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Practise it now
Highlight only the sentences that show this is true. Then show the examiner.
This exercise practises retrieve an explicit detail alongside its own main skill, Inference & Evidence.
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A worked example
One question of the kind this skill is tested with, worked all the way through: the reasoning, and what the wrong answers are there to catch.
Finding a detail the passage states outright
Read the passage, then answer this: on which day of the week can visitors climb to the lamp room?
The lighthouse at Skerry Point was built in 1868, and for ninety years a keeper lived in the two rooms at its base. The last keeper, Elsie Ward, left in 1958, when an electric lamp replaced the oil light she had trimmed every evening. Visitors can still climb the ninety-seven steps to the lamp room, but only on Saturdays between April and September. The keeper's cottage next door is now a small museum.
Saturdays
Sundays
Every day from April to September
Only during the summer holidays
Answer: Saturdays
How you get there
Nothing has to be worked out here, because the answer is printed in the passage. Find the sentence about the steps and read it to the full stop: "Visitors can still climb the ninety-seven steps to the lamp room, but only on Saturdays between April and September." That sentence gives two limits at once, a day and a season, and the question asks only for the day. So the answer is Saturdays.
Why the other answers tempt
"Every day from April to September" is built from real words in the passage, and both months are there. Lifting the part of a sentence you recognise instead of the part you were asked for is the commonest way to lose a retrieval mark.
If they are stuck, say this
Find the one sentence that mentions what the question is about, then read that whole sentence before choosing. The answer is a word inside it, not the general sense of it.
Highlight only the sentences that show this is true. Then show the examiner.
This engine’s own main skill is Inference & Evidence. It practises retrieve an explicit detail alongside it.
Evidence is not "the bit that mentions it" - it is the bit that could not be true unless the statement were true. Maya turning at the fork without checking the signpost, and warning the others about a loose step she has never been shown, both need her to have been here before. The other sentences fit the scene beautifully, but a first-time visitor could have produced every one of them.
What to say if they get stuck
A sentence is only evidence if the statement would fall apart without it.
Some sentences are about the lighthouse, or about the weather. Being on the same topic is not the same as being proof.
Look for things Maya does that she could only do if she already knew the path.
Sort each statement: written on the page, hidden underneath, or floating rubbish.
This engine’s own main skill is Stated vs inferred. It practises retrieve an explicit detail alongside it.
Reading well means holding three piles apart. STATED is anything you could underline: the words are physically there, like the coins being counted twice. INFERRED is what the clues force to be true even though the writer never wrote it: patched patches, counted coins and choosing between bread and a candle only add up one way, so being short of money is locked in without ever being said. UNSUPPORTED is the guess that feels sensible but has no clue behind it, like going hungry tonight, when in fact she bought the bread. The test that separates the last two is simple: name the clue. If you can point at the words that force your idea, it is an inference and you can defend it in an answer. If you cannot, you have imagined it, and in an exam it costs you the mark.
What to say if they get stuck
For STATED you must be able to put your finger on the words. If you are joining two clues together, it is not stated.
For HIDDEN, ask what the detail is doing there. Nobody counts coins twice, or chooses between bread and a candle, unless money is tight.
For the bin, ask what clue would have to exist. Nothing in the passage says what happens after she leaves the shop, so anything about tonight is a guess.
Three questions, three lines they were forged from. Hammer each pair together.
This engine’s own main skill is Question types. It practises retrieve an explicit detail alongside it.
Three question types, three kinds of line, every single paper. Retrieval comes from a line that states a fact, so you copy it out. Reading between the lines comes from a line that shows without telling, so you read the clue and say what it means. Vocabulary in context comes from a line with one hard word and enough around it to work the word out. When you meet a question, name its type first. The type tells you what sort of line to hunt for and what sort of sentence to write.
What to say if they get stuck
Start with the easy weld. One question asks for a number, so it can only come from the line that states one.
A vocabulary question needs a hard word sitting in the line, with clues around it to work the meaning out.
That leaves reading between the lines, which always comes from the line that shows a person doing something without ever telling you why.
Selects a nearby plausible detail instead of the stated detail.
This is the wrong answer 11+ papers are built to offer, so it is worth watching for directly: a child who does this will look confident and still lose the mark. If it keeps happening on retrieve an explicit detail, the fix is the misunderstanding rather than more questions.
Where retrieve an explicit detail sits in the 11+
The 11+ does not test these skills in isolation, and practising one in the wrong order wastes the practice. These are the skills the curriculum map connects this one to.
Reliable inference depends on separating stated evidence from conclusions.
How retrieve an explicit detail differs from the skills beside it
The same exercise practises several skills, and telling them apart is often the difficulty rather than the exercise itself. On this page the skill is: find a detail stated directly in a passage, and it stops where excludes inference and summary.
Questions parents ask about retrieve an explicit detail
Answered from what the skill map records about this skill, not from a template. Every answer here is on the page, and the same questions are the page's FAQ structured data.
Find a detail stated directly in a passage. It is one of 41 named English skills in the 11+, in the reading strand, and this page carries 3 interactive exercises that practise it.
There is a specific mistake recorded against this skill: selects a nearby plausible detail instead of the stated detail. 11+ papers are written to offer exactly that answer, so a child can be confident and still lose the mark. When it keeps happening, the fix is the misunderstanding rather than more questions.
Point at the next move rather than explaining the whole rule. Find the one sentence that mentions what the question is about, then read that whole sentence before choosing. The answer is a word inside it, not the general sense of it.
Once it is secure, the skill map opens infer implicit meaning. Reliable inference depends on separating stated evidence from conclusions.
The skill map draws the line here: Excludes inference and summary. A question past that line is testing a different named English skill, which is worth knowing before you spend a week practising the wrong one.
The reading strand holds 11 skills that are tested together, and the pages next to retrieve an explicit detail are sequence passage events, distinguish fact and opinion and identify a main idea. Each has its own exercise and its own link, and none of them needs an account.
Use Comprehension X-Ray, Inference Iceberg and Question Forge, embedded on this page. They are the exercises the skill map attaches to retrieve an explicit detail, they run in the browser with no account to make, nothing is scored, and nothing a child does here is recorded or sent anywhere. Each also has its own link, so you can send one to a child without sending them anywhere else first.
One wrong answer is a slip, the same wrong answer every time is a habit
A free diagnostic looks at which mistakes repeat across all four subjects, not just whether retrieve an explicit detail was right on the day.
