05 Easy Money Saving Tips for Preparing for 11 Plus Exams on a Budget

If you are preparing your child for 11 plus exams, you will know that competition can be fierce. It’s not surprising that many parents choose to pay for tuition in the lead-up to the exam. 

But what if hiring a tutor is an expense that you can’t afford? Can you succeed by preparing for 11 plus exams on a budget? 

Realistically, preparing for your child to succeed in the exams is likely to require some purchases. The good news is that you don’t necessarily need to break the bank!

This post is part of a series on 11 plus exams and follows on from last week’s where I wrote about whether it was smarter to hire a tutor, or do DIY 11 plus prep. 

05 Low-Cost Tips for Preparing for 11 Plus Exams on a Budget

Tip 01: Get current, accurate information

Sometimes selective schools change exam boards or the subjects that will be tested from one year to the next. Don’t assume that because they’ve used a particular exam for several years that they will again this year. The last thing you want to do is throw money away on irrelevant resources for the wrong exams.

Ensure you get the facts directly from the school, not playground rumours from other parents during the school run. Check the exam board, subject/s, format, date and location of the test.

Tip 02: Make use of Google and YouTube

The cost of textbooks, practice books and practice exam papers can add up. More so if you need to cover several subjects. Whilst you are likely to buy at least a few books, there are ways to keep the cost down. 

There are tons of free, or low-cost resources to help you prepare for the exams online. Googling “free 11 plus resources” brings up page after page of sites with examples, practice and test materials. 

Youtube is really useful if you want to brush up on rusty skills, like maths methods or grammatical terms. You can watch and learn so that you have the confidence to tackle topics with your child.

Tip 03: Draw up a plan

The expression, ‘Failing to plan is planning to fail’, has a lot of truth in it! Scattered preparation will cost you time as well as money spent on resources that you won’t use. 

Before you can make a plan, you need to know:

• The topics that need to be covered for each subject
• The level of difficulty you need to reach
• Your child’s strengths and weaknesses in these topics

Once you have that information, you can begin to plan. Map out what needs to be covered and when you plan to do it. You can also start to look for suitable materials to focus specifically on the areas that you’ve identified. This way you won’t waste money on books and other resources that are too easy, too difficult or irrelevant.

Bonus tip! On Amazon, you can click ‘look inside’ and preview several pages of books. This will give you a good idea of the contents and suitability of different options.

Your plan doesn’t need to be rigid. Try and agree on a rough schedule with your child. Schedule what you’ve both got going on each week. Giving them a say in planning can encourage greater ownership and make more of a commitment to study time.

Not sure what to expect? This post explains everything and links to other helpful posts on this topic:

• What is the 11 Plus Exam? 

Tip 04: Find free or second-hand resources

If you want the structure that guidebooks, textbooks and practice books provide but your budget just won’t stretch to buying them brand new, you may not need to. When families complete their 11 plus journeys, they are often left with piles of resources that they won’t use again and may want someone to take them off their hands.

Start by asking around your friends, colleagues and parents on the school run who may have been through the exam process in the last year or two if they have any resources they’d like to give away or sell to you. You could ask them to ask around their contacts too.

The next places to look are 11 plus specific groups or forums. Try Facebook groups, such as 11 Plus Exam Guidance where there are frequent posts from parents selling resources. In the screenshot example below, someone is selling books for £1.50 each and there is plenty of variety. Forums like ElevenPlusExams forum are worth a look too.

If you are willing to pay for second-hand books, search Amazon for the book you want. Used copies are often available to buy at low prices.

Finally, register with your local Freecycle or Trash Nothing groups online. Browse them for 11 plus resources that people have finished with. You can also post a wanted ad and hope for responses. If you sign up for a daily digest email you won’t need to keep checking the websites. You might have some luck on Nextdoor or Gumtree too.

Be aware that if they’ve been written in with pen, you’ll probably want to use them just as a reference for yourself, rather than for your child to work in.

A quick reminder: Remember tip 01? When you are gathering resources, double-check that they are for the correct exam board, subjects and exam format so you don’t waste money on irrelevant materials.

Tip 05: Pay for professional support

With the best will in the world, preparing for the 11 plus exams is a long and sometimes very challenging and stressful process. Sometimes it’s best to get some quality, effective support – to save your sanity and free up some precious time.

I know, I know… it can cost a lot of money and this post is supposed to be about saving money. But, there ARE ways to keep costs down. Before you go and hire the cheapest tutor you can find, here’s some advice to consider about how you can get quality support without breaking the bank.

• Group tuition (online, in-person or at a tuition centre) is worth considering. It is a good way to get the benefit of professional support without it costing as much as one-to-one lessons
• Supplement your DIY preparation with some short-term tuition closer to the exam date
• Hire a tutor specifically to target topics or subjects that you aren’t confident to teach yourself 
• Consider temporarily pausing one or two clubs or after-school activities. Put the money you would have spent towards some tuition during the run-up to the exam

Supplement your preparation with digital resources, such as automated online learning platforms like Atom Learning or my 11+ Verbal Reasoning Study Companion Kit, which will be launched very soon. This new product is a hybrid study and revision guide with detailed video explanations. It is being designed to support parents doing DIY exam preparation in a concise, structured and easy-to-follow format. More details coming soon…

Summary

Is it fair that wealthy families can put their children at an advantage with extensive tuition at grammar school? Not really, but it is a fact that it happens and it doesn’t mean your child doesn’t stand a chance. 

So can you succeed by preparing for 11 plus exams on a budget? 

Yes, absolutely. You can do this! 

It will require some careful planning and a time commitment from you, but if you follow my tips you will be well on your way to exam success without needing to remortgage your house!

I’ll leave you with one more piece of advice that I also share with my tutees’ parents…

Please be realistic about your child’s ability and suitability for grammar school. Will they flourish once they are there? Do you think they be happy? Will they resent all the extra work needed to prepare for the exam? 

Providing that you acknowledge that standards are very high in grammar schools and your child has the academic potential to suit that type of environment, there’s no reason that they can’t be just as successful as heavily tutored children. 

As always, you can get in touch with me if you want more advice or support.