Word ladder questions in the 11+: how they work and how to teach them
The Short Answer
A word ladder gives your child a starting word and a finishing word, and asks them to get from one to the other by changing a single letter at a time. Every rung in between has to be a real word, and the letters that are not being changed stay exactly where they are. The skill is not vocabulary — it is working backwards from the finish as well as forwards from the start.
What is a word ladder question?
Your child is given a starting word, a finishing word, and a number of rungs in between. They climb from one to the other by changing exactly one letter at each step, and every rung has to be a real word. The letters that are not being changed stay where they are — you cannot reorder them.
The word that makes this hard is exactly. Pupils who change two letters because the result is a word, or who shuffle the letters as well as swapping one, have solved a different puzzle. Pupils who treat it as a rule to apply — one letter, same positions, real word, check — find them straightforward.
How do you teach the method?
Write the finishing word underneath the starting word, with the right number of blank rungs between them. Seeing both ends at once is half the work.
Compare the two words letter by letter and mark which positions differ. Those are the letters that have to change, and the number of them tells you the minimum number of moves.
Work from both ends. Change one of the marked letters in the starting word, then one in the finishing word, and meet in the middle. Most pupils only go forwards, which leaves the hardest step until last.
Check each rung against the one above it: one letter different, same positions, still a real word. A route that breaks the rule halfway is worth nothing.
Can you show me a worked example?
Where do pupils lose marks?
**(1) changing two letters because the result happens to be a word, (2) reordering letters as well as changing one, and (3) running out of rungs and forcing the last step. **
Try it yourself
Change one letter at a time. Every rung must be a real word, and the number of moves is given.
- Turn CAT into DOG in three moves.
- Turn COLD into WARM in four moves.
- Turn LIME into CAKE in three moves.
- CAT → COT → COG → DOG. Working backwards from DOG gives COG straight away, which is quicker than guessing forwards from CAT.
- COLD → CORD → WORD → WORM → WARM. The trap is WORD → WARM, which looks like one step but changes two letters. Checking each rung against the one above it is what catches that.
- LIME → LIKE → LAKE → CAKE. Every letter position changes except the last, so marking which letters differ before starting shows the route almost immediately.
How much practice does this type need at home?
Ten minutes, twice a week, for a fortnight is usually enough to make the method automatic — this is one of the quicker types to secure. After that it only needs revisiting inside mixed practice, where the real difficulty is recognising which type you are looking at rather than solving any one of them.
If your child is still stuck after a fortnight, stop adding questions and go back to marking the differing letters before they start. Almost every child who struggles with word ladders is trying to hold the target in their head instead of writing it down.
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
What year should my child start word ladder questions?
Year 4 is a comfortable starting point. Word ladders need confident spelling of common three and four-letter words rather than any advanced vocabulary, so most pupils can meet the type in Year 4 and build speed through Year 5.
Does the number of rungs always work out exactly?
Yes, and that is the most useful thing to teach. A well-set question tells you how many steps it takes, so a child who has used all their rungs and is not at the finishing word knows to go back rather than push on.
My child gets stuck halfway. What helps?
Work backwards from the finishing word as well as forwards from the start. Most pupils only ever go forwards, which means they meet the hard half of the puzzle last, when they are already tired of it.
Is it a spelling test?
No, though secure spelling helps. What it tests is whether a child can hold a target in mind while making small changes towards it, and check each change against a rule. That is the same skill that letter codes and number sequences need.
Sources
- Buckinghamshire Council — Secondary Transfer Test information for parents Published March 2026.
- GL Assessment — 11+ familiarisation materials and question type descriptions Published 2025.
- Clever Clogs Academy — our own Year 4 and Year 5 lesson records, Winslow
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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