All selective secondary school (Grammar School) will test your child for their vocabulary knowledge. Vocabulary is usually assessed in English or verbal reasoning tests or both. Most 11 plus exams include an English test. This normally involves a Comprehension and some exams do test on Creative Writing.

Comprehension, children will be tested on their ability to make inferences, deduce based on given evidence, rephrase, and summarise a passage.

Creative writing, children will be assessed on the extent of their vocabulary and its purpose within the text, as well as the accuracy of their spelling.

Verbal Reasoning will definitely test your child for their vocabulary strength. These questions include synonyms, antonyms or homophones from a given list, spotting the odd one out from a selection of words, or identifying the connection between groups of words.


Strong vocabulary knowledge is key to success in these questions.