Why I Built This App (And Why It Nearly Broke Our Family)

When my son started approaching the 11+, I did what every parent does: bought a stack of Bond books, downloaded some PDFs, and told myself we'd keep it relaxed.

That lasted about three weeks.

What the 11+ actually is

The 11+ is the entrance exam for grammar schools and some independent schools in the UK. It tests Maths, English, Verbal Reasoning and Non-Verbal Reasoning in various combinations depending on where you live. Kids usually sit it in September of Year 6. They're 10. Sometimes barely 11.

Ten years old, sitting an exam that could shape which school they go to for the next seven years. No pressure.

How it started for us

Like most parents, we convinced ourselves we were being calm about it while quietly stockpiling every practice resource we could find. A bit of practice here and there. Low-key. Not a big deal.

Except it became a big deal. Not because we wanted it to, but because the closer the exam got, the harder it was to pretend it didn't matter. We'd sit down for a practice paper and within ten minutes my son would be frustrated, I'd be trying not to show that I was frustrated, and my wife would suggest we all needed a break. Then we'd argue about whether taking a break was sensible strategy or just giving in.

It was a mess. Genuinely. The exam itself lasted about an hour. The preparation felt like it lasted a year.

The moment I realised I was doing it wrong

There was a specific Sunday afternoon where I'd sat down with him to go through a verbal reasoning paper. He was tired. He'd had football in the morning. He did not want to be doing this.

I pushed through anyway, because "we need to keep the momentum up." We got about halfway through before he completely shut down. Head on the table. Done. I sat there holding this practice paper thinking: this is not working. Whatever this is, it's not working.

The content wasn't the problem. He was capable. The issue was that I'd turned practice into homework on a Sunday afternoon, which to a ten-year-old is roughly as appealing as a trip to the dentist.

The low point was probably Amsterdam. We were on holiday, walking along the canals, and I'd brought vocab flashcards. Vocab flashcards. On holiday. I kept trying to sneak them in between the pancake houses and he kept looking at me like I'd lost my mind. He wasn't wrong. I was walking around one of the most interesting cities in Europe trying to get a ten-year-old to engage with synonym cards. It didn't work. Obviously.

That was the moment I properly understood: if it's not fun, it's not happening. You can't force-feed this stuff. It has to feel like something they'd choose to do.

What actually worked

When we shifted to shorter sessions, more like games than exams, doing a little bit every day instead of big marathon sessions on weekends, things got better. Not perfect. Still the occasional battle. But better.

We also got a tutor eventually, and that made a real difference. Not because she was teaching him anything I couldn't have explained, but because she knew the specific schools we were looking at, knew what the papers typically looked like, and (crucially) she wasn't his dad. When I explained something, it was vaguely suspicious. When she explained the same thing, it was interesting.

The other thing that worked was letting go a bit. Accepting that some days there wasn't going to be any practice, and the sky wasn't going to fall in. A child who's engaged for 15 minutes every day will learn more than one who's miserable for two hours on a Saturday.

What didn't work: pressure. Comparison to other kids. Telling him how important it was. Big long sessions. Weekend cramming.

So why the app?

Going through all that, I kept thinking about what the ideal preparation tool would look like. Something that made daily practice actually happen without it becoming a fight. Something that could spot what a child was struggling with. Something that felt, as much as possible, like something they'd actually want to pick up.

I also knew that not every family can afford a private tutor twice a week. We were lucky. A lot of families aren't.

So I built 11plusapp.co.uk. My son was my first guinea pig (he found this deeply unreasonable). I tried to build the thing I wished had existed when we were going through it.

It covers all four subjects: Maths, English, Verbal Reasoning and Non-Verbal Reasoning. It adapts to where your child is struggling. It's built for short, regular sessions rather than marathon cramming. And it costs a fraction of what a tutor charges.

One honest admission

Not every child who prepares for the 11+ will pass, and that's not a reflexion of how hard they worked or how good a parent you are. It's a competitive exam with a fixed number of places. Some brilliant kids won't get in, and some will do better on the day than their practice suggested.

What I can tell you is that good preparation, calm, consistent, appropriately paced, gives your child the best shot. And equally importantly, it's more likely to get them through the process without too much damage to their confidence or your relationship.

If you're in the thick of it right now, this app is for you. Not as marketing copy, but as one parent to another. I know what this feels like. I built this so it might feel slightly less awful.