How to Answer 11+ NVR Odd One Out Questions

An odd one out question shows you four or five figures. Most of them secretly follow one rule; one of them breaks it. Your job: find the rule, then find the rule-breaker.

The tricky part: the figures are designed to all look different. One is a circle, one is a star, they are different sizes, they point different ways — so "which looks odd?" gets you nowhere. NVR feels alien until you stop looking at the figures and start looking at their features. Every rule hides in one of six places: shape, size, shading, number, position, direction. Test each feature across the figures and one of them will sort them four on one side, one on the other.

That is the whole skill — and the same six features carry every question.

The method

1. Find the rule that MOST of the shapes share — count sides, check shading, look at direction. The odd one out is the rule-breaker.
2. Don't pick the one that just LOOKS different. Make a rule, then test it on every shape — your rule should catch exactly one.
3. Check ONE feature at a time: shape, size, shading, number, position, direction. If shading splits the figures 4–1, you've found it. If it splits them 3–2, it's the wrong feature — move on.
4. Break busy figures into parts — the outside shape, the inside shape, the little marks — and test each part on its own. The rule often lives in how the parts relate: does the inside match the outside? Does the count match the sides?
5. Say the rule as a sentence before you answer: "the others are all filled in." If the sentence catches exactly one figure, it's the exam's rule.

A worked example

Which figure is the odd one out?

1. Try shape first: a circle, a square, a triangle, a star. All four are different kinds — shape can't split them 3–1, so shape is not the rule.
2. Try shading: the circle is filled in, the square is filled in, the triangle is filled in… the star is empty.
3. That's a 3–1 split — a proper rule: "the others are all filled in."
4. Test it on every figure: A passes, B passes, C passes, D breaks it. Exactly one rule-breaker.

Answer: D

The rules you'll meet

These are the rule families the bank actually tests. Run through them when a set has you stuck:

• One is a different kind of shape — all circles except a square; all crosses except a star. The easiest family — check it first.
• One points the wrong way — every arrow points left except one; every triangle points up except one that's flipped; one slopes the other way to the rest.
• One is shaded differently — all filled except one empty; all grey except one black.
• One is the wrong size — four large, one small; or the inner shape is exactly half its outline in four figures and a different fraction in the fifth.
• A count doesn't match — in the others the dots equal the sides, or the bars below match the dots inside; one figure miscounts.
• A mark is in the wrong place — the dot sits in a corner in four figures and in the centre of one; near the top in four, near the bottom in one.
• One breaks the symmetry — four figures are symmetrical (or their bar works as a mirror line); one is lopsided.
• The inside doesn't match the outside — in the others the inner shape is the same kind as its outer shape; one pairs a circle with a pentagon.
• The twins disagree — each figure holds two small copies that must differ (one dark, one white) or must match; one pair breaks the pact.
• The wrong shape is in front — in four figures the circle overlaps the square; in one the square sits on top.
• The halves aren't equal — in the others one straight cut makes two equal parts, one shaded; in the odd one the shaded part is clearly bigger than half.

The traps

The looks-different trap. The only star, the biggest figure, the strangest outline — none of that makes a figure the odd one. In our worked example the star is the answer, but only because its shading breaks the rule; being the only star proves nothing, since every figure is the only one of its kind.

The 3–2 split. If your rule knocks out two figures, it isn't the rule. Real rules catch exactly one. Drop it and test the next feature.

The decoy feature. Question-setters deliberately vary something meaningless — five different shapes or sizes — so that no single figure can be "the only pentagon". If a feature is different in every figure, it can't be the rule.

First-glance lock-in. Deciding the answer, then inventing a rule to fit it. The method runs the other way: rule first, tested on all figures, and the answer falls out.

Related

• The complete 11+ question-type guide
• NVR: Similarities — the same rule-spotting, but you pick who joins the group
• NVR: Series & Sequences — rules that run along a row instead

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.