11+ Test CoachYou're in charge. Here's the manual.
11+ Test Coach gives your child a friendly, self-contained place to learn and practise, and gives you a PIN-protected Parent Mode with full control over how they practise, how much help they get and what they're working towards. This page walks through all of it, with real screenshots.
Getting set up
Setup is five short steps, and it's worth doing with your child next to you:
- Your child. Their first name and school year. The app works out the year they'll start secondary school, so the plan fits the time you have.
- Target schools. Pick from 250 grammar and selective schools, browsing by region, or skip for now and add them later. Practice is limited to the subjects those schools actually test.
- Try it. Your child answers one real question, with Taco's hint if they want it, so they see how the app works before anything else.
- Your Parent PIN. Everything parent-facing sits behind a 4-digit PIN: settings, progress, rewards, data. The child side stays simple and safe.
- Your plan. A summary of what your child will practise (change the subjects if you need to) and an optional daily reminder. Then tap Start the free 24 hours: the whole app is open for a day, with no card. After that, five free questions a day carry on (Taco's Daily 5) for as long as you like.
From then on, opening the app lands on a friendly profile picker: your child taps their name and goes straight to practice; you tap Parent Mode and enter your PIN. You can add more children in Parent Mode → Tools → Manage Child.
One thing to do on day one: set up PIN recovery (Tools → Support → PIN recovery) and email yourself the one-time code. Forget the PIN later? After five wrong attempts the app offers a reset that accepts that code — how it works.
Learn it: 85 short lessons
Practice works best when your child already understands the idea. So before the questions there are 85 short lessons: 30 in Maths, 22 in English, 15 in Verbal Reasoning and 18 in Non-Verbal Reasoning. Each takes about five minutes:
- A warm-up — one question from something they already know.
- The idea, explained with a picture and a worked example.
- A try with help — a couple of questions where Taco steps in if they're stuck.
- A quick check at the end, on their own.
The next day, a finished lesson comes back as a short revisit of a few quick questions, so it sticks. Your child finds lessons on the Home screen, in a Learn it first link on a mission about a topic they haven't met, inside Master a Skill, and in the lesson library, which suggests what to learn next.
In Parent Mode you can see which lessons they've finished, where they needed a hand and how the recap checks went — more below.
The starting assessment
Before the daily missions begin, each subject offers a starting assessment: 20 questions covering ten topics, two questions per topic, so the app can work out where your child actually is — topic by topic, not as one average. It is deliberately not a test: there is no timer, no pass mark, and Taco stays quiet so the picture is honest.
The second question on each topic depends on the first. Get the first one right and the next steps up; get it wrong and the next steps down — never up. That single rule is what separates a child who has the basics but not the standard question from one who has neither, and it means nobody is handed a harder question moments after getting one wrong.
It matters because everything afterwards is built on it. The result sets the difficulty your child's practice starts at, so the first week is neither demoralising nor pointless. It takes about 15 minutes per subject.
You control whether it happens: switch on Taco invites your child in Parent Mode → Starting Assessments and Taco does the asking. Until a subject's assessment is done, every route into that subject's practice leads back to it — so it can't be skipped by accident.
What your child sees
Twenty questions, one at a time, with a progress bar and no clock. Reading questions come with their passage attached, and maths and verbal reasoning keep the squared-paper notepad for working out. There is no Back button: their answer chooses the next question, so it moves forward only — as an exam does.
They can stop at any point. Tap Quit and the app offers Save and Exit — their place and every answer so far are kept, and the assessment is waiting exactly where they left it next time they open the app. Even if the phone is closed mid-question, nothing is lost. Discard is there for an assessment started by mistake.
Nothing about it is scored in front of them. The screen at the end talks about where to start, not what they got wrong.
What it tells you
The finish screen is deliberately gentle with your child and genuinely useful to you:
- A level for every topic — Ahead, Secure, Building or Needs support — and the app immediately starts that topic's practice there. Fractions can begin at the top level while geometry begins at the bottom, because they were measured separately.
- Work on these first — the weak topics, weakest first, with the two questions that decided each one.
- Already secure — what they can genuinely do, so you know what not to spend the evenings on.
The topic-by-topic breakdown lives in Parent Mode → Starting Assessments. The assessment is recorded exactly like a completed mission, so its 20 questions flow into your progress charts, subject accuracy, weekly summary and PDF reports, and every question they got wrong is waiting in Mistakes to practise again. Your child earns XP for it too — effort counts, whatever the score.
Assessments can be retaken after a fortnight if you want a fresh read, from Parent Mode → Starting Assessments.
