Rotation questions are won by picking one feature of the shape and following it round. Children who try to turn the whole shape in their head lose track and guess.
Non-verbal and spatial reasoning together carry 25% of the marks, according to the partnership entrance test page. It is also the one section nothing in primary school prepares a child for, which is why almost every child starts from zero here.
Pick a marker and follow it
Every rotation shape has something that makes one part distinguishable: a dot, a notch, a shaded square, a longer arm, an arrow. That is your marker.
- Find the marker in the original shape and note where it points, using a clock face. "The arrow points to 12."
- Apply the rotation to the marker only. A quarter turn clockwise moves 12 to 3. Another quarter moves it to 6.
- Find the options whose marker is in the right place. This usually eliminates three of the five immediately.
- Check the rest of the shape against the survivors.
That order matters. Eliminating on one feature is fast and reliable. Comparing whole shapes is slow and is where the time goes.
The four rotations, and what they do
| Turn | Also written as | A marker at 12 moves to |
|---|---|---|
| Quarter turn clockwise | 90 degrees clockwise | 3 |
| Half turn | 180 degrees, either way | 6 |
| Three quarter turn clockwise | 270 clockwise, or 90 anticlockwise | 9 |
| Full turn | 360 degrees | 12, unchanged |
Note the third row. A three quarter turn clockwise and a quarter turn anticlockwise land in exactly the same place. Children who do not know that waste time deciding which one a question means.
The trap: rotation that is really a reflection
This is the single biggest source of lost marks in this question type.
Among the five options there is very often one that looks right at a glance but is actually a mirror image rather than a rotation. It has the same parts in roughly the right places, and it is wrong.
The test is simple. Under rotation, nothing swaps sides. If a shape has a small square on the left of a line and a circle on the right, then after any rotation the square is still on the same side relative to the line, even though the whole thing has turned. Under reflection they swap.
Train the eye on a letter. Turn an R upside down and it is still an R, lying on its back. Hold it to a mirror and it is a backwards R, which no amount of turning will fix. See our guide to reflection and symmetry for the other half of this.
What never changes under rotation
- Size. A rotated shape is the same size. An option that is larger or smaller is out.
- Shading. Black stays black. A swapped shading is a different transformation.
- The number of anything. Count the dots, lines or sides. Any option with a different count is out without further thought.
- Which side things are on relative to each other. That is the reflection test above.
Counting is underrated. It is the fastest elimination available and children skip it because it feels too simple.
See our guide to non-verbal reasoning for how the types fit together.
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Nobody works this out on their own
Non-verbal reasoning has a vast array of topics. The main subtopics are things like complete the grid, complete the pair, horizontal and vertical codes, matrices, odd one out and sequences. Then in the spatial side you have cubes, 3D building blocks, folding along a line and hole punch questions. There are a lot of distinct types inside that one section.
In terms of teaching, I believe all of these topics need to be taught. There are very few students who can look at an example on their own and work out what the question is asking them. Expecting a child to infer the rules from a practice book is the commonest mistake I see families make with this section.
One practical thing I have found over the years: teaching non-verbal online is actually more effective than in a classroom, because the drawing tools at your disposal are better. The visual element is hard to demonstrate in a class setting unless you are using a projector and drawing on the screen. If you are teaching this at home, draw on the question. Do not just talk about it.
Mushtaque Ahmed, Founder of GrammarPath and Bright Mentors
Frequently asked questions
How do you solve 11+ rotation questions?
Pick one distinguishable feature of the shape, such as a dot, notch or arrow, and follow only that through the rotation using a clock face. A quarter turn clockwise moves a marker at 12 to 3. Eliminate the options whose marker is in the wrong place, then check the survivors in full.
What is the difference between rotation and reflection in non-verbal reasoning?
Under rotation nothing swaps sides: parts of the shape keep their positions relative to each other even though the whole thing turns. Under reflection they swap. Turning an R upside down still gives an R lying on its back, while mirroring it gives a backwards R that no rotation will fix.
What stays the same when a shape is rotated?
Size, shading, and the number of every feature. An option that is larger, smaller, differently shaded, or has a different count of dots, lines or sides cannot be a rotation, and counting is the fastest elimination available.
Is 270 degrees clockwise the same as 90 degrees anticlockwise?
Yes, they land in exactly the same place. A three quarter turn clockwise and a quarter turn anticlockwise are the same rotation described two ways, and knowing that saves children time deciding what a question is asking.
How much of the 11+ is non-verbal reasoning?
Non-verbal and spatial reasoning together carry 25% of the marks. It is also the section nothing in primary school prepares a child for, so almost every child begins from zero and needs the question types taught explicitly.