For 11+ maths in Year 4, what topics to focus on first is a more useful question than what topics to cover overall — because sequencing matters. Covering everything at once, without a clear order, tends to leave gaps that only surface later, once questions start combining several skills together. A carefully sequenced approach avoids that.
Start With Number Sense, Not Exam Technique
Before anything exam-specific, a Year 4 child needs genuine fluency with place value, the four operations, and times tables. These are not “11+ topics” in the way ratio or algebraic reasoning are, but they are the foundation everything else depends on. A child who is still counting on fingers for multiplication facts will struggle with a multi-step word problem regardless of how well they understand its structure.
The Core Topic Order We Recommend
1. Fractions
Fractions appear constantly in 11+ papers, both directly and as a component of ratio and percentage questions. Building a genuine, visual understanding of what a fraction represents — rather than a set of rules for manipulating them — pays significant dividends as questions become more complex through Year 5.
2. Ratio and Proportion
Once fractions are secure, ratio follows naturally, since the two are closely related. Ratio questions carry significant marks on most 11+ papers and are exactly the kind of topic that rewards a structured, visual method over memorised formulas.
3. Measurement and Time
Perimeter, area, and time-based word problems are common and often underestimated. They combine arithmetic fluency with careful reading, which makes them a good bridge into the multi-step problem-solving that dominates later 11+ papers.
4. Multi-Step Word Problems
Only once the topics above are reasonably secure does it make sense to introduce word problems that combine several of them in a single question. Introducing these too early, before the underlying skills are fluent, tends to create frustration rather than progress.
Why the Bar Model Method Suits This Sequence
The bar model method is particularly well suited to this topic order, because the same visual approach — representing known and unknown quantities as bars — applies across fractions, ratio, and multi-step problems alike. A child who has learned to draw a bar model for a fraction question already has the tool they need when the same question is dressed up as a ratio problem a few months later. We cover this in detail in our guide to 11+ maths word problems, which walks through several worked examples across these topic areas.
For a fuller explanation of the method itself, our bar model method guide is a useful companion piece, and you can see the approach demonstrated on our YouTube channel. The method itself is taught to UK schools directly through our founder’s Bar Model Company, so it is well-established primary maths practice rather than an approach unique to us.
5. Simple Algebraic Thinking
Introducing simple missing-number problems and basic algebraic reasoning towards the end of Year 4 gives a child an early foothold in a topic that grows considerably in importance through Year 5 and Year 6. It does not need to look like formal algebra at this stage — finding an unknown quantity in a bar model is, in effect, exactly the same skill in a more visual, accessible form.
How to Check a Topic Is Genuinely Secure
A useful test before moving on to the next topic is to ask your child to explain their method out loud, in their own words, rather than simply checking whether their answer is correct. A child who can talk through why they chose a particular approach — not just what the approach was — has developed genuine understanding rather than memorisation, and that understanding is what carries forward into more challenging, multi-step questions later on.
What Not to Prioritise Yet
Non-verbal reasoning, timed past papers, and exam-condition practice belong later, closer to Year 5 and Year 6. Introducing these before the underlying maths is secure tends to test a child’s speed rather than their understanding, which is not what Year 4 preparation should be measuring.
How This Fits Into a Full Programme
Our Year 4 11+ groups follow exactly this sequence — fractions, ratio, measurement, then multi-step problem-solving — taught live online in small groups of around 4–5 students, with weekly homework marked and reviewed the following lesson. Founding this on a clear order rather than covering topics at random is exactly what makes the transition into Year 5 feel manageable rather than overwhelming.
If you are asking what topics to focus on for your own Year 4 child, our 11+ maths tuition programme is built around this same sequencing, so your child builds each skill on top of a genuinely secure foundation.
To talk through where your child currently stands and which topics to prioritise first, book a free consultation call and we will help you plan a realistic starting order.
—