Non-Verbal Reasoning Shape Codes
The BREAK method in six minutes — one real question, solved step by step.
What one looks like
The test shows four or five pictures, and each one wears a code of two or three letters. One more picture has no code. Every letter stands for something you can actually see in the picture — a shade, a shape, where something sits — and your job is to work out what the letters mean and then build the code that last picture needs.
Have a look at the easy one beside this. Three pictures carry a code, the fourth does not, and the codes on offer are underneath. Each letter is its own little question: here the top letter tracks one thing and the bottom letter tracks something completely different.
Two more things before the method. There is a new code for every question — the letters you cracked thirty seconds ago mean nothing now, and the same letters do come round again, which is exactly why this catches people. And the code letters have nothing to do with the A, B, C labels on the answers: two different alphabets, two different jobs.
Swipe the row — there are 4 pictures →
The method
Five beats: break the code apart, repeats, eliminate, again, key in the answer — and their first letters spell BREAK.
- BBreak the code apartEvery code here has two letters, and they are not one thing. The top letter follows one rule; the bottom letter follows a completely different one. Split them and work on one at a time. Start with the top row.
- RRepeatsLook for a letter that repeats to get in fast. Then look at just those pictures and ask what they share — a feature that repeats too. That is your rule. If nothing stands out, walk the SHAPES+S checklist. Occasionally there is no repeat at all; that is fine, and the last watch-out tells you what to do about it.
- EEliminateGo to the picture with no code, read off the feature you have just named, and that gives you one letter of your answer. Now cross off every option that does not carry it. Half the options usually die here, before you have looked at the second letter at all.
- AAgainDo the last two steps again, on the other letter. Repeats first, then what those pictures share, then eliminate for a second time.
- KKey in the answerThere is one option left. That is it — do not go shopping for a nearer one.
The last picture is always a new mix the coded ones never showed. Its code is never a copy of one you can already see.
Codes is the slowest type on the paper, and that is normal. Allow 40 to 50 seconds for the first one in a section, then 25 to 30.
Swipe the row — there are 5 pictures →
When nothing stands out
R works by finding a repeat. When there isn't one — no repeated letter, no feature you can name — you fall back on a checklist called SHAPES+S: Shade, How many, Angle, Place, Edges, Size, and Symmetry last. Walk it in order and stop at the first feature that separates one picture from the rest.
It is worth learning properly, because it works on every non-verbal type and not just this one. The SHAPES+S checklist — what it is and how to use it has the video, all seven letters and worked examples.
For shape codes in particular: Place and Angle are the two most tested rules of all, so check those early. Shade is close behind — the worked example above runs on Shade and Place, which is the commonest pairing on the paper.
The SHAPES+S checklist has a page of its own — the video, all seven letters, a before-and-after picture for each one, and two worked examples decided by walking the list. Open the SHAPES+S guide →
Watch for these traps
- Not every feature has a code. Expect one thing that changes and means nothing, put there to pull you off. In the worked example it is the outline: solid, dashed, dashed, solid. A real code letter changes exactly when its own feature does, and no other time. If a feature changes while its supposed letter stays put, it is a decoy.
- Some codes have more than two letters. Three letters is three easy questions rather than one hard one. Nothing changes: run BREAK and keep repeating Again until every letter is figured out.
- No repeat for one of the letters. Roughly half of real questions have a slot with no repeated letter at all, so this is not a rare case. Do not get stuck. Move to the other letter, work that one out and eliminate with it. Then come back and look for a feature that repeats between the coded pictures and yours — take the letter off the one picture that shares it.
- A code with one letter right. Nearly every wrong option is built that way, and half-right looks right at a glance. Say your whole code first, then match the whole string. Do not judge a letter by how often it appears in the option list — the correct letters are put into the wrong answers on purpose.
- A meaning guessed from one picture. One picture gives you an idea, and an idea feels like an answer. Two pictures sharing a letter, plus one that does not, is proof.
- Last question's code. A section runs fourteen to twenty of these back to back, each with a fresh code. The reset is the skill, not the reasoning.
Try these yourself
Now have a go yourself — tap the code that fits the last picture.
Swipe the row — there are 5 pictures →
Swipe the row — there are 5 pictures →
Swipe the row — there are 5 pictures →
Related
- The complete 11+ question-type guide
- The SHAPES+S checklist — the seven features to run when nothing jumps out
- NVR: Similarities — the same "what do these two share?" move
- VR: Number Codes — the same code-cracking skill with words, and it has a video too
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.