How To Improve Your Eleven Plus English Comprehension

Here are a few tips to help you improve your responses to Eleven Plus English Comprehension tests:

1. When you read the passage for the first time create a picture in your mind of what is happening in the story as you go along. This will help you focus back to the correct part of the text when you are answering the questions.

2. Re-read the question to make sure you are answering what is being asked of you.

3. Check your answer. Does it make sense? Have you written what you wanted to or have you missed any words out?

4. Remember to start each sentence and each proper noun with a capital letter, as well as ending each sentence with a full stop.

5. If a question asks you to refer back to a specific paragraph from the extract then you must use text from that paragraph in your answer. For example, a question might say `From paragraph 15, how does the author use language to help the reader imagine the house?` There may be descri ptions of the house elsewhere in the passage but to score points on this questions you must refer to paragraph 15 in your answer.

6. Are you using a word in your answer which has already been written in either the question or the passage? If so, go back to where this word was written and check that you have spelt it correctly in your answer.

7. How many marks is the question worth? The higher the number of marks available for a question, the more points you need to make. A general rule of thumb is one point per mark unless otherwise stated in the question paper.

8. Have you answered every question? Assuming you have time left, go back and have a go at any unanswered questions even if you really are unsure of the answer... you never know, you might get it absolutely correct!

The strategies listed above don`t require you to go and learn anything new but they will only be effective if you commit your concentration and time to the work. If you do that, they can help you increase your score. Practice is key to scoring well in these tests and that revision extends beyond what you do in school. Good luck for your Eleven Plus exam!