5 min read
Education
Verbal reasoning is rarely taught in primary school, yet it makes up part of the Redbridge and Latymer 11+ tests. This guide sorts the question types into four families: hidden and missing letters, word meanings, letter codes, and numbers and logic. Each type comes with a worked example and a technique your child can reuse, followed by practical tips on how to practise.
Verbal reasoning is the part of the 11+ that many parents have never seen before. It is not taught as a subject in most primary schools, yet in Redbridge it shares a paper with English, and Latymer's test includes a GL Assessment maths and verbal reasoning paper. (The Essex CSSE test no longer includes reasoning questions.)
At first glance the questions look endlessly varied. In practice they fall into four families, and the verbal reasoning question types within each family repeat from paper to paper. A child who can name the type in front of them has already done half the work. Each VR example below was written for this article and comes with a technique your child can reuse.
Exact question styles vary between tests. If your child is sitting a GL Assessment test, as in Redbridge, pair these examples with GL's official verbal reasoning familiarisation materials, which show how GL verbal reasoning types are laid out.
A word is hidden across the end of one word and the start of the next.
Find the four-letter word hidden in: The mouse ate the cheese.
Answer: seat (mouse ate).
Tip: run a finger along each pair of neighbouring words, reading across the gap.
Find one letter that ends the first word and starts the second in both pairs: car [?] ape and mos [?] oad.
Answer: t (cart, tape; most, toad).
Tip: try the letter in the easier pair first, then check it in the other.
Move one letter from the first word to the second to make two new words: stone, ten.
Answer: s (tone, tens).
Tip: try removing each letter of the first word in turn; only a few leave a real word.
Three letters are missing from the capitalised word: The CH _ _ _ EN laid an egg.
Answer: ICK (CHICKEN).
Tip: read the sentence for meaning first; the context usually gives the word away.
These questions reward a wide vocabulary more than any technique.
Choose one word from each group that are closest in meaning: (fast, sad, open) (quick, happy, shut).
Answer: fast and quick.
Which word is most opposite in meaning to generous? (kind, mean, rich)
Answer: mean.
Which two words do not belong with the others? apple, pear, carrot, plum, potato
Answer: carrot and potato (vegetables; the others are fruit).
Hot is to cold as tall is to (short, high, wide).
Answer: short. The relationship is "opposite of".
Tip for all meaning questions: say the relationship out loud in a sentence ("hot is the opposite of cold") and test each option in the same sentence.
Take one word from each group to make a new word: (hand, tree, cloud) (bag, salt, rock).
Answer: handbag.
Tip: check each first word against every second word systematically; it is easy to stop at a combination that only sounds plausible.
Keep an alphabet strip in front of your child while practising. Learning letter positions (A = 1, M = 13, Z = 26) by heart can also speed these questions up.
Find the next letter: B, E, H, K, ?
Answer: N. Each letter is three places after the last.
AC is to BD as EG is to ?
Answer: FH. Each letter moves forward one place.
If CAT is written as DBU, how is DOG written?
Answer: EPH. Each letter moves forward one place.
Tip: write the shift above each letter (+1, +1, +1). Some codes shift each letter by a different amount, or run backwards through the alphabet.
If the code for TEAM is 5291, what is the code for MEAT?
T = 5, E = 2, A = 9, M = 1, so MEAT = 1295.
Tip: write the letter-number pairs in a small table before answering.
Find the next number: 2, 5, 11, 23, ?
Answer: 47. Each number is doubled, then 1 is added.
Tip: check the differences first (3, 6, 12). If they double, a "×2" rule is likely.
Find the missing number: 7 + 9 = 4 × ?
Answer: 4, because 7 + 9 = 16 and 4 × 4 = 16.
If A = 2, B = 3, C = 5, D = 6 and E = 9, give the answer to A × D − B as a letter.
A × D = 12, and 12 − 3 = 9, so the answer is E.
Ali is taller than Ben. Ben is taller than Cara. Who is the shortest?
Answer: Cara.
Tip: draw a quick line or ladder and place each person on it as you read.
Learn the types before timing them. Untimed practice builds understanding; speed comes later.
Group practice by type. Ten code questions in a row builds a method faster than a mixed paper.
Keep an error log. Note the question type for every mistake. Patterns usually appear quickly, showing which types need the most work.
Build vocabulary daily. Reading widely and keeping a word notebook helps with synonyms, antonyms, analogies and odd ones out.
Move to mixed, timed papers in Year 5. Real tests switch between types quickly. Before that, a few untimed puzzles a week in Year 4 are plenty.
If your child is finding verbal reasoning hard to crack at home, Merit Tutors teaches it alongside English, maths and non-verbal reasoning in its 11+ classes, and offers a free assessment with an 11+ English and verbal reasoning option.
Ready to try it? Every paper in the library comes with its mark scheme and a worked solution, so you can practise without hunting for files.
Find past papersMost children can find a fact in a passage. The marks that separate candidates come from inference, vocabulary-in-context and language questions. This guide explains how...
Read postWhere the 11+ includes writing, children usually have about ten minutes per task. This guide explains what markers look for and walks through six steps, from a two-minute...
Read postThere is no official 11+ maths syllabus, but the topics tested are remarkably consistent. This checklist sets them out strand by strand, from number and fractions to alge...
Read postVocabulary helps in almost every part of the 11+, from comprehension to synonyms, analogies and creative writing. This list gives 200 words pitched at confident Year 5 an...
Read postAlmost every non-verbal reasoning question is built from a small set of features, such as shape, shading, rotation and reflection, that change according to a rule. This g...
Read post
