Solve the most constrained run first: word grids
The Short Answer
A word grid gives a crossword-shaped grid, a bank of words and a few given letters, and asks your child to place every word. The skill is not vocabulary but order: solve whichever run is most constrained right now, then look again, because placing one word creates new crossing letters and changes which run is easiest next.
What is a word grid question?
Your child is given a grid shaped like a small crossword — squares, some of them blocked — together with a bank of words and one or two letters already filled in. Every word in the bank goes somewhere, and the task is working out where.
The vocabulary is not the difficulty. The words are all given. What the question tests is whether your child can use two kinds of clue together — the letters they are given, and the letters where two words cross — and whether they tackle the grid in a sensible order.
The order is the whole question
This is the idea that decides whether a grid feels easy or impossible.
Placing a word does not only fill a run. It puts letters into every crossing square that run touches, which changes what the crossing runs can be. So the grid your child is looking at after three words is a different puzzle from the one they started with.
A child who works through it in a fixed order — every across run, then every down run — will eventually reach a run with no given letter and no solved crossing, and stall. Meanwhile a run they passed over two minutes ago has quietly become solvable.
Solve whichever run is most constrained right now. Then look again.
How do you teach the method?
Spot it. Find the run with the most positions already pinned down — by given letters or by crossings from words already placed. Count them rather than guessing. If two runs look level, the one that fewer bank words still fit is the more constrained.
Cross it. Go through the word bank and rule out everything that does not have the right letter in the right position. One given letter can remove a good part of the bank in a single pass.
Check it. Before committing, test the candidate against every crossing square it touches, not just the one that suggested it.
Re-scan. Placing that word has created new crossing letters. Look at every unsolved run again, including ones you dismissed.
Can you show me a worked example?
The diagram below shows that one run — not a whole grid — with each of the three surviving words tested against the crossing A.
What a contradiction is telling you
Sooner or later your child will place a word confidently, solve two more runs, and find a crossing letter that contradicts the first word.
The instinct is to ignore the new letter, because they are sure about the word. That instinct is backwards.
Two correct placements never disagree about a shared square. So a contradiction means one of the two crossing words is wrong, or a letter was copied wrongly — and the earlier word, the one your child is sure about, is as likely to be the mistake as the new one. Check both against the given letters and the word bank. The contradiction has told you exactly where to look.
Where do pupils lose marks?
Working in a fixed order rather than by how constrained each run is, and stalling on a run that had no clues when they started.
Not re-scanning after a placement. The grid has changed; the plan should change with it.
Committing on one crossing. A word that fits the square that suggested it may fail another. Check every crossing the run touches.
Ignoring a contradiction because they are confident in the earlier word.
Try it yourself
These are about the method rather than a specific grid, since a grid needs to be seen. Answer them in words.
- You have a five-letter across run with a given R in position 2, and a bank containing BREAD, TRAIN, CROWN, SHINE and PLANT. Which words survive?
- You have solved an across run and it puts an E into a crossing square. What should you do before choosing the next run to solve?
- You place a word, and later a crossing letter from another run contradicts it. What has gone wrong?
- Two runs are unsolved. One has a given letter; the other has no given letter but crosses two words you have already placed. Which do you solve first?
- BREAD, TRAIN and CROWN. All three have R in second position. SHINE and PLANT do not, so they are ruled out without reading any further — here a single given letter removes two of the five words in one pass.
- Re-scan every unsolved run, not just the ones near it. A run that had no clues at the start may now have a brand new crossing letter, and it may have become the most constrained run in the grid. Re-scanning after every placement is the habit that keeps the puzzle moving.
- One of the two crossing words is wrong, or a letter has been copied wrongly. Two correct placements never disagree about a shared square. The temptation is to ignore the new letter because you are confident about the earlier word — but the earlier word is just as likely to be the mistake. Check both words against the given letters and the word bank, and take out the one that does not stand up.
- Usually the one crossing two placed words. Two crossing letters pin down two positions, which is often more constraining than a single given letter — but not always. The surest test is to count how many bank words still fit each run and solve the one with the fewest.
How much practice does this type need at home?
Ordinary crosswords are genuinely good practice, because they build the same habit of using crossing letters rather than working a clue in isolation.
Better still, ask your child to build one. Give them six words and ask them to arrange the grid so they cross properly. To do that they have to notice which letters two words share and where — which is the crossing-square idea from the other side, and it lands much faster than solving another puzzle does.
Free: a Verbal Reasoning workbook
Questions across the Verbal Reasoning 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 does the order of solving matter so much?
Because each word you place supplies letters to the runs it crosses, and that changes which run is easiest. A child who works through the grid in a fixed order — all the across runs, then all the down ones — will hit a run with nothing to go on and stall, while a run they have already passed has quietly become solvable. Solve whatever is most constrained now, then look again.
What does 'most constrained' actually mean?
The run that the fewest bank words still fit. A quick way to find it is to count the positions already pinned down, whether by given letters or by crossings from words already placed: a run with two crossing letters is usually a better bet than a run with one given letter, even though the given letter is more obvious. When two runs look level, count the bank words that still fit each one. It is worth saying out loud: which run has the most information in it right now?
My child places a word and then finds it does not fit later. What should they do?
Find out which word is wrong, and take that one out. Two correct placements never disagree about a shared square, so a contradiction means one of the crossing words is wrong, or a letter was copied wrongly. Children find this hard because they are confident about the word they placed first and the contradiction feels like an inconvenience. Check both words against the given letters and the bank. Treat a contradiction as useful: it has just told you where to look.
How do we practise this without printed grids?
Ordinary crosswords work well, and so does building one. Give your child six words and ask them to arrange them into a grid where they cross properly. Building one teaches the crossing-square idea faster than solving several, because they have to think about which letters two words share before anything can be placed.
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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