11+ Verbal Reasoning: The Ten Question Types

Verbal reasoning tests nothing taught in school, which is precisely why preparation changes the score so much. The content is a set of recurring puzzle shapes, and a child who has met each shape before recognises it in a second or two, while a child meeting it for the first time spends most of the time working out what is even being asked. So this set gives one of each: a synonym, an antonym, an odd one out, an analogy, a number sequence, a letter sequence, a letter code, a hidden word, a compound word and a logic problem.

The explanations name the rule before applying it, because the rule is the thing worth taking away. The letter sequence is a case in point: AC, EG, IK, MO looks like a jumble until you write down the alphabet positions and see two rules running at once — the first letter of each pair jumps four places, and the second is always two after the first. Once that is visible, the next pair takes three seconds. Same with the code: comparing TIME with VKOG letter by letter shows every letter moving forward two places, and then DAY becomes FCA — with Y wrapping round past Z back to A, which is the part children miss.

Two of the wrong answers are worth pointing out because they are the ones most children choose. In the compound-word question, "hand" gives handball and handprint but no handpath, and the rule asks for all three. In the hidden-word question, three of the options are perfectly good four-letter words that simply do not appear across the join — the discipline is to look only at the letters either side of a gap.

Every puzzle here was written for this set. There is no official 11+ paper: tests are produced commercially, are not published, and are fully protected by copyright, so nothing of theirs appears anywhere here.

Zestly is an independent study tool. It is not affiliated with any 11+ test provider or with any school, and it is not an exam centre.

• Recognise each of the common verbal reasoning question types on sight
• Find a synonym and an antonym by meaning rather than by the feel of a word
• Identify the shared property in an odd-one-out and the exact relationship in an analogy
• Solve a letter sequence by converting the letters to alphabet positions first
• Crack a letter code by comparing the two words letter by letter, including wrapping round past Z
• Find a word hidden across the join between two words, and ignore letters elsewhere in the sentence
• Test a compound word against every ending the question gives, not just the first

What comes next in this sequence: AC, EG, IK, MO, ? — one of ten puzzles written for this set, alongside a synonym, an antonym, an odd one out, an analogy, a number sequence, a letter code, a hidden word, a compound word and a logic problem.