Seeing a solid shape as a set of flat views is the skill that cube nets and building block questions actually rest on. Build it, and both of those get easier.
What this is, and what it is not
Let me be straight about this one, because plenty of 11+ material is not.
"Plans and elevations" is a named topic in school mathematics. It is not a named question type in this test. It does not appear in the partnership's familiarisation guide, and it is not among the spatial types a tutor would list: cubes and nets, 3D building blocks, folding along a line, and hole punch.
So do not go looking for a section called 2D views in a practice paper. Treat this as underlying practice for the spatial questions that genuinely do appear.
Non-verbal and spatial reasoning together carry 25% of the marks, according to the partnership entrance test page, and it is the section nothing in primary school prepares a child for.
The three views
| View | Looking from | What disappears |
|---|---|---|
| Plan | Directly above | Height |
| Front elevation | Straight at the front | Depth |
| Side elevation | Straight at one side | Width |
The rule that makes all three work: you are looking straight on, not at an angle. Nothing is drawn smaller for being further away, and nothing behind another block shows at all.
Teaching it with real objects
As with cube nets, the fastest route is physical rather than explained.
- Build a small shape from toy bricks or sugar cubes. Six or seven pieces is plenty.
- Put it on the table and crouch down so your eye is level with it. That is the front elevation, and children are often surprised by how little they can see.
- Draw what you can see, as flat squares on squared paper.
- Turn the shape a quarter turn and draw again. That is the side.
- Stand over it and draw from above. That is the plan.
- Now work backwards: give them three views and ask them to build the shape. That is the harder and more useful direction.
The hidden cube problem
Here is where this connects straight back to the questions that do appear.
A view never shows you how many blocks are behind the ones you can see. A single square in a plan view could be one cube or five stacked. That is exactly the trap in 3D building block questions, where children count what is drawn rather than what must be there.
So the habit is the same one: ask what has to be underneath. If a block appears to float, something is holding it up, and that something counts even though no view shows it.
the partnership's familiarisation guide demonstrates only two non-verbal types, Figures alike and Hidden shapes, and says plainly that the real test contains types it does not show. So treat any list of question types, including this one, as the best available picture rather than a syllabus.
See our guide to cube nets and our guide to spatial reasoning.
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Give them the bricks, then take them away
This is the same lesson as cube nets. Children cannot picture something in their heads that they have never done with their hands, and no amount of explaining supplies the model.
So build the shape, look at it from the front with your eye down at table level, and draw what you actually see. Then from the side. Then from above. Ten minutes of that does more than a chapter of diagrams.
Then reverse it, because that is the direction the test works in. Give them the views and ask them to build the solid. That is harder, and it is the skill that transfers to counting the blocks they cannot see.
Mushtaque Ahmed, Founder of GrammarPath and Bright Mentors
Frequently asked questions
Do 2D views of 3D shapes come up in the 11+?
Not as a named question type. Plans and elevations is a school mathematics topic, and it does not appear in the partnership's familiarisation guide or among the spatial types the test is known to use. It is worth practising as the skill underneath cube nets and building blocks.
What are the three views of a 3D shape?
The plan from directly above, which loses height; the front elevation looking straight at the front, which loses depth; and the side elevation, which loses width. In all three you look straight on, so nothing behind another block is visible.
How do you teach a child to see 3D shapes as flat views?
Physically. Build a small shape from bricks, crouch so your eye is level with it and draw what you can see on squared paper, turn it and draw again, then draw it from above. Then reverse it: give three views and ask them to build the shape.
Why does this help with building block questions?
Because a view never shows how many blocks sit behind the ones you can see. One square in a plan could be a single cube or five stacked, which is exactly the trap in counting questions where children count what is drawn rather than what must be there.
How much of the 11+ is spatial reasoning?
Non-verbal and spatial reasoning together carry 25% of the marks. The partnership defines spatial reasoning as working out relationships between shapes and space, and does not publish how many questions are spatial.