The 11+ has no single length. It depends on the board and the school. GL papers usually run about 30 to 45 minutes per subject, while CEM papers tend to be longer mixed papers. At some schools the whole thing fits in a morning; at others your child is on site for a full day. The school tells you the exact timings before the day.
- There is no fixed length. The board and school decide.
- GL papers are roughly 30 to 45 minutes each. CEM papers tend to be longer.
- A few schools run a full exam day with several papers, breaks and lunch.
- Build stamina with short timed run-throughs, not marathon sessions.
So how long is it?
Plan for 30 to 45 minutes per subject as a rough guide, then check your school for the exact figure. That range covers most GL papers; CEM papers, which fold several subjects together, usually run longer in one sitting.
The total time also depends on how many papers the school sets. One combined paper is short. Four separate subject papers add up to a much longer session.
GL vs CEM timings
GL keeps each subject in its own shorter paper, so timings are predictable. CEM bundles topics together, so its papers feel longer and faster-moving.
This is one more reason the board your school uses shapes your prep. It also links back to which subjects appear, since more subjects usually means more time in the chair.
Could it be a whole day?
Yes, at some schools. A number of selective schools keep children on site for the full day, spreading papers across the morning and afternoon with breaks and lunch built in.
If that is the case, the school will say so in advance and explain the routine. It sounds daunting, but the breaks make it manageable, and it is all part of how the 11+ runs.
There is no negative marking, so a blank always scores zero. Teach your child to move on from a stuck question, then come back if time allows, rather than burning five minutes on one puzzle.
What the timing means for practice
Build exam stamina gradually with short timed sections, not long, draining mocks. Ten focused minutes against the clock teaches pacing without wearing your child out.
Daily habit does the heavy lifting here. A few minutes of timed daily practice, the way Pip builds it into five minutes a day, trains both speed and calm, so the real paper feels familiar rather than frightening.