Essex 11+ · CSSE · Maths

What is in the CSSE Maths paper?

One hour, sixty marks, no calculator, and every answer written out rather than chosen from a list. That last point is what makes it different from most 11+ maths papers, and it changes how you should prepare.

Updated 15 September 2026 · CSSE tuition · Free worksheets · Pass mark and scores

The format

How the paper is built

The shape of it

60 minutes, 60 marks, so a mark a minute is the pace.
Around twenty questions, most in two or three parts, moving from arithmetic at the start to problems that need several steps by the end.
No calculator. Long multiplication and division are done by hand and the working is expected.
Written answers. There are no options to eliminate, so a guess earns nothing and a method that is nearly right can still earn a method mark.

What it is not

It is not a reasoning paper. There is no verbal or non-verbal reasoning anywhere in the CSSE.
It is not a speed test of times tables on its own, though slow tables cost time on every other question.
It does not go beyond the Key Stage 2 curriculum, but it asks for that curriculum applied in unfamiliar ways.

The topics

What comes up, year after year

Every topic here has a free worksheet with a separate answer sheet on the resources page, and most have an online quiz that marks itself.

Number

Place value, rounding, ordering decimals
The four operations, including long multiplication and division
Fractions, decimals and percentages, and moving between them
Factors, multiples, primes and square numbers
Negative numbers, usually as temperature or a number line
Ratio, proportion and scaling a recipe or a map

Everything else

Perimeter, area and volume, including compound shapes
Angles, symmetry and properties of 2D and 3D shapes
Coordinates in all four quadrants, translations and reflections
Time, money and measures, with unit conversions
Mean, and reading tables, bar charts and pie charts
Number sequences and simple algebra: finding a rule, a missing number, or the value of a letter

Where marks go

How children actually lose marks

Having sat this paper and now having marked a great many practice ones, the losses fall into three piles, and the first is the biggest by a distance.

Arithmetic slips inside a correct method. The child knows exactly what to do, sets it up properly, and drops a digit in a subtraction. Nothing fixes this except doing arithmetic every day until it is boring. Five minutes of speed drills a day does more here than an hour a week.

Multi-step problems abandoned halfway. A question that needs three steps is worth three marks, and a child who does the first step and stops still gets one. Children who have been taught to write down what they know and what they are looking for finish more of these.

Time. A mark a minute sounds generous until question 18 arrives with ten minutes left. The children who do well have sat full timed papers beforehand and know what the last quarter of an hour feels like. That is what my CSSE style mock exams are for.

Questions

Questions parents ask

Is the CSSE Maths paper multiple choice?

No. Every answer is written out, and working is expected. That is the main difference from the GL and CEM style papers used elsewhere, and it rewards method marks.

Are calculators allowed?

No. All arithmetic is done by hand, so long multiplication, long division and fraction arithmetic need to be quick and reliable.

How many marks and how long?

60 marks in 60 minutes. The final score is standardised and weighted so that Maths and English each count for half of the total.

Does it go beyond what school teaches?

The content is the Key Stage 2 curriculum, taught by the end of Year 6. The difficulty is that the test is sat at the start of Year 6, so most of Year 6 content has to be learned early, and it is applied in problems rather than asked directly.

What should we practise first?

Times tables and the four operations until they are automatic, then fractions, decimals and percentages, then everything else. The Year 5 arithmetic quiz is a fair first check.