The blanks are the question: data tables
The Short Answer
Reading a table is not the difficulty. On an 11+ paper some boxes are deliberately left empty, and filling them in from the row and column totals is the question rather than something you do before it. Find the row and then the column, decide whether one number is wanted or several combined, and check whether the answer should be a number or a name.
What do these questions ask?
To read something out of a table — but rarely just one box.
Your child can already find a cell. What the 11+ does is leave some boxes empty, and working those out from the totals is not something you do before the question. It is the question.
The routine
Find the row, then the column. In that order, with a finger on each.
One number, or several put together? Decide before you start reading.
Fill in any blank boxes, using the totals.
Check it — and check whether the question wanted a number or a name.
Most of the time goes on rungs two and three. Rung one, actually finding the box, takes seconds.
Filling the blanks
The check nobody does
Add the row totals. Then add the column totals. Both must give the same grand total.
It takes about ten seconds, uses only numbers already on the page, and catches an arithmetic slip before it becomes a wrong answer rather than after.
Number or name?
Which day had the most visitors? — a day.
How many visitors on the busiest day? — a number.
Both need identical work and the answers look nothing alike. A child who does the reasoning perfectly and writes the wrong kind of thing has lost the mark for the last two seconds of the question.
Where do pupils lose marks?
Answering from one cell when several needed combining.
Getting stuck on a blank that could not be solved yet, instead of moving to an easier one.
Skipping the row-and-column check.
Giving a number when a name was asked for.
Try it yourself
Find the row first, then the column. Fill in any blanks from the totals before answering.
- A row totals 58. Two of its three cells are 21 and 17. What is the third?
- Two rows total 58 and 47. What is the grand total?
- The grand total is 105 and five of the six cells are 20, 17, 15, 14 and 21. What is the sixth?
- How can you check a completed table without redoing every sum?
- A question asks which day had the most visitors. Is the answer a number or a name?
- 20. Subtract the known cells from the row total: 58 − 21 − 17.
- 105. Row totals add to the grand total, and so do column totals — which is the check in the next question.
- 18. Subtract all five from 105. Note this uses the grand total rather than a single row, which is what you do when the blank's own row and column are both incomplete.
- Add the row totals, then add the column totals. Both must give the same grand total. If they do not, something is wrong and you know it before answering.
- A name. It is worth checking, because a child who has done the arithmetic correctly and written the number of visitors has answered a different question from the one asked.
How much practice does this type need at home?
Build one. A week of something — minutes read, goals scored, pieces of fruit eaten — as a table with days down the side and people across the top.
Then rub out two cells and ask your child to work out what was there. Making the table means they have to understand what the totals mean, and rubbing cells out is exactly what the paper does.
Free: a Maths workbook
Questions across the Maths question types, with the method printed at the top and full answers at the back. One workbook for the whole strand, not a sheet per question type.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why are the blanks the question?
Because finding a box that is printed takes about two seconds and tests nothing. The paper leaves boxes empty so that your child has to reason from the totals to fill them, and only then can the actual question be answered. So on a GL paper most of the time goes on the blanks, not on the lookup.
How do you fill in a blank cell?
Subtract the cells you have from the total of that row or column, whichever is complete apart from the blank. If both the row and the column have more than one gap, use the grand total instead. Fill in the easiest blanks first — each one you complete may make another row or column solvable, exactly like a word grid.
What is the check?
Add the row totals, then add the column totals. Both routes must reach the same grand total. It is quick, it uses numbers already on the page, and it catches an arithmetic slip before it turns into a wrong answer. Very few children do it, and it takes about ten seconds.
What else catches them out?
Answering with a number when the question wanted a name, or the reverse. 'Which day was busiest' wants a day. 'How many visitors on the busiest day' wants a number. Both require the same work and the answers look nothing alike, so it is worth glancing at the question once more before writing.
Sources
- GL Assessment — 11+ familiarisation materials and question type descriptions Published 2025.
- Clever Clogs Academy — our own Year 4 and Year 5 lesson records, Winslow Published September 2025 to July 2026.
We are not affiliated with, endorsed by or connected to GL Assessment or Buckinghamshire Council. Test arrangements change; always check the council's own pages for the current year's dates.
We Teach This Method Every Week in Winslow
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