The 11+ non-verbal reasoning question types, explained

Non-verbal reasoning is the part of the 11+ that looks least like school. There is no content to revise. A child either sees what the shapes are doing or they do not. That makes it feel unteachable, which is not quite true. Most of the gain comes from recognising the question type quickly, and that is a small, finite thing to learn. Here is the full set.

Who sets the 11+ now

For years there were two main providers, GL Assessment and CEM. CEM decided not to offer schools any further paper-based entrance tests from September 2023, and most grammar schools moved to GL for the 2023 to 2024 admissions season. So if your child is sitting an 11+ in England now, GL is the most likely provider.

You will often see the figure of 80 non-verbal reasoning questions in 60 minutes quoted online. We have not been able to confirm that in anything published by GL Assessment or by an admissions authority, and the real papers we have checked are laid out differently, so we are not repeating it as fact.

What a real GL paper looks like

A worked example beats a general description. The Buckinghamshire Secondary Transfer Test is produced by GL Assessment for The Buckinghamshire Grammar Schools, and its familiarisation booklet sets out the structure in full.

Two details in there matter more than the totals. First, non-verbal reasoning is taught to the child during the test: each of the four sections opens with a worked example and two practice questions, timed separately from the section itself. Second, the sections are short and separately timed, so a child who gets stuck cannot borrow time from elsewhere. Every question is multiple choice and the answer sheet is marked by a computer, so a smudged or crossed-out mark can cost an answer that was actually right.

The question types

Different papers use different names for the same idea. The list below gives the name GL uses where we have seen it in an official booklet, then what the question actually asks.

1. Series, also called sequences

A row of squares is shown in order with one left empty, usually the last one. Your child picks which of five options belongs in the gap. The trick is that more than one thing is usually changing at once. A shape might rotate a quarter turn each step while also gaining a line, or grow while alternating between black and white.

How to approach it: name each change out loud before looking at the options. Count first, then rotation, then shading, then size. Children who scan the answers first talk themselves into the wrong one.

2. Classes like, and odd one out

These are two sides of one idea. In a classes-like question, two figures on the left share a property and your child picks which of five figures on the right is most like them. In an odd one out question, four figures share a property and your child picks the one that breaks it. In CAT4 this family is called Figure Classification.

How to approach it: find the rule from the given pair before looking at the choices, and make the rule a sentence. "Both have four sides" is a rule. "They look similar" is not.

3. Matrices

A grid of shapes, usually three by three, with one cell blank. One rule runs across the rows and a different rule runs down the columns. CAT4 calls these Figure Matrices and includes them in its non-verbal battery.

How to approach it: read one full row first and say what happens from left to right. Then read one full column. The blank cell has to obey both rules at once, which usually kills three of the five options immediately.

4. Analogies

The shape version of a word analogy. A is to B as C is to what? Your child works out the single change that turns the first shape into the second, then applies that same change to the third.

How to approach it: describe the change from A to B in one short phrase before glancing at C. If the phrase needs the word "and" twice, look again, because there is usually one change rather than three.

5. Codes

Shapes are shown on the left, each with a code of letters beside it. Your child works out which letter stands for which feature, then picks the correct code for a new test shape. In the Buckinghamshire example, the first letter stands for shading and the second for the type of shape, so a shaded diamond takes one letter from each.

How to approach it: handle one letter position at a time. Look at every shape that shares a first letter and ask what those shapes have in common. Then do the same for the second position. Doing both at once is where children come unstuck.

6. Hidden shapes

A target shape is shown, and it is hidden inside exactly one of five larger diagrams. It is the same size as the target, but it may have been rotated. Every side of the target shape has to be visible in the diagram where it is hiding.

How to approach it: look for the most unusual feature of the target, such as a single slanted edge or an odd corner, and hunt for that one feature rather than the whole shape. Then check the rest of the outline.

7. Figure analysis, or paper folding

A square of paper is folded, then a hole is punched through it. Your child chooses how the paper looks when it is unfolded. The number of holes depends on how many layers the punch went through, and the positions mirror across each crease.

How to approach it: count the folds first, because each fold can double the number of holes. Then unfold in reverse order, one crease at a time, mirroring the holes across each one. This is the type where actually folding and punching a piece of paper at home teaches more in five minutes than any worksheet.

8. Rotation, reflection and moving shapes in your head

This is less a separate question type than a skill that runs through the others. The Buckinghamshire booklet describes non-verbal reasoning as applying rules and relationships to shapes and patterns, and manipulating shapes and space in your head. GL lists rotation, reflection and symmetry among the skills its non-verbal papers cover. Rotation turns a shape around a point and keeps it the same way round. Reflection flips it, so a shape that is not symmetrical comes out mirrored.

How to approach it: teach your child to spot the difference between a turn and a flip using a letter. A capital R turned upside down still reads as an R lying on its back. A mirrored R does not exist as a letter at all. Once a child sees that difference they stop confusing the two.

How to help without overdoing it

Non-verbal reasoning rewards familiarity far more than volume. A child who has met every question type twice is in a much better place than one who has done two hundred questions of the same type.

1. Get the official booklet for your area. Admissions authorities publish free familiarisation booklets with real examples and the exact structure of their paper. Nothing you buy will match the real test more closely.
2. Do a few of each type, slowly, out loud. Ask your child to say what is changing before they answer. The talking is the teaching.
3. Practise the clock separately. Once the types are familiar, do one short timed set so the pace is not a shock. Sections in a real paper can be as short as five minutes.
4. Practise marking the answer sheet. It sounds trivial. On a computer-marked sheet a crossed-out answer may not be read at all.

One more thing is worth saying plainly. Non-verbal reasoning is only one part of an 11+, and often a small part. In the Buckinghamshire paper it is 20 minutes out of about 90 minutes of actual testing, with English, maths and verbal reasoning taking the rest. If your child is shaky on the ordinary curriculum, that is where the time is best spent. Our free Skills Check takes about ten minutes and tells you which parts of maths or English are secure for their school year and which are not, so you are not guessing.

If you are in the UAE

Most families here will not sit an English 11+. They will meet the same question types through the CAT4, which nearly every private school in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Sharjah runs, and through the entrance assessments that selective schools set for Year 7 entry. The formats are the same family, so everything above still applies. Our CAT4 guide for UAE parents covers who sits it and when, and our guide to CAT4 scores explains the report that comes back.