Fun ways to improve 11+ skills

Studying for the 11+ is boring, but there are other ways to acquire the skills required for the 11+ exam other than doing endless ten-minute tests and assessment papers.

Over the Christmas period, we discovered Mancala. Mancala is one of those games that have endured through the centuries (which is often an indication of quality!) I won't go into the how-tos of Mancala, only to say that to be any good at Mancala you need to be able to process information in mirror-reverse: this is how you strategise to capture your opponents pieces and to move your own pieces to avoid capture.

When playing Mancala, I realised that it improved my ability to think in mirror-reverse, which is a skill needed in parts of non-verbal reasoning, especially reflection, but also rotation, paper folding and hole punching.