The 11+ Maths Topics List Every Parent Should Know
If your child is preparing for the 11+ examination, understanding exactly what the maths paper covers is one of the most practical things you can do. This 11+ maths topics list spans all four major formats — GL, CEM, ISEB pre-tests, and independent school entrance papers — and gives you a clear picture of the ground your child needs to cover before exam day. Our guide to 11+ maths word problems is a useful companion to this list.
11+ maths draws entirely from the primary curriculum — there are no surprises. What matters is whether your child can apply that knowledge fluently under time pressure and across the multi-step problems that distinguish the 11+ from a standard school test.
11+ Maths Topics List: The Core Areas
1. Number and Place Value
Children need a secure understanding of the number system up to at least seven digits — reading, writing, ordering, and comparing whole numbers, decimals, and negative numbers. Key skills include rounding, understanding place value in decimals, and working with numbers in expanded form. Place value underpins almost every other topic on this list.
2. The Four Operations
Addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division — including with large numbers, decimals, and remainders. Most 11+ papers expect efficient calculation without a calculator, so fluency here directly affects performance across every other section.
3. Fractions, Decimals, and Percentages
One of the most heavily tested areas in the 11+ maths topics list. Questions test equivalence, conversion, finding fractions and percentages of amounts, and ordering mixed sets. The bar model method is particularly well-suited here, making abstract relationships between quantities visual and concrete. Our guide to the bar model method explains the approach, and you can see it applied to 11+-style problems on our YouTube channel.
4. Ratio and Proportion
Ratio and proportion questions appear regularly on GL and independent school papers. Children need to understand what a ratio represents, how to simplify and share amounts in a given ratio, and how to solve proportion problems — including recipes, maps, and scale.
5. Word Problems and Problem-Solving
This is where the 11+ most clearly diverges from school assessments. Word problems are multi-step by design — children must extract relevant information, identify the right sequence of operations, and carry the logic through to a final answer. Speed and accuracy under pressure both matter.
At Singapore Maths Academy, word problems are central to our Year 4 and Year 5 curriculum. We use the Concrete–Pictorial–Abstract (CPA) approach: children learn to represent problems visually before moving to calculation, which develops skills that transfer across every topic on this list. Our founder was personally trained by Dr Yeap Ban Har — the world’s leading Singapore Maths expert — and has applied this methodology with 11+ students since 2014.
6. Algebra Basics
The algebra component in 11+ maths is introductory — finding a missing value, continuing a number sequence, identifying a rule, or substituting values into a simple expression. It appears particularly on GL papers and independent school tests. The key skill is thinking flexibly about an unknown quantity.
7. Geometry: Shapes, Angles, and Coordinates
Geometry spans several sub-topics that all appear on 11+ papers:
- 2D shapes — properties of polygons, lines of symmetry, rotational symmetry
- 3D shapes — faces, edges, vertices; nets of common solids
- Angles — acute, obtuse, reflex; angles on a straight line, in triangles and quadrilaterals
- Coordinates — plotting and reading points in all four quadrants; reflections, translations, and rotations
8. Measures
Length, mass, capacity, and time — including unit conversion, reading scales, and timetable interpretation. Perimeter, area, and volume calculations also fall here, with area of triangles and compound shapes particularly common on GL papers.
9. Data Handling and Statistics
Reading and interpreting bar charts, line graphs, pie charts, frequency tables, and pictograms. Children should be able to find the mean, median, mode, and range of a data set. Many marks here are lost not through miscalculation, but through misreading the scale or the question — careful reading is as important as mathematical ability.
How the 11+ Maths Topics List Varies Across Exam Formats
The core topics above apply across all four formats, but there are meaningful differences in emphasis. GL papers are structured and methodical — topics appear in a predictable range and the format rewards systematic working. Our GL 11+ maths guide covers the format in full. CEM papers integrate maths, English, and reasoning into combined sections, so fluency and adaptability matter more than topic-by-topic preparation. ISEB pre-tests are adaptive and computer-based, rewarding children who can work confidently without knowing what is coming next.
Independent school entrance papers — used by schools including Westminster, St Paul’s, NLCS, and Haberdashers’ Aske’s — often include more demanding problem-solving and a deeper treatment of algebra and proportion. Our grammar school entrance exam maths guide covers the differences across all formats in detail.
Using This List as a Preparation Framework
A topics list is most useful when it drives structured practice rather than random revision. Identify where a child is secure, identify the gaps, and work through those gaps with carefully sequenced problems — building genuine understanding before moving on. Rushing to past-paper practice before topics are consolidated often produces children who can follow a procedure but struggle when a question is framed differently.
Our founder continues the teacher-training dimension of this work through Bar Model Company — worth reading if you want to understand the CPA pedagogy more deeply.
Start Preparing with Singapore Maths Academy
Singapore Maths Academy specialises in 11+ maths preparation for Year 4 and Year 5 students. Our small groups of around four to five pupils follow a carefully sequenced curriculum covering every topic on this 11+ maths topics list, with bar model and CPA teaching at the heart of our word-problem work. All our tutors are qualified teachers, trained in the UK or Singapore. If you’d like to discuss whether our 11+ maths tuition is the right fit for your child, contact us directly — you’ll hear back personally from our team.