Which side of the landmark?
A solid can be turned into twenty-four positions and still be the same solid. The mirror image survives the cube count, the outline and the silhouette — and fails only on which side things sit.
3D
4 posts on this. Written by Mat and Alicia, who prepare pupils for the Buckinghamshire Transfer Test every week in Winslow.
Count the piles, not the cubes
A stack of four cubes is still one square from above. Height shows from the front and not from above; depth never shows at all — and both views are usually sitting in the options.
Nothing floats: counting cubes you cannot see
If a cube has air under it, something you cannot see is holding it up — and it counts. Counting first is the cheapest check on the paper, and turning a block never changes the total.
Skip one square, and write the three pairs down
Six faces means three pairs, always. Squares that touch fold up side by side, so skip one along a line to find opposites — and on a bent net, look for the zig-zag.