What is Non-Verbal Reasoning?

Non-Verbal Reasoning (NVR) mainly involves reasoning with abstract figures. For
some questions you might look at relationships between shapes and sequences of
shapes, by identifying common features from a set of figures and applying them to
a new figure. Some NVR question types involve codes, in which features of a shape
have to be matched with letters.

About the Familiarisation Papers

The Non-Verbal Reasoning Familiarisation papers are designed to familiarise your
child with the types of questions in the real 11+ tests. The papers are presented in
a very similar way to many of the test papers used for selection at 11+. They will
provide practice in answering different types of questions used in real 11+ tests
(although these may not necessarily be exactly the same question types that will
come up in the real test your child will sit) and practice in recording answers on the
separate answer sheet. The papers may not be exactly the same difficulty level as the real tests, as the difficulty varies between schools.

Working through the Papers

For the real 11+ tests, your child will need to: read the instructions on the front of
the test paper; listen carefully to the instructions read out by the invigilator; observe
the messages at the bottom of the test paper telling you to go on to the next page
or stop; and check/fill in the details at the top of the separate answer sheet.
Give your child the paper at an appropriate time, when they are both physically and
mentally alert. Choose a suitable area for them to work in – make sure they can
work comfortably and free from any distractions. Before your child takes a familiarisation paper, discuss with them the reasons why they are doing the paper. Also, explain that they might find some of the questions difficult, but they should work as quickly and as carefully as they can. If they get stuck on a question, they should not waste too much time on it, but move on to the next one. At the beginning of each section in the test, the solutions to the example and practice questions have been provided, so that you may work through the questions with your child and so that they understand how to answer the particular question type and mark their answer on the answer sheet.

Your child should mark their answers on the separate answer sheet provided. The
real 11+ test will be marked by computer, but it is important for your child to learn
how to use the answer sheet properly, in preparation for the real test. They should
mark their answer in the appropriate box by drawing a clear line through it with a
pencil. Mistakes should be rubbed out carefully, not crossed out, since in the real test this would not be recorded correctly by the computer. You can ignore the boxes at the top of the answer sheet marked unique ‘Pupil Number’, ‘School Number’, Date of Test and ‘Date of Birth’. Your child will be required to fill in or check these details in the real test, but it is not necessary for familiarisation purposes.

Timing the Papers

Each Familiarisation paper should take around an hour to complete. In the real 11+
tests, the instructions at the beginning of each section (including the answers to
the example and practice questions) will be read out loud by the invigilator. The
instruction pages are not timed; only the numbered questions are timed in the real
11+ tests. You may wish to read these instructions out to your child, or ask them
to read these themselves. It is important, however, that you work through the
solutions to the example and practice questions in each section with your child prior
to them completing the numbered questions within a section; the time taken will
be dependent on your child. Should you wish to time your child in completing the
numbered questions, allow them 10 minutes for each section.