Master a Skill
The starting assessment finds your child's level in each topic. Master a Skill is how they climb it: pick one topic — fractions, say — and work on nothing else for ten questions. Three correct answers in a row secure the current level and step the questions up; a wrong answer never steps up, and two wrong step gently back down. It is the same ladder the assessment uses, now with your child doing the climbing.
Every answer is marked on the spot, because this mode is for learning rather than testing — your child sees each rung as they take it. Taco's hints are welcome throughout, but here is the part worth knowing before you praise a badge: a hint-assisted answer doesn't count towards the climb. The ladder is your child's own work.
At the top waits the trophy. Mastered means proven — 8 of the last 10 answers correct at the hardest level, without hints. It can't be earned by grinding, and once earned it is never taken away. Each mastered topic also pays a one-off 50 XP bonus.
Why one topic at a time
Children like beating one boss before the next — and it works. Securing a level immediately raises that topic's difficulty everywhere in the app, so the daily missions follow the climb straight away. A child who masters fractions this week is practising harder fractions in tomorrow's mission, not repeating what they've already proven.
The map remembers everything: each topic shows its rungs filling in and the star waiting at the top, so "5 of 12 topics mastered" becomes a goal your child can see and chase. Your child finds it under Subjects → any subject → Master a Skill; each subject offers the topics its question bank can support all the way to the top level.
In Parent Mode, Tools → Skill Mastery shows you the same map in plain language — which topics are mastered, which are mid-climb, where each topic's practice sits — plus Good next climbs: topics the starting assessment flagged as weak, so the diagnosis and the treatment point at each other. One topic at a time works best; a finished climb is worth more than three abandoned ones.
A little every day, guided by Taco
Home opens on Today's Plan: a few questions in each subject, about ten minutes in all. Each subject gives your child a daily mission — around ten questions, mixed across the topics that need attention, sized to take about eight minutes. If the mission includes a topic they haven't learnt yet, a Learn it first link sits right above the Start button. Finishing earns XP, keeps their streak alive and moves Taco along his unlock road.
- Quick Quiz for a fast burst on any topic.
- Practise My Mistakes to beat the questions they got wrong.
- Mock tests in the real format when you decide they're ready, with every answer explained afterwards.
During any set of questions, Taco walks along the progress bar at the top — a step forward with every answer. It's a small thing that gives children a reason to see a mission through (there's more on it in the kids' guide).
Every question has a clear explanation afterwards, and children can report any question that seems off — reports arrive in Parent Mode under Tools → Review Reports.
What kind of coach do you want Taco to be?
Families disagree about hints — some want a tutor at their child's elbow, some want exam conditions. So the help level is your setting, not ours. In Parent Mode → Manage Child → Taco Help settings you choose how much help Taco offers, per child:
The encourager
Two escalating clues and a worked example on every practice question. Great for building confidence early in the journey.
The balancer
A single nudge per question, then your child is on their own. The independent-answer XP bonus quietly rewards not asking at all.
The exam-ready
Practice under test conditions. And whatever you choose here, mock tests always run with help off — scores are always honest.
The Parent Overview
Unlock Parent Mode and you land on a one-screen answer to "how's it going?":
- How is your child doing? One headline score across the subjects with reliable results, in plain words (like "Becoming consistent"), with their strongest subject and the one that needs attention, plus this week's questions and their streak.
- Areas to focus on — the topics where a little extra practice would help most, each with a Set practice button that turns it into an assignment in one tap.
- Learn it lessons — how many lessons they've finished in each subject, where they needed a hand, how many recap checks they got right, which revisits are due, and any lesson worth another go.
- Parent tips — small, practical ideas; tap for another.
Deeper dives are one tap away. The Subjects tab shows accuracy in each subject, topic by topic, with each lesson's result; Mocks shows every mock test; Tools has everything else.
The toolkit
The Tools tab opens with three big shortcuts: Set an assignment, Add a reward and Share a report. Below them, everything is grouped by what you're trying to do:
- Assignments — Taco suggests your child's weakest topics as ready-made assignments you can set in one tap. Or tap Set an assignment and answer three questions: which subject, what to practise (the weakest topic is already picked) and when it's due. Difficulty, help level, repeats and reminders sit under More options. Assignments appear near the top of your child's Home with a Start button.
- Weekly Practice Plan — a repeating routine in three questions: which subjects, how often, how many. While a plan is running it sits right under Assignments, and you can stop it there.
- Daily Plan — how many questions per subject each day.
- Rewards — real-world treats tied to XP (below).
- Reminders — practice notifications on your schedule.
- Progress — all four subjects side by side.
