How to Answer 11+ NVR Series & Sequences Questions

A series question shows you a row of boxes. Each box holds a figure, and the figures change in a fixed way as you move along the row. The last box is blank. Your job: work out the rule and pick the figure that comes next.

NVR feels strange the first time you meet it. There are no words to read and nothing to remember from school — just shapes. That is exactly why it is learnable: every series question is built from the same short list of ingredients. The rule is always hiding in one of six features: shape, size, shading, number, position, direction. Check them one at a time and the rule has nowhere to hide.

Series is the friendliest NVR type to start with, because the row shows you the rule happening three or four times before you ever have to use it.

The method

1. Work out the move from box 1 to box 2. What changed? Then check: does the same move happen from box 2 to box 3? If yes, that's your rule — use it to build the next box.
2. Check one feature at a time: shape, size, shading, number, position, direction. The thing that changes from box to box is the rule; the things that stay the same are just scenery.
3. Count things: dots, sides, stripes. Series often add or take away exactly one each step.
4. Something spinning? Pick one arm or mark and track where it points in each box — like watching a clock hand.
5. Break a busy figure into parts — the outside shape, the inside shape, the little marks — and follow each part on its own. Busy series often run two rules at once.
6. Cross out the answers that are clearly wrong first. You'll usually be left with just two to think hard about.

A worked example

Which figure comes next?

1. Compare box 1 and box 2: a triangle becomes a square. Size and shading stay the same — so look at the shape.
2. Count the sides along the row: 3, 4, 5, 6. One more side each box. That's the rule.
3. So the blank box needs a shape with 7 sides.
4. Check the options: A has seven sides. B is a hexagon — six sides, a repeat of the last box. C jumps ahead to eight sides. D falls all the way back to a square.
5. Only one option obeys the rule.

Answer: A

The rules you'll meet

Every series in the bank runs on one of these rule families. Learn to recognise them and you'll name the rule in seconds:

• Sides count up or down — count the sides of each figure: 3, 4, 5, 6… or 7, 6, 5, 4. If the shapes keep changing kind, count sides first.
• The figure turns a step at a time — an arrow, triangle or line rotates by the same angle each box (a 30°, 45°, 60° or 90° step), clockwise or anticlockwise. Watch out: after 270° it comes full circle.
• Things are added or taken away — one more dot, star or square each box; sometimes two more, sometimes the number doubles.
• The figure grows or shrinks — the same shape gets steadily bigger or smaller by the same amount each step.
• Two patterns take turns — the shape alternates circle, square, circle, square, or the fill flips dark, white, dark, white. Odd boxes match odd boxes.
• A cycle of three repeats — the fill runs empty, grey, dark, empty, grey, dark… or the size runs small, medium, large. After the last step it starts again.
• Something moves around the figure — a dot hops one corner clockwise (or anticlockwise) each box. Track where it lands next.
• A part is built up each step — an arc grows by a quarter each box: quarter, half, three-quarters, full.
• The jumps themselves grow — the change gets bigger each step: +1, +2, +3 dots, or turns of +30°, +60°, +90°.
• Two or three rules at once — the shape cycle, the fill and the size can each run their own pattern. Follow each part separately, then combine.

The traps

The half-right answer. When two rules run at once, one option will obey the first rule and break the second — a figure that turns correctly but forgets to shrink. Check every rule you found, not just the first.

The repeat. One option is usually a copy of the last figure in the row — box 4 again. If nothing changed, it's not the next step.

The overshoot. Another option applies the rule twice — eight sides when you needed seven. Count, don't eyeball.

The full circle. In turning series, 270° plus another quarter turn lands back at the start. An answer that looks like "box 1 again" can be exactly right — trust the rule, not the feeling.

Related

• The complete 11+ question-type guide
• NVR: Matrices — the same rules, laid out in a grid
• NVR: Analogies — one change applied to a new shape

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.