Your GoStudent guide to the Non Verbal Reasoning CEM 11+ Test

Contents

1. What equipment are you allowed to use in the test?
2. How does the CEM paper look?
3. Key things to remember about the CEM question booklet
4. Before the test begins
5. What is inside the booklet?
6. How does the CEM answer sheet look?
7. What type of non verbal reasoning questions might be asked?
8. Remember

What equipment are you allowed to use in the test?

Some non verbal reasoning tests are taken on a computer, while others are taken using a pencil and paper. This depends on which 11+ test the school that you want to apply to uses. You can check with the school's admissions office for further details.

Important: While most grammar and independent schools require students to take part in an English and maths assessment, not all schools require verbal and non verbal tests to be taken. If your child does need to take a non verbal reasoning test, check which exam board has written the non verbal reasoning paper.

The three most common ways that students take the 11+ non verbal reasoning exam are with papers papers by:

• CEM - written non verbal test
• GL - written non verbal test
• ISEB - online non verbal test created by GL

Which exam board the school that you wish to apply for depends on the region that the school is in. However, some regions use both exam boards!

All three of the main non verbal reasoning tests differ so this information is only accurate for CEM, used by around 26% of grammar schools. .

How does the CEM paper look?

The CEM non verbal reasoning test has two question booklets and one answer sheet. They provide free familiarisation materials to candidates in the run up to the test, so that your child can get a feel for how the booklet and answer sheet will look beforehand.

Here’s a preview of how the Question booklet looks:

Key things to remember about the CEM question booklet

• The booklet is not marked, all answers must be written separately on the accompanying answer sheet, which we will look at in a moment.
• Your child may use the booklet to do rough working out if needed, as your child will not be able to bring scrap paper into the test with them.
• The booklet uses four symbols on the bottom which represent instructions about what to do when working on that page. For Example:

Go to the next page

Stop working and await instructions

Time will be written here to show the minutes allowed for the section

Do not turn the page until you are told to do so

Before the test begins

Your child will be given some instructions by a voice recording. This might be played from a computer or a CD player. The instructions may be read out by an adult in the room.

It will take about 1 hour to answer each booklet.

What is inside the booklet?

Inside a CEM question booklet there will be all different sections for different types of questions. For example, questions about shape puzzles or questions about pictures.

Each section starts with examples to show how to answer the question. These examples are not marked, they’re just to get your child used to the type of question.

How does the CEM answer sheet look?

There are a few things to pay attention to on the answer sheet. Your childs name and some other details about them will already be printed on the sheet. They should double check this information before the test begins to ensure that it is correct. 

If your child notices any mistakes in the printed details on the answer sheet, or if some information is missing then they should tell an adult before the test begins.

Let’s look in more detail at the answer sheet.

From looking at the answer sheet we know that:

• The test is multiple choice, in the answer booklet there will be a few choices of answers.
• Only one answer is right per question
• Each question in the booklet is represented in the answer sheet
• Answers are marked by striking through one of the letters on the answer sheet (we’ll look closely at how to mark answers in a little bit)

Above are two rows from the answer sheet, representing two questions. 

The first row has clearly been marked with A, so for this question, the candidate thinks that A is the correct answer.

The second row hasn’t been marked yet, this is how every row will look before your child answers the question.

Your child will mark the answer sheet with a pencil, and they are able to rub out and change the answer if they wish.

If your child reaches a question that they cannot answer (they can always come back to it later anyway) be aware that they must leave a gap for that row on the answer sheet. Your child might accidentally mark the answer to the next question in the row that they intended to leave blank for a tricky question.

The answer sheet tries to help your child not to accidentally mark the answer to the wrong question by:

1. Including question numbers before each row of letters to mark for the answer.
2. The green text on the answer sheet writes which page the question is on in the question booklet.

Your child should use this to make sure as they go along they are marking their answer in the correct row.

Let’s look more carefully about how to mark the answer sheet accurately.

The answer sheet will be scanned and marked by a computer, not by a person. The computer can only understand the following straight, horizontal line mark like this on they answer sheet:

The following examples such as ticks, crosses, vertical lines and circles cannot be read by the machine and therefore even if it’s the correct option, the marks will not count towards your child's final score because the machine cannot read the answer sheet marked in these ways.
Do not mark the answer paper in any of the following ways:

What type of non verbal reasoning questions might be asked?

Similar styles of questions will be grouped together, and each style of question will have an example to help your child to understand what is being asked of. They can refer back to the examples as often as they need to.

Your child may be asked to:

• Apply maths skills, including rotation, reflection and symmetry.
• Find and follow patterns or rules
• Use spatial awareness to show how objects relate to each other in space.
• Process graphic/picture information

Let’s take a look at some non verbal reasoning 11+ questions. 

Look at how the first bug changes to become the second bug, then using the same rule for the third bug, work out which option would be the fourth bug.

We’ll begin with an example:

The correct answer to the example is c

On your child's answer sheet, they would need to strike a line through C, like below:

Here are three more questions with patterns for your child to identify:

Let’s have a look at another type of question that your child could be asked in their non verbal reasoning test. 

Here they’re being asked to identify the odd one out in the pattern.

We’ll begin with an example

The correct answer to the example is a

On your child's answer sheet, they would need to strike a line through A, like below:

Here are three more questions to identify the odd one out:

1.

2.

3.

Now we’ll look at a spatial awareness type of question that could be asked in the non verbal reasoning test. 

Here your child is being asked to identify which option is a top-down 2D view of the 3D figure on the left.

We’ll begin with an example:

The correct answer to the example is c

On your child's answer sheet, they would need to strike a line through C, like below:

Here are some more questions to work out:

1.

2.

Remember

• In CEM exams there will typically be more questions than are likely to be answered in the time allocated, so your child should prioritise the questions that they can answer easily, and not waste too much time on the questions that they cannot answer, just move on.
• Use practice test papers under exam conditions to get used to marking the answer sheet. Then by the time the real non verbal 11+ test arrives your child will be used to it.
• Your child never ever needs to mark their answers in the question booklet. Their answers should only ever be marked in a straight line, using pencil on the answer sheet as we have already shown.
• Only mark one answer per line on the answer sheet.
• If your child changes their mind, they can rub-out their answer carefully and clearly mark their new answer.
• GoStudent has a wealth of information all about the 11+ including non verbal reasoning tips, tricks and past papers on the GoStudent blog. If your child would benefit from extra support from a GoStudent non verbal reasoning tutor then you can get in touch for a free trial lesson.