How to Answer 11+ NVR Shape Codes Questions

A shape codes question shows you a few figures, each labelled with code letters — one letter on top, one below, sometimes three in a stack. Then it shows one more figure with no code. Your job: crack what each letter means, then spell that figure's code.

This is the NVR type that looks most like a spy-film puzzle, and the one children most often freeze on — nobody tells you what the letters mean. But the system is completely fair: each code letter stands for exactly ONE feature of the figure, and the features are always drawn from the same checklist: shape, size, shading, number, position, direction. The example figures contain everything you need to decode every letter.

Crack it like a detective: find two figures that share a letter, and whatever they have in common is what that letter means. Do that once per letter and the question solves itself.

The method

1. Each code letter stands for ONE feature. Find two shapes that share a letter — whatever they have in common is what that letter means.
2. Crack one letter at a time. The first letter is often the shape, the second is often the shading or size — but let the matches tell you, don't assume.
3. Use differences too. If two figures share a top letter but differ in shading, the top letter can't be about shading. Cross features off as you go.
4. Decode the mystery figure feature by feature. Ask: what shape is it? What shading? Look up the letter for each answer.
5. Spell the code and find it in the options — every letter should be earned by a feature you can point at.

A worked example

Work out the code, then choose the code for the boxed shape.

1. Find two figures sharing a letter. The first two boxes both hold squares — and both have S on top. Shared letter, shared shape: the top letter means the shape, and S = square.
2. The third box holds a hexagon and its top letter is P — so P = hexagon.
3. Now the bottom letters. The grey square and the grey hexagon both carry H below: H = grey. The black square carries F: F = black.
4. Decode the boxed figure: it is a hexagon (top letter P) shaded black (bottom letter F). Its code is PF.
5. Check the options: A is PF. B (PH) would be a grey hexagon; C (SF) a black square; D (SH) the grey square from box one.

Answer: A

The rules you'll meet

Across the bank, code letters stand for these features — and hard questions mix three of them:

• The letter names the shape — circle, square, triangle, hexagon; or the outer shape when one sits inside another.
• The letter is the shading — black, white, grey, striped or hatched; sometimes which half of a circle is shaded.
• The letter counts something — how many shapes, dots, ticks or sides. Spot it when two different-looking figures with the same count share a letter.
• The letter is a direction — which way the arrow or pointer faces: up, down, left, right or diagonal.
• The letter is a position — which corner the circle sits in, which slot in a stack, which pane is shaded. Sometimes a position needs two letters: one for its row, one for its column.
• The letter is a size — big or small; a tall, medium or short box.
• The letter is the outline style — solid edge or dashed edge, separate from the shape itself.
• Three-letter codes — each of the three slots tracks its own feature, such as shape + shading + count. Crack them one slot at a time.
• Decoy features that code nothing — something varies freely between figures (the fill, where the dots sit, how big the figure is) and no letter follows it. If a feature changes while the letters stay the same, it codes nothing.

The traps

Assuming the letter order. The top letter is usually the shape — until the question where it's the count or the shading. Two black figures of different shapes sharing a top letter is your warning. Prove each letter with a matching pair; never guess from habit.

The decoy feature. The bank deliberately varies a feature no letter tracks — two triangles and two squares can earn the same "count" letter. If you try to code the decoy, no option will fit. That's your cue to re-match.

Half-cracked codes. Decoding the top letter, guessing the bottom. The wrong options are built from exactly this: the right shape letter with the wrong shading letter (PH instead of PF). Every letter needs its own evidence.

Same letter, different meaning. A letter only means what this question's examples prove. H meant grey here; in the next question H might mean a short box. Codes reset every question.

Related

• The complete 11+ question-type guide
• NVR: Similarities — spotting the shared feature without letters
• NVR: Matrices — features arranged in a grid instead of a code

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.