eleven plus

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Jump to navigation Jump to search
See also: eleven-plus

English[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From eleven + plus, eleven years being the minimum age of students taking the test.

Noun[edit]

eleven plus (plural eleven pluses)

  1. (Britain) An examination formerly administered to all students in their final year of primary education, now used only in a few counties of England and Northern Ireland.
    • 1967, Robert John Montgomery, Examinations: An Account of Their Evolution as Administrative Devices in England:
      The fact that late developers emerged, ripe for grammar school education, having 'failed' the eleven plus test, was embarrassing.
    • 2007, Stephen Murdoch, IQ: A Smart History of a Failed Idea:
      As one vociferous eleven-plus critic put it, when Winston Churchill was a boy he produced nothing more than "a large blob of ink" on his entrance exam.