. Its own 11 plus revision page reads: “Written by experts to build knowledge, accuracy and exam technique, the Schofield & Sims [11 plus] series offers everything you need for rigorous 11 plus exam practice.” Read on schofieldandsims.co.uk on 6 September 2026.
• Collins, which publishes the Letts range. Its own Letts 11 plus collection page reads: “Collins [11 plus] provides quick tests, practice papers, practice workbooks, flashcards and a new complete revision & practice series.” Read on collins.co.uk on 6 September 2026.
• CGP. The fourth name a parent meets. We have not reproduced its range here because we could not read its own page on 6 September 2026, and this site does not describe a publisher from memory.

No prices are given for any of those three, for the same reason: none were read on the day this page was written, and a book price with no date attached is not worth printing. The Bond figures below are dated because they were read. Everything the rest of this page argues about what paper can and cannot do applies to any of these ranges equally, because it is an argument about paper rather than about a publisher.

Prices below are from Bond's own shop, read on 5 September 2026.

A shelf of books is plainly the cheaper purchase in cash terms, and that is worth saying plainly. What it does not include is the parent's time. Somebody has to choose the next page, sit with the timer, mark the answers, notice which topic keeps going wrong, and decide what to do about it. Across two years that is a real commitment, and it is the part families underestimate rather than the price of the books.

Curious what a plan picks on a Tuesday when nobody has chosen a page? Start your free week: the Starting Assessment goes first, and the daily plan follows from what it finds.

They are cheap, and they are permanent. A book bought once can be used by a second child, lent to a friend and written in. Per page of practice, a book bought once is very hard to beat on price.

They are away from a screen. For some families that matters a great deal, and a paper mock is closer to the physical experience of the real thing, which is sat on paper with a separate answer sheet.

They are structured. A graded range gives a parent a clear order to work in, which is far better than a random pile of downloads, and the discipline of working through a book to the end suits some children well.

For an organised parent with time, they genuinely can be, and families do it every year. What follows is not a list of faults in the books. It is a list of jobs a printed page was never built to do, which means those jobs land on whoever bought it.

• A book cannot decide. It does not know your child has understood fractions and still cannot do ratio. It hands over another page of fractions, because that is what comes next in the book.
• A book cannot mark itself. The answers are printed at the back; somebody at home still has to sit down and compare them, question by question.
• A book cannot time itself. Timed sections are the format of the real test, and a timer on the kitchen table is a parent's job for the whole of an evening.
• A book cannot remember. It will not tell you on a Tuesday that inference questions have been the weak spot for three weeks, because nothing is keeping a record but you.
• A book is graded by age, not by child. The range is published for ages five to twelve, so the level is a choice a parent makes once, rather than something that moves as the child moves.

Add those up and the honest answer to the question in the heading is: yes, if you are prepared to be the part the book is missing, for two years. That is the trade, stated plainly, and plenty of families take it.

• You have the time and you like the job. Choosing the next page and marking it is a real commitment, and some parents want to be that close to it.
• Budget is the binding constraint. A single Bond assessment practice title is £7.99 and a bundle £32.00, read on Bond's own shop on 5 September 2026. Per page of practice, nothing else comes close.
• You want the child off a screen. A paper mock is nearer the physical experience of the real test, which is sat on paper with a separate answer sheet.
• There is a second child behind the first. A book bought once is used twice, and lent after that.
• You are topping up one weak area. One title, one subject, one age band, finished and marked, is a tidy piece of work.

• Nobody at home has an evening spare. The deciding, the marking and the timing are the parts that come with the subscription rather than with the book.
• The weak area keeps moving. A Starting Assessment sets the level and the daily work leans towards whatever is weakest that week.
• You want a record rather than an impression. Minutes done, mocks completed, accuracy overall and by subject, in one parent view.
• You want the exam rehearsed under its own clock. Full papers timed by the app and marked on submission. Mock rehearsals are part of full membership rather than the trial, and they unlock from Year 4.
• You are in this for years, not weeks. One plan carries Year 3 to the test, with no decision about which book comes next.

Before you order a bundle, mark a paper. Leave an address and the pack of practice papers comes over, answer sheets and worked answers included, printed at home for the price of the paper. A preparation email lands now and then alongside it.

Your address is used to send you the practice papers and the occasional preparation email described above, and nothing else. You can unsubscribe from any of them, and the Privacy Notice sets out what is stored and how to have it deleted.

Yes, and the split that works is straightforward: the plan decides, the books rehearse.

Use the daily plan for the work that changes from day to day, because that is the part a book cannot do. Use a paper mock at the weekend, on paper, with a separate answer sheet, because rehearsing the physical format is genuinely useful and a printed paper does it well. Use a workbook on a car journey or a holiday, where a screen is inconvenient.

What to avoid is the common trap of buying six books at once. A family with a stack of unfinished workbooks generally has less usable information about their child than a family with one book and a record of what has actually been got wrong. Buy the next book when the last one has been finished and marked.

What Pathway Eleven sells is the deciding: a personalised daily plan of revision, guided teaching and timed practice, with every question reviewed and approved by a qualified teacher. Full mock rehearsals are part of full membership rather than the trial, and they unlock from Year 4. The price is £49 a month for all four areas from Year 3 to the test, the first week costs nothing, and cancelling is done in the app. If you would rather run the whole thing from books and your own planning, 11 plus preparation without a tutor is an honest account of what that takes.

Where every Bond figure came from

Prices move, and a price with no date on it is worth nothing to a parent. Each entry below names the Bond page the figure was read on and the day it was read there.

• Bond, Assessment Practice shop category. Single assessment practice titles listed at £7.99 with some at £8.50, assessment practice bundles at £32.00, and postage of £2.95 per order to UK addresses. Checked 5 September 2026.
• Bond, home page. Material across English, maths, verbal reasoning and non-verbal reasoning for ages five to twelve, in books, assessment papers, mock tests and online practice. The page names Online Premium and Online Premium Plus, neither with a price displayed, and its footer carries the Oxford University Press branding quoted above. The page states no founding year. Checked 6 September 2026.
• Schofield & Sims, 11 plus revision. The sentence quoted above about its own 11 plus series. No price was read, and none is stated on this page. Checked 6 September 2026.
• Collins, Letts 11 plus collection. The sentence quoted above about what the Collins Letts 11 plus range provides. No price was read, and none is stated on this page. Checked 6 September 2026.
• CGP Books. Named only. The site could not be read by us on 6 September 2026, so no quotation, no description of its range and no price is carried here. Checked 6 September 2026.
• West Midlands Grammar Schools, The entrance test. The four areas the shared regional test samples, its two papers of individually timed sections, and the separate answer sheet referred to above. Checked 5 September 2026.