The link must fit exactly three: odd one out
The Short Answer
An odd one out question gives five words and asks which two do not belong. Three of them share something precise, and the test of a good link is that it fits exactly three — no more. A link that fits four or five is too loose to be the answer, and tightening it is almost always what turns a wrong answer into a right one.
What is an odd one out question?
Your child is given five words. Three of them share something and two do not, and the task is to find the two that do not belong.
The whole difficulty is in how precise the shared thing has to be.
The link must fit exactly three
Look at these five: ridge, summit, peak, cliff, valley.
A child says: they are all parts of the landscape. And they are — all five of them. Which is exactly why that cannot be the link, because a link has to leave somebody out.
Tighten it. Ridge, summit and peak all mean the top of a high place. A cliff is a steep face rather than a top. A valley is a low place. Now the link fits three, and the answer is there.
That move — from a loose category to a precise meaning — is most of this question type. When a child is stuck, they almost never need a new idea. They need to sharpen the one they have.
How do you teach the method?
We call it the Odd One Out Sort, and it runs the same way every time.
Read all five words.
Say what each one means. Out loud at home, under the breath in the test.
Find the three that belong, and name the link.
Check the link fits exactly three, then mark the two that are left.
Can you show me a worked example?
Where do pupils lose marks?
Choosing a link that fits all five. The commonest error by a distance, and always fixed by tightening rather than starting again.
Not naming the link. A child who has a feeling rather than a sentence cannot test it, and under pressure a feeling is what they act on.
Stopping at the first plausible pair. The two words that look odd are sometimes odd for a reason that is not the reason the question intends.
Try it yourself
In each row, three words share something precise and two do not. Name the link before you choose — and check it fits exactly three.
- ridge, summit, peak, cliff, valley
- oak, pine, willow, petal, blossom
- shout, whisper, murmur, listen, hear
- copper, silver, gold, marble, granite
- cliff and valley. The link is that ridge, summit and peak all mean the top of a high place. 'Parts of a landscape' would fit all five and is therefore not a link at all — a cliff is a steep face, not a top, and a valley is a low place.
- petal and blossom. Oak, pine and willow are kinds of tree. Petal and blossom are parts of a flower, and 'things to do with plants' would fit all five.
- listen and hear. Shout, whisper and murmur are all ways of speaking. Listen and hear belong to the other end of the conversation, and 'to do with sound' would again fit all five.
- marble and granite. Copper, silver and gold are metals; marble and granite are stone. 'Materials' fits all five and so tells you nothing.
How much practice does this type need at home?
Short and frequent, and it needs no worksheet at all. Give your child five words from around the kitchen and ask for the link and the two that do not fit. Then make them say the link as a full sentence before they answer.
The sentence is the whole exercise. A child who can say these three are all ways of speaking has done the thinking; a child who says those two just feel different has not, and will find out which they were doing when the questions get harder.
Free: a Verbal Reasoning workbook
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Frequently Asked Questions
My child says all five words are connected. What do I tell them?
That they are right, and that this is the point of the question. The words are chosen so that a loose link fits all five — ridge, summit, peak, cliff and valley are all parts of a landscape. A link that fits all five cannot separate anything, so it is not the link being asked for. The instruction to give your child is simple: tighten it until it fits exactly three.
What routine do you teach?
We call it the Odd One Out Sort. Read all five words. Say what each one means. Find the three that belong. Name the link out loud. Mark the two that are left. The naming step is the one children skip and the one that makes the answer checkable — a link you can say is a link you can test against the other two words.
Are the links always about meaning?
Usually, but not always. Sometimes the link is about the words themselves rather than what they refer to — three words that all contain a smaller word, or all begin with a silent letter. If a meaning link cannot be found that fits exactly three, it is worth looking at the letters instead.
How quickly should this be done?
Quickly, which is why the routine has to be automatic rather than remembered. That said, we would rather a child took an extra few seconds to name the link than guessed at speed. The routine is what makes speed safe; speed without the routine simply produces wrong answers faster.
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.
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