Quiz: are you smart enough to pass the 11+ grammar school test?
- Posted by
- Kayleigh Dray
- Published

Pencils at the ready, everyone….
Updated on 22 April 2020: we’re all bored of thinking about coronavirus, we’re all bored of lockdown, and we’ve watched everything on Netflix already (don’t worry, there’s a whole host of new TV and film titles coming this May).
With that in mind, then, what shall we do to while away the many, many hours left in Covid-19 quarantine? Well, let’s take a trip down memory lane and flex our minds with an 11+ grammar test.
First, though, let’s set the scene: you’re a knock-kneed schoolchild, rucksack in hand and a pencil case stuffed with a selection of scented gel pens, foldable rulers, leaking ink cartridges and woefully blunt pencils. Lunchtime is an hour or so away, and you can’t stop daydreaming about the Dairylea Lunchables your mum stashed in your lunchbox – all you have to do is get through the next lesson and those tiny biscuits, cheese circles, and cuts of undetermined meat are yours.
Except… well, except for the fact your teacher has a strange glint in their eye, and a stack of official-looking papers in their hands. And, before you can even consider reflecting on all of those spelling, grammar, and mathematics tasks you’ve been failing to practice at home with your parents, your teacher has cheerily called out the two worst words in the English language:
“Pop quiz.”
Oh god.
As reported in 2017: School, for many of us, may feel like a million years ago at this point – but the cold sense of spreading dread that comes from the mere thought of sitting down for an exam never fails to strike terror in our hearts.
And perhaps we had it easy: Theresa May is keen to introduce a slew of new grammar schools to the UK, which means that the future of Britain’s education system is still unknown.
According to bidvine.com, there are “only 232 grammar schools in the UK out of roughly 3,000 secondary schools, and competition for places each year is fierce with sometimes over 20 applicants for just one space”.
It continues: “The entry exam includes questions on verbal reasoning, English and mathematics.”
With grammar schools very possibly on the rise, the website has put together a ‘fun’ 11-plus grammar school test for stylist.co.uk readers to have a go at.
Remember, no calculators and no Google. Good luck…
If you can’t see the quiz above, click here.
Main image: Element5 Digital on Unsplash