Verbal Reasoning Explained: The Question Types Nobody Teaches at School

Why VR catches families out

Verbal reasoning isn't on the national curriculum, so your child will almost certainly never meet a VR question at school. Yet in GL areas it's often the most heavily weighted paper. The good news hidden in that: VR is the most coachable 11+ subject. The question types are finite and learnable, and a child who has practised all of them holds a decisive advantage over an equally bright child seeing them cold.

The main question type families

GL draws from a bank of around 21 types. The most common families:

• •Letter codes and sequences — 'If CAT is coded as DBU…' and alphabet-position puzzles
• •Word relationships — analogies, odd one out, synonyms and antonyms, words with double meanings
• •Hidden words — a four-letter word concealed across two adjacent words in a sentence
• •Missing letters — one letter completes the end of one word and the start of the next
• •Number puzzles — sequences, number codes for words, and 'complete the sum' logic
• •Logic and deduction — 'If all of A are B…' reasoning problems
• •Word construction — compound words, moving a letter between words, anagram-style rearrangement

How to prepare effectively

Work type by type, not paper by paper — master each question type in isolation before mixing them. Vocabulary underpins over half the types (synonym, antonym, analogy, odd-one-out are all vocabulary tests wearing puzzle costumes), so daily reading and word work compound here too.

Timing matters unusually much in VR: strong children answer familiar types in 20–30 seconds each, banking time for the harder logic questions. That speed comes only from volume of practice — and practising fresh questions each time, because repeating the same paper builds false confidence, not skill.