More different than simply harder. Today's 11+ shares a name and a rough age with the test your grandparents may have sat, but its role has changed completely. The original 11-plus was universal: almost every child sat it, and it decided which type of secondary school they went to. Today's 11+ is optional, taken only by families seeking a selective place, and it has narrowed to four skills with a strong focus on reasoning. Knowing the history makes the modern exam easier to understand, and easier to prepare for.
- The old 11-plus came from the 1944 Education Act and sorted nearly every child into a school type.
- It was largely phased out from the 1960s and 1970s as comprehensives spread.
- Today's 11+ is optional, used only where grammar schools remain (around 163 in England).
- It has narrowed to English, maths, verbal and non-verbal reasoning, with a reasoning focus and several boards.
Harder, or just different?
Mostly different. It is tempting to ask whether today's exam is tougher, but difficulty is hard to compare across seventy years and very different formats. The change that really matters is one of purpose and reach. The old test was a national sorting mechanism that affected everyone; the modern one is a voluntary entrance exam for a minority of places. Once you see that, the other differences fall into place.
A brief history
The 11-plus was created by the 1944 Education Act, which set up the Tripartite System of grammar schools, secondary technical schools and secondary modern schools. Children were allocated to one of these according to their 11-plus result, so the stakes were universal and high. From the 1960s and 1970s, most areas replaced this with comprehensive schools, and the universal 11-plus disappeared. It survives today only where grammar schools remain: around 163 grammar schools in England, concentrated in counties such as Kent, Buckinghamshire and Lincolnshire.
What the old test was like
The post-war 11-plus was broad and high-stakes for everyone. It typically combined an intelligence-style test with papers in English and arithmetic, and sometimes an essay. Because it decided a child's whole secondary path, passing or failing carried enormous weight, which is part of why the system became controversial and was eventually scaled back.
What today's 11+ is
The modern 11+ is narrower and more specialised. It focuses on English, maths, verbal reasoning and non-verbal reasoning, aiming to assess critical thinking rather than rote memory, and it is delivered by a range of boards and school-specific tests rather than one national paper. Our guide to the exam types maps the main ones, and what the 11+ exam is covers the present-day basics. Crucially, it is optional, so it shapes a choice rather than a child's entire future.
The single most useful thing to remember is that the modern 11+ does a different job from its predecessor. It opens a door to a selective place for those who choose to try, rather than sorting an entire generation. That is why comparisons of "harder or easier" miss the real change.
So is it harder?
There is no clean answer, because the format, content and purpose have all changed. The modern test is more standardised, more focused on reasoning, and more varied between schools, which makes a like-for-like difficulty comparison almost meaningless. What is fair to say is that today's 11+ rewards a specific, learnable set of skills, and that is far more useful to know than whether it is "tougher" than a test from the 1950s.
What this means for preparing today
History aside, the practical task is clear. Today's 11+ rewards reading, vocabulary, fluent maths and familiarity with reasoning, and all of those grow with steady, low-pressure practice. Whether your family's experience of the 11+ goes back decades or starts now, a few calm minutes of daily practice with Pip builds exactly the skills the modern exam is looking for.
Arielle handles SEO and AEO growth at Pip, with over 10 years in the digital marketing space working with brands and founding her own projects.