eleven plus

See also: eleven-plus

English

Etymology

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

Noun

eleven plus (plural eleven pluses)

1. (British) 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.