Buckinghamshire 11+ Non-Verbal Reasoning

Non-verbal reasoning is logic without words. Your child is shown shapes, patterns or grids and asked to work out the rule that turns one into the next, then apply it. It is not a test of artistic ability, and it is not a measure of some fixed spatial talent a child either has or does not have — it is a set of rules, and rules can be taught.

On the GL Assessment Transfer Test used in Buckinghamshire, non-verbal reasoning questions appear alongside maths, English and verbal reasoning rather than in a paper of their own, and the mix of types changes from year to year. That is why we teach the whole set rather than a favoured handful: your child should be able to look at any of these questions, recognise the shape of it within a couple of seconds, and know what to check first.

Where the difficulty actually comes from

The difficulty almost never comes from a single change. It comes from two at once — a shape that rotates and changes shading, or a grid where size and count move in different directions.

The other reliable stumbling block is the three-dimensional types, nets of cubes and cube counting, because they ask a child to picture something they cannot see on the page.

What separates quick progress from stalling

Not ability. Method.

The pupils who say the change out loud — "it turned a quarter clockwise and the dot moved inside" — get there far faster than the ones who stare at the page and hope the answer arrives.

Every one of these types has a lesson page of its own. They are all listed on the non-verbal reasoning page.