11+ non-verbal reasoning: question types and the topics to practise

What non-verbal reasoning covers in GL-style papers

Non-verbal reasoning is reasoning about shapes and patterns: which figure continues a series, which one does not belong with the others, how a shape has been rotated or reflected, and how a flat net folds into a solid. No reading is involved, so it asks something different from the other three papers.

This page draws no diagrams. A non-verbal reasoning question is a picture, and a picture described in words becomes a different question - so rather than print an approximation here, each topic below opens ten real questions in our free quiz, figures included.

Which papers your area sets, and how they are weighted, is decided by each admissions authority rather than by us, and the familiarisation material your school or council points to is the authoritative description of the format. Which exam board your school uses explains the four families, and the which-test lookup is the quickest way to check your own area.

Typical non-verbal reasoning question types

These are the question types our own bank covers, grouped from the topic names the app uses. They describe what your child can practise here; they are not a syllabus published by an exam board.

The 11 live non-verbal reasoning topics

Every topic below is live in the app today. The list is generated from the same registry the app and the free quiz read, so it cannot drift from what is actually there. Each one opens our free quiz with that topic already selected: ten GL-style questions, an explanation after each answer, and no sign-up, card or email address.

• Folding & combining shapes
• Hidden shapes
• Matrices
• Nets & cubes
• Odd one out
• Reflections
• Rotations
• Series completion
• Shape analogies
• Shape codes
• 2D→3D spatial views

How BrightEleven practises this

Practice in non-verbal reasoning starts with a short placement quiz - around 25 mixed questions, untimed, framed as a quest, with no score ever shown to the child - which sets a starting point for the subject.

After that, a session is built from the topics above: about 60% of the questions at the current level, 20% one level easier to settle confidence, 10% one level harder as a stretch, and the rest re-tests of something already got wrong. Eight or more right out of the last ten at a level moves it up with a small celebration; four or fewer quietly eases it down, and the child simply sees friendlier questions rather than a message about it.

Every wrong answer joins the Fix-It queue: a recap in the same session, then the same skill again as a different question after 2, 7 and 21 days, blended unlabelled into normal sessions and never flagged as remedial. Every question, right or wrong, has an explanation.

On the parent side you see which non-verbal reasoning topics need attention, can print a worksheet of 12 questions with an answer key for any topic, and can see the direction of mock results once more than one mock has been sat. There is no standardised score and no single number across subjects, for a parent or a child. How BrightEleven works is the full tour, and the facts page is the same detail without the tour.

Where to go next

• The free 10-minute topic quiz - any of the 52 topics, no sign-up.
• Verbal reasoning and non-verbal reasoning, side by side
• What is the 11+? - the test, the timing and how results are reported.
• How much practice is enough - and when to start.
• 11+ maths - the same page for maths.
• 11+ English - the same page for English.
• 11+ verbal reasoning - the same page for verbal reasoning.