Guide for Parents: The 7 Plus Exam Explained!

For most parents in the UK, preparing a child for a school entrance exam is a challenging process. Thus, we’ve aimed to help you out with the 7 plus exam, one of the most competitive school entrance exams in the UK.

In the following part of this blog, you will learn all the information you need to know about the 7 plus exam and find a helpful guide to prepare your child for the exam.

What Is the 7 Plus Exam?

The 7 plus or 7+ exam is a highly competitive school entrance exam used by an increasing number of schools both in and outside of London for entry into Year 3. Mostly, the exam is held by fee-paying independent schools between January and November of Year 2, though the exact dates can vary according to schools.

The 7 plus school entrance exam consists of exam and interview parts. While the assessment part tests kids' reasoning, maths, and English skills, the interview part tests the child's ability to communicate with others.

How Competitive Is the 7 Plus Exam?

As applications for the 7 plus exam increase every year, the process can be extremely competitive in certain schools where there are too many applicants. In this case, the exam standard might be higher than the national average.

Even though the 7 plus exam is one of the most competitive exams in the UK, there is no need to worry. With the right amount of time and effort, 7 plus exam preparation can lead your kid to success.

In the 7 plus exam preparation process, it is important to include 7 plus practice papers to support your child’s academic ability and make studying enjoyable for kids. Thus, you should try fun and educational exercises along with formal practices.

If you are looking for fun and educational brain exercises to expand your kid's skills and make studying enjoyable at the same time, you can check out MentalUP brain games to improve your kid's intelligence and discover their potential.

MentalUP shares success percentages within the age groups specific to each ability of the children. With this feature of MentalUP, you can find out your kid's improvable skills to compete with other applicants in the seven plus exam.

The Ultimate Guide for the 7+ Exam

The exam preparation process might be daunting for both parents and kids. Thus, we want to help you out with a step-by-step guide you can easily follow. In this guide, you will find information about expected skills, question types, and interview tips. You can prepare your child for the 7+ plus exam with our guide to get successful results!

Expected Maths and English Skills in the 7+ Exam

Although it varies according to the school administering it, maths and English 7+ exam papers approximately take 45 minutes to complete. The 7 plus exam papers include maths and English contents from the entire Year 2.

Maths Papers	English Papers
Tests mental arithmetic skills	Tests comprehension and creative writing skills
Multi-step worded problems	Fiction or nonfiction passages
Money, time and change questions	Retrieval questions
Logic puzzles including number, shape, or time	Interference questions
Addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division questions	Word problems
Times tables

The format of 7+ exam papers can vary according to the school but mostly they consist of standard and computer-based papers. In addition to that, an increasing number of independent schools try observed activities to test a child's ability to interact with others along with their academic ability.

It is obvious that both maths and English papers include a variety of detailed questions to challenge your kids during the exam process. With the help of the MentalUP app, you can prepare your kid for all of these question types with more than 150 entertaining games.

On MentalUP, you can find:

• Memory games to improve learning ability,
• Concentration games and attention games to expand attention skills,
• Visual memory tests and visual games to improve spatial memory,
• Logic games and thinking games to enhance problem-solving skills.

Expected Reasoning Skills in the 7+ Exam

Verbal and non verbal skills are equally important with maths and English skills for most independent schools to evaluate if the kids are skilled enough for entry into Year 3.

Verbal Reasoning	Non-Verbal Reasoning
The English part of the seven plus exam tests kids’ verbal reasoning skills.	The math part of the seven plus exam tests kids’ non-verbal reasoning skills.
Question Types:	Question Types:
Passages or paragraph questions that need to be answered with full sentences	Math problems that kids should analyze visual information and solve problems accordingly
True, false, or “can not say” questions	Shape, pattern, and number questions
Deductive reasoning questions	Mathematical puzzles

The questions that test these skills are not usually taught in the national curriculum or are taught at a minimum level. So we can advise you to go through verbal and non verbal questions before the exam and improve your kid's spatial awareness.

Prepare Your Child for the 7+ Interview

Even the word “interview” makes parents and kids stressed in 7+ exam preparation. On the contrary, 7+ exam interviews are mostly informal and relaxed. Thus, there is no need to worry about it.

In the interview process, the administrator school tests a child's ability to follow a conversation by asking questions about their hobbies, interests, and daily activities. So you can prepare your kid for the interview by just having daily conversations about these topics.

MentalUP Is Here to Help!

At MentalUP, we are here to help you out with the 7+ exam process. MentalUP includes fun and educational brain games that support kids' logic, reasoning, and problem-solving skills. With MentalUP, it takes only 20 minutes daily to expand your kid’s skills and have a successful 7+ exam result.