11+ English practice for Year 5

Practice at Year 5 level for children starting the 11+ prep year now, sitting the test in autumn 2027 for September 2028 entry. Every question below is taken from PipPrep's own bank, from the 7,946 verified English questions tagged for Year 5.

Year 5 English at a glance

What to focus on in Year 5

English at 11+ leans heavily on vocabulary. Synonyms, antonyms, cloze and word-in-context questions all come down to whether your child has met the word before, which is why reading does more for this paper than worksheets do.

The practical Year 5 move is to combine both: keep a wide reading habit going, and use short daily vocabulary practice to make the meeting of new words deliberate rather than accidental. Comprehension technique can wait until the spring term.

How much, how often

Fifteen to twenty minutes on a school day is a realistic target for the autumn term of Year 5, done at a consistent time so it stops being a negotiation. Consistency matters more than volume at this stage - a child who does twenty minutes five days a week covers far more ground over the year than one who does two hours every other Sunday, and hates it.

Keep at least one day a week clear. Reading for pleasure counts for more than another worksheet, especially for the English and verbal reasoning papers, where vocabulary is doing most of the work.

Watch what's actually going wrong rather than the raw score. A child getting 60% because they're rushing needs something different from a child getting 60% because they haven't met the topic. Any decent practice tool should show you which of those it is.

Try real Year 5 English questions

Pulled straight from PipPrep's own question bank, from the questions tagged for Year 5 - not written for this page.

Question 1
Which word has the most opposite meaning to "scatter"?
Answer: gather. "gather" is the antonym of "scatter".
Question 2
Which word is most similar in meaning to UNPRECEDENTED?
Answer: unique. Unprecedented means never done or known before.
Question 3
The bridge ___ the two banks of the river.
Answer: connected. Connected means linked together.
Question 4
Which word is closest in meaning to FASTIDIOUS?
Answer: fussy. Fastidious means very attentive to detail; fussy is closest.
Question 5
Which sentence contains a fronted adverbial?
Answer: Quietly, she entered the room.. A fronted adverbial comes at the start: "Quietly, she..."

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Frequently asked questions

Is this at the right level for a Year 5 child?

Yes. Every question on this page is drawn from the questions tagged for Year 5 in PipPrep's bank, at the lower difficulty bands, so they suit a child at the start of the prep year rather than one sitting the test next month.

How many of these should my child do a day?

Fifteen to twenty minutes on a school day is a sensible target in the autumn term of Year 5. That is usually eight to fifteen questions depending on the subject, and it matters more that it happens most days than that any one session is long.

Do all 11+ areas test this subject?

No. The papers vary by area: Essex CSSE schools test English and maths only, Hertfordshire's consortium schools test maths and verbal reasoning, and most GL Assessment areas test all four. Check what your target schools actually set before building a plan around any one subject.

Are the answers checked?

The questions used here are drawn only from rows marked verified in our own bank, and each carries its own worked explanation. If you ever spot an error, report it in the app and it gets fixed at source.