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.
Year 4
18 posts on this. Written by Mat and Alicia, who prepare pupils for the Buckinghamshire Transfer Test every week in Winslow.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Word ladder questions in the 11+: how they work and how to teach them
A word ladder changes one letter at a time, and every rung has to be a real word. The method we teach in Winslow, a worked example, and where pupils lose marks.
Spelling decides, not sound: compound words in the 11+
Compound word questions give you two sets of three words and nine possible pairs. The method we teach in Winslow, why your ears are the wrong tool, and five to try.
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.
Round once, from the right column: rounding in the 11+
449 does not round to 500. The four-step routine we teach in Winslow, the five traps the examiner sets, and five questions to try with full workings.
Ties run deeper than you think: alphabetical order
Sorting words alphabetically sounds like Year 2 work until the first five letters match. The Letter Ladder, and why the sixth letter is where the mark is.
Start where there are fewest options: insert a letter
One letter finishes the first word and begins the second. Why the 11+ gives you two pairs rather than one, the build-test-check routine, and four to try.
Three letters, taken out in one piece: the missing word
Three consecutive letters are removed from one word in a sentence, and they spell a word of their own. How to find where the gap is and what fills it.
Narrow, then test: move a letter questions
Take one letter out of the first word so it is still a word, and put it into the second so that is a word too. Why the first word rarely decides it, and four to try.
The link must fit exactly three: odd one out
Five words, three that share something and two that do not. Why a link that fits all five is not a link, and four to try.
Finding it, not remembering it: retrieval questions in the 11+
Retrieval questions look like the easy ones until somebody starts a clock. The Scan and Check method we teach in Winslow, the small words that flip a question, and a passage to try.
Exactly two words have swapped: jumbled sentences
The sentence is grammatical and means nothing, because two words have changed places. How to find them by ear, and the rules that stop a child rewriting the whole thing.
0.45 is smaller than 0.5: place value
Every column is worth ten times the one to its right, and that one fact settles most place value questions. Grouping in threes, and why longer decimals are not bigger.
Hidden word questions in the 11+: how they work and how to teach them
A hidden word sits across the join between two neighbouring words. The four-step method we teach in Winslow, two worked examples, the uneven splits that catch pupils out, and five to try.