General Knowledge

Big Wide World

Around 1,500 durable, web-verified facts across six strands: Natural World, Geography, History, Arts & Culture, Everyday Life, and Beliefs & Festivals. This is enrichment — it's never part of your child's 11+ readiness score.

Tap the picture

For the youngest learners, some Big Wide World questions are answered by tapping a drawn picture rather than reading a word.

Big Wide WorldQuestion 2 of 15

Natural World · Year 1

Which picture shows the Sun shining in the daytime sky?

  • the Sun
  • the Moon
  • a rain cloud
  • a snowflake

That's the one!

The Sun is the bright star that shines in the sky during the day.

Tap to continue →

More Big Wide World facts

What do we call the time that has already happened, before today?

  • the past
  • the future
  • tomorrow
  • next week

The past is the time that has already happened.

What do bees make?

  • honey
  • milk
  • bread
  • wool

Bees make honey from the nectar they collect from flowers.

Big Wide WorldQuestion 5 of 15

Geography · Year 1

What is the capital city of England?

  • London
  • Paris
  • Manchester
  • Rome

Brilliant!

London is the capital city of England.

Tap to continue →

Big Wide World is enrichment. It's never included in the 11+ exam readiness score on the parent dashboard.

How the difficulty adapts

Big Wide World, tuned question by question

Big Wide World grows its own trail exactly like every other subject — the one deliberate difference is that its score is kept structurally separate from 11+ readiness.

  1. Its own live rating

    Big Wide World has its own rating and its own Seed → Mighty Tree trail, moving the same way as every other subject — up on a correct answer at the edge of what's known, back after a wobble.

  2. Year-gated facts

    All ~1,500 facts are tagged to National Curriculum Years 1–6 across six strands, so a Year 2 child meets Year 1–2 facts before Year 5–6 ones start appearing.

  3. Kept out of the readiness score

    Unlike the other six subjects, this rating never feeds the 55–145 exam-readiness score on the parent dashboard. Big Wide World is enrichment, adaptive in its own right, but structurally excluded from the 11+ estimate.

  4. Stretched, and spread wide

    Practice cycles through Natural World, Geography, History, Arts & Culture, Everyday Life and Beliefs & Festivals, stretching a little past what's secure without letting any one strand dominate.

  5. Learned things come back

    A fact answered confidently a few weeks ago — say, the capital of England — resurfaces on its own spaced schedule to check it's still there, rather than being asked once and forgotten.

🌰Seed · 0🌱Sprout · 800🪴Sapling · 1000🌳Young Tree · 1200🌲Mighty · 1500

The same five-stage scale every subject's trail runs on — Big Wide World's rating moves along it, kept separate from readiness.

The rating a typical child is expected to be secure at, by the end of each school year — about 250 points per year.

Try Big Wide World for real

No sign-up — jump straight into a few real, adaptive questions on Conkerly's demo account. Nothing you do here is saved.

Try the demo