Parent guide
How to mark 11+ papers at home
The easy bits
Objective questions — multiple choice, numeric answers, spelling — are mechanical to mark. Check against the answer key, tick or cross, move on. You don't need to be an 11+ tutor for this.
- Multiple choice with a single correct answer.
- Numeric answers where the exact number is in the mark scheme.
- Spelling, punctuation, and simple fill-ins.
- Closest-word questions with only one correct option.
The hard bits
Everything that needs judgement. If you answer "how many marks is this worth?" with a shrug, that's a sign you should pause and either check the mark scheme carefully or use an assisted marker.
English comprehension
Inference, retrieval, and evidence-from-the-text questions — what the mark scheme actually wants.
Maths with written working
Multi-step arithmetic, fractions, problem solving. Method marks vs answer marks.
Verbal reasoning
Word codes, analogies, closest-meaning chains. Easy to miss a single link and get the whole chain wrong.
Non-verbal reasoning
Shape patterns, rotations, sequences. Objectively markable from the answer key — if you can see the diagram clearly.
Turning marking into practice
A marked paper is only useful if it changes next week's practice. After marking, try this three-minute ritual:
- Sort wrongs by skill, not by page. "Three inference mistakes" is actionable; "four mistakes on page 12" is not.
- Pick one skill to drillthis week. Don't try to fix everything at once — overloading a 10-year-old backfires.
- Re-check in a fortnight with fresh questions on the same skill. If the error rate is down, move on.
Common questions
Why is marking 11+ papers so hard for parents?▾
Objective questions are manageable, but comprehension and written maths answers can have several 'right' shapes. Mark schemes often assume the marker has taught the topic. If you didn't sit the 11+ yourself, a lot of the marking vocabulary — 'inference', 'retrieval', 'evidence from the text' — is also unfamiliar.
Which parts can I mark with confidence?▾
Multiple-choice answers, straight numeric maths answers, and spelling/grammar fill-ins are objective — you just check the answer key. Circle the wrong ones and move on.
Which parts should I be careful with?▾
Written comprehension answers, long-form maths working, and multi-step verbal reasoning chains. These need judgement. If the answer is partially right, award partial credit — don't mark it wrong just because it doesn't match the mark scheme verbatim.
Should my child mark their own paper?▾
Self-marking is good practice — kids learn faster when they see their own mistakes — but not for high-stakes practice papers where you want a true score. Do a quick objective mark yourself first, then go through the harder questions together.
What's the fastest way to find weak areas?▾
Group mistakes by skill, not by paper. If your child keeps missing inference questions across three different papers, that's a pattern worth acting on. If it's only one paper and one topic, don't over-react.
Can Elandi mark papers for me?▾
Yes. Inside the app, there's a 'Mark a paper' feature where you photograph every page of a past paper, send them off together, and get a marked result back with a topic breakdown. It flags anything it's not sure about so you stay in control of the final mark.
Let Elandi mark the tricky bits
Photograph every page of a past paper. We extract the questions, mark what we're confident on, and flag the rest for you to confirm. Results land in your parent dashboard with a topic breakdown.