What verbal reasoning tests: Verbal reasoning questions assess how well a child understands and works with words, meanings, relationships, codes and written information. Effective preparation combines vocabulary growth with explicit question-type methods and careful timed practice.
Practise individual question types with Redbridge Tuition tutorials.
Learn ten question styles through explanations and structured practice.
Practise three common entrance-exam cloze formats at increasing difficulty.
What is Verbal Reasoning?
Verbal Reasoning is the ability to logically solve problems that have been expressed in words or letters (and occasionally numbers). It usually entails skills such as recognising patterns, gathering information, analysing and applying a change, inferring from information and understanding meaning.
The Verbal Reasoning Test
Verbal reasoning questions are most commonly found in Key Stage 2 (KS2). Key stage 2 is years 3 to 6 of primary school. However, verbal reasoning questions are not taught in schools but rather are a part of the eleven plus exams. It can also be found as part of certain job application processes, as it is a way of testing aptitude when it comes to interpreting written information.
Verbal reasoning primarily tests a child’s logical abilities with words, letters, etc.
Specific Verbal Reasoning Skills
There are several aspects or subskills that a child needs to develop before they master the subject:
- Reading Comprehension: The ability to understand and interpret written passages, extracting key information, main ideas, and supporting details.
- Critical Thinking: The capacity to analyse and evaluate information, arguments, or claims, considering evidence and logical reasoning.
- Inferential Reasoning: Drawing logical conclusions and making informed predictions based on information provided, even if it is not explicitly stated.
- Vocabulary Skills: A strong command of words and their meanings, including the ability to discern nuances, connotations, and context-dependent interpretations.
- Analogical Reasoning: Recognising relationships between words, concepts, or ideas and applying similar relationships to solve problems or answer questions.
- Synthetic Reasoning: The ability to combine different pieces of information to form a coherent understanding or generate new ideas.
- Logical Reasoning: Applying principles of logic to assess the validity of arguments, identify fallacies, and make sound deductions.
- Sentence Completion: Filling in blanks in sentences with appropriate words, requiring an understanding of context and grammar.
- Textual Analysis: Breaking down and examining the structure, tone, and style of written passages to gain insights into the author’s intent or message.
- Pattern Recognition: Identifying patterns in language, whether they be grammatical structures, rhetorical devices, or recurring themes.
Some of these skills can be easily developed, or more difficult to develop.
Our 11+ reasoning resource hub offers hundreds of questions in free PDF downloads, including codes for you to try. Each topic includes a complimentary video walkthrough for every question type. Why not give some a go?
Try the free 11 Plus verbal reasoning PDFs and video tutorials
Which skills are easily developed with dedication?
Probably the two easiest skills for any child to develop are vocabulary skills and reading comprehension. These are two skills that can be easily acquired with dedicated practice. This practice, however, needs to take place at home and in class.
Developing Vocabulary
A child can easily develop his or her vocabulary by being exposed to a greater range of words. If a child can hear or see more words, there is more opportunity for him or her to understand the meanings.
If your child does not experience a large range of words on a daily basis, what can you do to change this? A simple way is to introduce more sophisticated media into your home.
For instance, rather than watching reality television, watch something more cerebral like documentaries, period dramas, etc. Also, encourage your child to listen to the radio, so that the bar is set high and they have to be reliant on listening carefully.
Audiobooks are also a great way for a child to experience a high level of vocabulary without the same level of dedication as a book. The great thing about developing a strong vocabulary is that it is actually useful outside of test situations and will make their future lives better in measurable ways.
Another great way for a child to practise building their vocabulary is by using flash cards, playing games like Articulate, so they can use words, and by practising their creative writing.
Check out our free video walkthroughs for verbal reasoning question types, each accompanied by free verbal reasoning PDF downloads.
Useful starting points include Alphabet Logic and Complete the Sentence.
Reading Comprehension
Improving reading comprehension is about building understanding of words, meanings and texts.
Naturally, improving vocabulary is part of this, but other key subskills can help a child improve their comprehension.
A lot of it starts with concentration, as greater focus can help a child understand what he or she is reading in more detail. I believe that the key to improving understanding of a text is a wide and deep reading experience.
Definitely check out our blog about the importance of reading to find out how important it is for your child’s development.
Verbal Reasoning Questions
Recognising Patterns
Being able to recognise patterns is a core skill in many verbal reasoning questions.
Example:
Gathering information
Sometimes, students will need to gather the information required before being able to find the answer.
Example:
Analysing and Applying a Change
In this style of question, students will need to first analyse the information provided and apply the change to find the answer.
Example:
Inferring from Information
Inferring is one of the more challenging skills, especially as each question has a unique set of information that needs decoding. Each problem requires a different approach, so it is up to the student to find a solution that works best. In the example below, making a table is a dependable method.
Example:
Understanding Meaning
A student’s ability to answer questions that explore meanings is dependent upon their knowledge of words. This involves students building a diverse vocabulary, grasping definitions, recognising parts of speech, and identifying synonyms and antonyms. Students should practise vocabulary exercises as some items appear regularly in exams, such as seldom and often, ancient and modern, etc.
Example:
All examples have been taken from the Redbridge Publishing Verbal Reasoning Books
Tips for Verbal Reasoning tests
The ability to answer verbal reasoning and non-verbal reasoning questions is dependent upon a student’s skill in recognising patterns. Logical and critical thinking are thus crucial to achieving success in these subjects.
