Cycles, not staircases
A repeating pattern does not grow — it comes back round. Find the length of the cycle, work out where the gap sits in it, and the answer is already on the page somewhere behind you.
Non-Verbal Reasoning
19 posts on this. Written by Mat and Alicia, who prepare pupils for the Buckinghamshire Transfer Test every week in Winslow.
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.
One corner first
Your brain cannot scan for six sides at once, so don't ask it to. Pick one corner, hunt for that alone, and cross off every figure without it — then trace the rest.
Look for the rule, not the odd shape
Four of the five share something. Find that, and the odd one falls out on its own — go hunting for the strange-looking one instead and you will be pulled straight to whatever was drawn to catch your eye.
The pair on the left defines the change
A is to B as C is to what. The first pair is not an example to copy — it is an instruction to apply. And the commonest wrong answer is a copy of the second figure.
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.
Unfold backwards, one crease at a time
Reverse the last fold first and mirror every hole across it. And count the layers under the hole rather than the number of folds — because a fold that is not exactly in half does not double everything.
Two letters, two jobs
The top letter and the bottom letter never describe the same thing. Cover one with a finger, solve the other, then swap — and prove each rule against a box that does not have that letter.
Right across, wrong down: matrix questions
A grid is a series you can read in two directions, so everything about series applies twice. One option is always built to be right along the row and wrong down the column.
Only another reflection undoes a reflection
A mirror image is not a shape that has been turned a long way. No amount of rotating will ever put it back — and on a symmetrical figure the difference is invisible, which is why the paper never uses one.
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.
Two rules at once: series questions
One rule is a Year 4 question. Two rules running at the same time is the standard 11+ one — and half right is still wrong, because an option is printed for each half.
The features that change: a sweep for every attribute
Shading, line type, size, direction, position, number. Almost every non-verbal question is asking about one of these, and the reliable habit is sweeping the figure once for each rather than looking at all of it at once.
What comes next, and what came before
When the gap is at the end you are extrapolating, not filling in — there is no square on the far side to check against. And when the gap opens the row, the rule has to be run backwards.
The answer often looks least like the examples
A pentagon and a house shape look nothing alike and have five sides each. Visual similarity is the trap; a real rule eliminates four options, and a feature that eliminates one is a distraction.
Repeats first: cracking a vertical code
Find a letter that appears twice, ask what those two figures have that the others don't, and the letter has told you what it means. One position at a time, and check every letter before you commit.
Buckinghamshire 11+ Non-Verbal Reasoning
Non-verbal reasoning is a set of rules rather than a fixed talent. What makes it hard, and why saying the change out loud is what separates quick progress from stalling.
Turned, not flipped: rotation questions in the 11+
Rotation looks like the easiest question on a non-verbal reasoning paper and is where marks quietly disappear. The Clock Hand method, and the test that separates a turn from a mirror image.