- Starting assessment — where your child started: each subject's score, the topics to work on and the secure ones, with a one-tap Set practice for the weakest.
- Mistakes — every wrong answer, to go over together.
- Skill Mastery — the topics climbed in Master a Skill.
- School goals — change target schools; subjects re-sync automatically.
- Manage Child — profiles and Taco's help level.
- Export Report — a PDF progress report to share.
- Data & Backup — back up and restore everything; it's your data.
- Review Reports — questions your child flagged as wrong.
At the bottom, a Weekly summary switch sends you a Sunday evening nudge to look at the week.
Rewards, step by step
XP and streaks keep practice fun inside the app. Rewards connect that effort to the real world — you decide the treat, you decide the price:
- Open Tools and tap Add a reward.
- Pick a picture and name the reward — a cinema trip, a new book, a day out, a bike. Anything your family cares about.
- Pick the XP (presets from 250 to 5,000, or type your own).
- Choose how it's earned: Save up XP over time, or earn it in a week or in a month. Tap Add reward.
The reward appears at the top of your child's Home, with a progress bar filling towards something real, and says "You've earned it! Show your grown-up" when they get there. Week and month rewards have deliberately no failure state: an unmet goal simply restarts, so rewards stay motivating and never punishing.
How XP works — fair by design.
XP drives everything your child unlocks: new looks for Taco, weekly goals and the real-world rewards you set. So the rules are built to be fair — effort always earns something, but getting questions right earns far more, and gaming the system doesn't work.
Practice questions
1 XP for answering a question, right or wrong — effort is never worthless. A correct answer adds +6, +8 or +11 depending on difficulty, and +2 more if it was solved without Taco's help. So a child who gets 6 of 7 right earns several times more than one who rushes through guessing.
Retries that mean something
New questions pay in full. Retry a question you got wrong today and beat it — the full correct bonus is yours, because fixing a mistake is exactly the learning we want. Re-answering something already right today pays nothing, so repeating easy wins can't farm XP.
Session bonuses
A perfect session of 5+ questions earns +10. And a session that would otherwise show zero (all repeats, nothing new beaten) still shows a small "kept practising" award — honest work never reads as worthless.
Mock tests
Sitting a mock pays 1 XP per question of its length — a 50-question paper is worth more than a 20 before accuracy even counts. Each correct answer adds +4, and accuracy milestones pay the same at any length: 50% +15 · 70% +25 · 85% +40. Only the first two mocks per subject each day earn XP.
Showing up
Finishing a daily plan earns +25, an on-time assignment +30, and weekly goals (questions, practice days, mocks, across all four subjects) +30 each. Consistency compounds — a child who practises a little every day steadily out-earns a weekend crammer.
Fully transparent
Every results screen shows the exact breakdown — questions answered, correct answers, bonuses — so your child always knows why they earned what they earned. Same performance, same XP, every time.
Mock tests and real readiness
When you're ready, schedule real-format, timed mock tests in any subject — 20 to 50 questions, no hints, honest scores, with a working-out pad like paper. They work like a real paper, too: your child can skip a question and come back, move back and forth, and open an overview grid showing what's answered, blank or flagged. Before they hand in, a quick check lists anything left blank or flagged.
Afterwards, Review Answers shows the correct answer and a How it works explanation for every question. The results screen shows how each topic went, weakest first, and how the score compares with their last mock in that subject, and Fix My Mistakes turns the questions they missed into a short practice of up to 10. The Mocks tab tracks best and average scores per subject and keeps every attempt one tap from a full per-question report.
The Progress overview (Tools → Progress) is deliberately careful: each subject only shows a reliable score after 50 questions, the mock trend appears after three mocks, and consistency tracks practice days — so what you see is evidence, not guesswork.
Mistakes are the curriculum
After every quiz, the review shows each question with your child's answer beside the correct one — for visual subjects, as pictures — plus a plain-English explanation, the key skill, and the common trap they fell into.
Behind the scenes, every mistake is saved. Practise My Mistakes in each subject rebuilds a session around exactly the questions they missed, then similar ones, then their weakest topics. On your side, Tools → Mistakes organises everything by subject and topic so you can see patterns at a glance.
Reports to share. Data that stays yours.
Export Report creates a clean PDF of progress you can share with a tutor, a partner or a school. Data & Backup lets you back up or restore everything the app knows. And all of it — profiles, progress, mistakes, rewards — lives only on your device: no accounts, no ads, no tracking, ever. Read the full privacy policy.
Questions this page didn't answer?
We're happy to help — and the pricing section covers the free 24 hours and every plan.
Email help@11testcoach.co.uk