However, logical and critical thinking alone will only take a student so far. They also require knowledge of all question types they may encounter, as well as a wide range of vocabulary.
Furthermore, practice tests with answers along with clear explanations are important, as it is here where students can find common mistakes and learn.
11 Plus Exam Boards
Verbal Reasoning can be overwhelming at first, initially due to the sheer number of question types and secondly, knowing which question types your child will be required to be familiar with based on the exam board their grammar school uses.
All of the eleven plus exam boards use verbal reasoning in one form or another.
GL 11 Plus Exam Board
In the GL exam board, the Kent Test, the paper is timed as a whole. In fact, in the Kent Test, there are individual test papers for each of the four disciplines (maths, English, verbal reasoning and non-verbal reasoning). There are many more verbal reasoning question types used in the GL exam board; in fact, there are 21 types of questions in the original GL question bank. There are now additional styles used in some of the boards.
But don’t panic; they all mostly boil down to the same core skills: patterns, vocabulary, explanations and practice.
CEM 11 Plus Exam Board
In the CEM exam board, invigilators time the paper section-by-section, and there is usually a short time in which to do many verbal reasoning questions. These sections include synonyms and antonyms, as well as a couple of newer question types:
Mixed/shuffled sentences – where a sentence is jumbled and has had one extra word added, which the student needs to find.
For example:
The full sentence should read:
The greatest tennis players have fantastic hand-eye coordination.
Therefore, the answer would be the extra word, B (rackets).
Cloze – where words or letters have been removed from a passage, which need to be placed back in correctly. This ranges from choosing words from a word bank and multiple-choice options.
Above is an extract from a multiple-choice style Cloze passage. The answers would be ‘centuries’ and ‘machines’.
This is only one style of cloze questions; there are other styles, where you need to either complete the spelling or choose from a bank of words.
Example has been taken from Redbridge Publishing CEM Style Verbal Reasoning – Cloze Book 1
CSSE 11 Plus Exam Board
Finally, there’s CSSE; the Essex papers.
In the CSSE tests, verbal reasoning is now combined with the English paper. This section usually comes after the main comprehension and writing tasks. The CSSE tests now have much less focus on verbal and non-verbal reasoning than either of the other two exam boards. These questions usually entail problems such as filling in missing letters or finding synonyms. These question types, more often than not, overlap with the 21 types used in GL, so if you are familiar with these, you should not have a problem tackling the CSSE verbal reasoning questions.
Once you know which exam board(s) your child will be sitting, you will know which question types they will need to be familiar with.
Verbal Reasoning Question Types
Once you know which exam board/s your child is taking as well as the requirements, the student will need to learn how to answer questions, as well as practise and review.
The first thing to do is to learn what each question type is actually asking, and the best way to do this is to read a comprehensive and simple explanation of the question type. Our set of verbal reasoning books, which include many verbal reasoning questions, is great for this and has helped hundreds of students find success in verbal reasoning and the eleven-plus exams.
Choose the right verbal reasoning practice
Verbal Reasoning Book 1
Introduces ten question styles with clear methods, examples, twenty practice questions per topic and a confidence self-assessment.
Vocabulary Book 1
Builds the word knowledge needed for synonyms, antonyms, comprehension and meaning-based questions.
Verbal Reasoning Cloze Book 1
Covers three common cloze question formats, with passages that increase in length and difficulty.
Want the PDF? Select Digital Download on the relevant product page. Physical editions are also available where shown.
Verbal Reasoning Practice Tests
Once the topics are learnt, and the student knows what is being asked, it is time to practise a verbal reasoning test!
Practising is the most effective means of becoming better at verbal reasoning or anything, for that matter!
Students should work through topics, obtain scores for each one, and target his/her weaknesses. If any particular topic/s are a significant weakness, students should re-read the explanations carefully, find the sources of their mistakes and practise again. Once students are at a high level in answering the questions in these topics, they should move on to timed practice.
An analysis chart, such as the one shown below, is an excellent way to visually identify weak areas in different topics all in one view.
Taken from Redbridge Publishing Non-Verbal Reasoning Book 2
Timing
Timing is a key element in the 11 plus exams. Students will have up to 30 seconds per question in the final exam. In some exams, however, this can be as low as 20 seconds.
Students need to keep practising verbal reasoning test papers under timed conditions. The aim is to have a good balance between speed and accuracy. There is no point in being able to answer every question perfectly if you run out of time. Likewise, there is no point in being able to do all of the questions with time to spare, but getting most of them incorrect.
Practising the 11 plus mock exams at home is useful. However, this is only useful once you are familiar with the question types and have practised them. Mock exams will help sort out any timing issues and give you familiarity with that pressure. You can do this using our 11 plus mock exams. We have downloads for GL, CSSE and CEM exam practice papers.
Conclusion: preparing your child for verbal reasoning
- Confirm the current format for each target school or area.
- Build vocabulary through reading, discussion and deliberate word practice.
- Learn one verbal reasoning question type at a time.
- Use free topic PDFs to identify strengths and gaps.
- Move to structured books or downloads for progressive practice.
- Review mistakes before adding time pressure.
- Use full practice papers and mock exams after the methods are secure.
Choose your next verbal reasoning resource
Start with the free reasoning PDFs, then use Verbal Reasoning Book 1, Vocabulary Book 1 or Cloze Book 1 for focused PDF or print practice.
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