Bitesize learning
It’s important to build a good knowledge base before the 11 plus. Using a ‘little and often’ approach when learning is key. We recommend regular study sessions of 20–30 minutes, focusing on your child's tailored learning plan.
Atom adapts to your child, showing them questions at just the right difficulty level to keep them motivated and challenged.
Refine exam technique
Practice tests can help your child develop problem-solving skills and build confidence working under test conditions.
With an Exam Preparation Plus subscription, you can access online mock tests and printable practice papers to help your child prepare. Our CSSE-style mock tests ensure that your child is familiar with the question types, time pressure, and working through longer papers.
Please note that while the content assessed in Atom's mock tests mirrors the difficulty, question types and curriculum assessed in the CSSE, the format of our mock tests differs from the real exams. Atom mock tests mainly use multiple-choice questions, whereas the CSSE is all free-text answers.
CSSE exam format
The maths paper lasts one hour. Questions are based on the Key Stage 2 maths curriculum. Your child will be assessed on their arithmetic, reasoning and problem-solving skills.
Key topics:
- number and place value
- operations
- fractions (including decimals and percentages)
- ratio and proportions
- measurement
- geometry
- simple statistics
The English paper lasts one hour, with an additional 10 minutes for reading. It consists of two sections.
The first section is a reading comprehension task. Children have 10 minutes to read a passage of text which could be fiction, non-fiction or poetry. They then answer questions to demonstrate their understanding of what they have read.
The second section is a continuous creative writing task. This involves writing a response to a prompt. Children are assessed on vocabulary, spelling, punctuation, grammar, the originality of their ideas, and the use of varied structure.
For support with creative writing, please see our creative writing guide here.
Please note, creative writing is not assessed as part of Atom's mock tests.
More information on the CSSE exam, including important dates, can be found here.