How to Answer 11+ NVR Analogies Questions

An analogy question shows you a pair: shape A turns into shape B. Then it hands you shape C and asks: if the same thing happens to C, what does it become? It tests whether you can spot a change — not a shape — and copy it exactly.

If this feels alien at first, that's normal. Nobody teaches "shape grammar" at school. But the change between A and B is never magic: it is always built from a short checklist of features — shape, size, shading, number, position, direction. One or two of those change; everything else stays put. Once you know the checklist, every analogy becomes the same little routine.

And the routine is quick. Most analogy questions take longer to describe than to solve.

The method

1. Work out what happened to the first shape to make the second — did it grow, flip, change shading? Run the checklist: shape, size, shading, number, position, direction.
2. Say it like a sentence: "big white circle becomes small black circle… so big white square becomes small black square." Saying it out loud (or in your head) stops you drifting.
3. Now do EXACTLY the same to the third shape. Same change, same amount, same direction — nothing more, nothing less.
4. Check what should NOT change. If only the size changed from A to B, then C's shape and shading must survive untouched.
5. Cross out the answers that are clearly wrong first — the unchanged copy of C and the wrong-shape option go immediately. Then compare what's left, one detail at a time.

A worked example

A is to B as C is to ?

1. Look at the first pair: a small circle becomes a big circle. Run the checklist — shape stays a circle, shading stays the same. Only the size changed: small became big.
2. Say the sentence: "small circle becomes big circle, so small square becomes… big square."
3. Check the options. A is a big square — the same growth, nothing else touched. B is the small square unchanged. C is a big circle — that's B again, the wrong shape. D is a square that only grew halfway.
4. Only A copies the change exactly.

Answer: A

The rules you'll meet

These are the change families the bank actually uses. Every analogy is one of these — or two of them at once:

• Size change — a small shape becomes large, or a large shape shrinks. Spot it when nothing else about the figure moves.
• Shading change — empty becomes filled, filled becomes empty, grey darkens to black. In busy figures every shape can swap colour at once: black turns white, white turns black.
• A turn — the shape rotates 45°, a quarter turn (90°) or fully upside down (180°), clockwise or anticlockwise. Track one corner or the arrow tip.
• A mirror flip — B is A reflected, so left and right swap. Different from a turn: check which one before you answer.
• Sides added or removed — B has one more (or one fewer) side than A: a pentagon becomes a hexagon. Count sides in both.
• Dots or marks change number — a dot is added or removed; sometimes the dots double or halve.
• Something is drawn around it — a circle, square or frame appears around the shape; or a frame is taken away.
• Inside and outside swap — the inner shape and the outer shape trade places, or three shapes trade jobs: the outside grows biggest, the body shrinks smallest.
• A position hop — a corner dot jumps to the opposite corner; a mark moves to a new fixed spot.
• Two changes at once — turns 45° and fills in; shrinks and gains a frame. Find both, apply both.
• Busy-figure distractors — in the hardest questions the frame or the extra lines change for show; only one feature (often the shading) actually matters.

The traps

The one-change answer. When A-to-B makes two changes, one option always applies just the first. If you found "turns AND shrinks", check the option did both.

The B-shaped answer. One option is usually B itself, or C rebuilt to look like B. You're not looking for B's shape — you're looking for B's change applied to C.

Mirror versus turn. A flip swaps left and right; a rotation moves everything around. They can look similar on symmetric shapes — decide which one happened before you touch the options.

The unchanged copy. C, untouched, is nearly always sitting among the options for children in a hurry. Something must change — that's the whole question.

Related

• The complete 11+ question-type guide
• NVR: Series & Sequences — the same changes, repeated along a row
• NVR: Reflection & Rotation — mirrors and turns on their own

All example questions come from the Brainblox question bank — practise this question type inside 15 arcade games, timed mock exams and focused practice. Brainblox is an independent app: not affiliated with, endorsed by or licensed by any exam board, school or assessment publisher, and it contains no past papers.