There is sound advice in this thread! This is what I wrote in the 3rd edition of my "Parents Guide to the 11+" (available from this website). This was aimed toward those who have only a few weeks to prepare for the 11+. We had six months (including holidays). The ideal (I suppose) is 1 year:
Having to Prepare With Little Time Left
“Don’t panic, don’t panic” were the words of the legendary Corporal Jones in the immortal TV series: “Dad’s Army”, which he would always append after announcing frantically to those around him some item of alarming news. Parents, typically those of Year 6 children who have been suddenly faced with the daunting prospect of what to do in order to negotiate the 11+ so their children can go the school of their choice, may well be tempted to panic. While this is clearly not the answer, they do need to take urgent action. What follows are things worth considering (or tips) for parents in that position:
1.While you have left it very late to effectively prepare, you are at least in a position to do something of significance to help your child.
2.You need to do the educational equivalent of taking up “battle stations” and this means from now on preparing for the 11+ has to be one of your top priorities until that particular “crisis” is (soon) over …
3.But only do so if that is in the best interests of your child, i.e. he or she shows the necessary acumen and wants to and has potential to succeed.
4.In one sense, you will need to shut yourself and your family off from the world, or at least from the distractions around you and the hype that goes with the 11+ etc. that could so easily be a negative influence.
5.While it may be difficult to maintain normal life, you need to do what you can to ensure that your child has a regular and disciplined routine, good rest and diet and plenty of exercise, fun, love and “ordinariness”.
6.Speak to the school. Let them know your concerns and intentions. Find out what they can do to help and what resources they can offer you - and, if this is not particularly on their radar (quite likely given your situation), don’t let them fob you off or deter you from your plans.
7.All the ideological stuff mentioned in the book is important but much of it and also learning not to do with the exam can be temporarily put to one side while you concentrate on your main goal - 11+ success.
8.Find out as much as you can about the 11+ exam, guided by this book.
9.If you can find someone who has recently been through the “ordeal”, learn from them, but time is short and you will very soon need to come up with an action plan that suits your child and your circumstances.
10.Gather past papers or as close as possible to what your child will soon be facing. Refer to this book for how and where to get hold of these.
11.Gather helpful resources such as discussed in this book but remember that because time is short there is much you won’t be able to use and besides past papers and Internet based resources e.g. Chuckra, I can’t think much beyond a good dictionary and reading books and, just maybe, primers for the different content areas covered by the exam.
12.As soon as you can, get your child to try each paper under, as near as you can contrive it, exam conditions, in order to ascertain where your child is regarding his or her ability and chances for passing the exam.
13.Be realistic when looking at the results. In some cases the child may be so far from getting a pass score that it may be prudent to ask whether or not to continue. If it is near to the pass mark then it is “game on”.
14.Identify strengths and weaknesses and those questions that ought to be bankers regarding getting them right. Note how many unanswered questions remain - timing is an area where improvement can be made.
15.Of all the areas where most improvement can be made, it is likely to be Verbal Reasoning. Using the advice and resources referred to in this book, practice all the VR types and techniques and note the progress.
16.Make sure those questions your child should get right he or she does get right and does not miss out because of carelessness etc. We found in all papers certain questions were eminently “get rightable” and we nagged away at our son so that he would get these consistently right.
17.Go through techniques for answering the types of questions that will crop up in the exam and focus on getting right those ones where most improvement can be made and where there will be most gain in terms of marks awarded. There is a balance call to be made and all the time you must be working toward improvement in your child’s score. Try to get to the point where all questions are attempted in the time allowed.
18.You may consider employing tutors (discussed elsewhere in this book) but, given your situation, this needs to complement and reinforce what you are about to do and they need to buy into your approach. This may not be the time to contract out the main task of exam preparation.
19.While it goes against the grain to say this, doing past papers under exam-like conditions and going over the answers ought to be the major activity in the limited time that you have left to prepare your child.
20.Maintain a proper perspective - the emergency will soon be over and life will go on, whatever the exam outcome - there are more important things in life than passing exams, even ones as important as the 11+.
Want to PRINT hundreds of 11+ practice papers including past mock tests?
Just wanted to say a big thank you to Chukra. My son has been offered a place at grammar school and this website played a huge part in his understanding of verbal reasoning - the videos and tests were ... 
