What is Verbal Reasoning?
An important part of almost all 11+ entrance exams, verbal reasoning will be a wholly new subject for your child to master. Combining vocabulary, literacy, and spelling with pattern recognition skills and strict time management, it can prove challenging for even the most capable students.
Verbal reasoning uses words, letters, and sometimes numbers, to assess your child’s problem-solving skills. To succeed, your child must be able to:
- read fluently
- access a wide vocabulary
- use sound phonological awareness
- apply logic to solve problems
- uncover and apply rules
- spot patterns, details and links between information
What types of questions are there?
Verbal reasoning questions can be grouped into categories. Here’s how we do it at Seven Springs Education:
| Vocabulary & Word Meanings | Synonyms & AntonymsHomonyms DefinitionsCompound words |
| Fitting In / Grouping Words | Verbal AnalogiesFind the odd one outGroup the like words Complete the series / spot the connection |
| Letters & Words | Hidden WordsJumbled WordsJumbled SentencesComplete the WordMove a Letter (to create new words)Combining Words (to create new words)Missing Letters Crosswords |
| Codes & Series | Alphabetical SeriesLetter SeriesWord & Number CodesLetter/Number SubstitutionLetter CodesLetter Analogies |
| Logic & Reasoning | Logic PuzzlesLogical Sequence of Words |
Not all 11+ papers will include all these question types. Some exam providers like GL Assessment, the most widely used provider, publish familiarisation materials online as well as lists of question types so you can ensure your child has practised everything they might come up against. However, a clear list of question types is not available for many providers and it can feel overwhelming to try and work out all the skills your child might need to succeed on your own.
What is hard about Verbal Reasoning?
The hardest thing about verbal reasoning for most students are the demands it places on their vocabulary, phonological awareness, and knowledge of spelling conventions.
For example, in this question from our FREE 11+ Familiarisation Test students not only have to define challenging words like ‘BETRAY’ and ‘CONCEAL’, they also then have to be able to identify the antonym. Finally, they have to navigate around the misleading answer option that is in a different part of speech.
Different types of students might be foiled by this question:
- confident but rushed students may easily be able to define ‘BETRAY’, but may misread the question requirement to find an antonym and select ‘CONCEAL’ instead as a related verb
- under practiced students may not think to use the process of elimination to reach the correct answer
- low vocabulary students may feel overwhelmed or paralysed by unknown words in the question or answer options and either skip it without trying, or spend too long attempting to decipher them.
Even if your child reads widely and has an above average sized vocabulary for their age, they may still find Code questions and some Letters & Words questions challenging as these draw on other skills.
Every child is different and will find different aspects of verbal reasoning more or less tricky depending on their experiences and skill sets. One thing that is universal, however, is time management.
For example, the GL Assessment 11+ verbal reasoning paper typically has 80 questions and a time limit of 60 minutes. That means your child has to be answering 1.3 questions every minute! Learning to answer quickly as well as accurately is a core exam skill that only comes with time, practice, and assurance.
How can I prepare my child?
Long term preparation:
- Reading widely and consistently is the best way for your child to expand their vocabulary and other literacy skills required for verbal reasoning success. Ideally, this should include a mixture of classic books, different authors, different genres and some non-fiction too.
- Co-read with your child to hear them reading out loud. This is a great way to prompt them to look up meanings of unknown words, or correct their pronunciation of new words which will help their phonological awareness.
- Encouraging a love of language and words through family spelling competitions, being inquisitive about new words, and sharing new learning with each other.
- Enroll your child in a pre-11+ course or English focused tuition course to prepare them for focused study in the future. This is a good option if your child is hard to motivate to do the first three suggestions independently as a tutor will work on the same skills in a structured, supportive way.
Exam-focused preparation:
- Use available practice tests or familiarisation materials from the schools or exam providers you are targeting to ensure your child is ready for what they will see on exam day.
- Build habits for regular practice using verbal reasoning workbooks (Bond and CGP make good child-friendly ones). You know what will work best for your child, whether that is 1 hour of focused time once a week, or 10 minutes of varied practice every day.
- Enroll your child in an 11+ Verbal Reasoning tuition course so a tutor can take them through key exam skills and strategies and pinpoint their unique areas for improvement to ensure they can perform at their best in the exam.
As with all 11+ preparation, it is a marathon and not a sprint. Resilience, motivation, confidence and attention all have a role to play and need to be nurtured during the process as well. For more 11+ preparation advice, read our starter guide on How to Prepare for 11+ Exams.
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