Three secrets to great 11+ Creative Writing

Want to ace your 11+ creative writing exam? Creative writing prompts, unlike math questions, don’t have clear right or wrong answers, so knowing how to get the best mark can be difficult. At BW&A we’ve tutored lots of students in your situation, and we’ve learnt what the examiners are looking for. Here are our top three tips on how to quickly improve your creative writing score:

Brush up on your grammar and expand your vocabulary.

Don’t get caught out on the basics! Your examiner wants to see fluent grammar and correct spelling in your story, so it’s important that you have a good understanding of English language conventions.

Another easy way to improve your score is to expand your vocabulary - you want to show that you have command of a wide variety of complex words, and that you can use them effectively in your story. Consider reading complex books and articles, as well as consulting a thesaurus, to prepare.

Understand your structure.

Before you even put pen to paper, you should understand the structure of your story. Your writing should conform to the traditional story structure: a beginning, in which you introduce your characters and setting, and foreshadow what will happen later; a middle, in which the plot begins to develop; a climax, the high point of the story in which the main action happens; and an end, in which all loose plot threads are resolved. Consider listing, in bullet points, what will happen in the beginning, the middle, the climax and the end of your story before you begin.

Think outside of the box, and don’t be afraid of the complicated.

Now that you’ve got a plan, it’s time to start writing. Instead of playing it safe, exploring a wide range of sentence structures and techniques will definitely pay off. Your examiner wants you to show that you can do a lot of different things in your writing. Try using similes, metaphors and personification to describe your characters and setting. Consider using a variety of sentence lengths - short sentences as well as long sentences. Work on using sentences with complex grammar, broken up by multiple commas, colons or semicolons.

As with any exam, the best way to get better is practice, practice, practice! Implement these tips as you write your next short stories, and you’ll quickly see yourself improve.