Non-Verbal Reasoning Similarities
The FIND method in about five minutes — one real question, solved step by step.
You're given two figures that are alike, sometimes three. What they have in common is the rule, and there can be two rules, or even three. You pick the figure, out of five, that is most like them. It has to follow every rule, not just the easy one.
Some papers call this "Classes like" or "Figures alike".
Here is the part that makes it easier. The examples are meant to look different. Every way they differ, such as size, count or which way they face, has been ruled out for you, on purpose.
The method
Four steps: find what's the same, inspect it further, narrow the options, decide — and their first letters spell FIND.
- Step 1 of 4
Find what's the same
Look only at the examples, not the options. What jumps out that they share? Often it is the shapes, or how many there are. Anything the examples disagree about is not the rule. - Step 2 of 4
Inspect it further
Look again. The obvious rule almost never picks out the answer on its own. There is usually a second shared rule, and sometimes a third: where a part sits, a line or a shape, which way something points, or a shading. That one decides the answer. Stuck? Run the SHAPES+S checklist. Check every rule on every example. - Step 3 of 4
Narrow the options
Go through all five. Cross off any option that breaks a rule, and know the reason for each one. - Step 4 of 4
Decide
The one left standing is the answer. Two still standing means you have missed a rule, so go back to I.
About 20 to 25 seconds a question.
Things to watch out for
When nothing jumps out, run SHAPES+S. There are seven things to check, and in the exam three of them carry the rule most often.
- Shade. Shading and fill: black, white or hatched (thin diagonal lines), and which part is shaded.
- Place. The most common of all. Where a part sits, mostly compared with another part: on which corner, which side of a line, inside or outside, in front or behind, or in what order.
- Edges. The sides: how many there are, straight or curved, and what kind of shape or line it is.
The rule often links two parts: one part pointing at another, sitting inside it, matching its kind, or being half its size.
The slip that costs most marks: stopping at the first rule you find. When the examples share more than one rule, the answer has to match every one. The wrong options are built to obey the easy rule and break a hidden one.
Traps
Every wrong option is almost the answer, with one detail changed on purpose.
- Right parts, wrong place. The most common. Every part is right, but one sits in the wrong spot or order, on the wrong side, or touching instead of overlapping. Check where, not just what.
- The wrong kind of shape or line. Five sides where the rule needs six, a curve where it should be straight, an oval for a circle.
- One too many, or one too few. An extra part, or one missing. Count the parts; do not judge by how full it looks.
- Shaded wrongly. The shading swapped, on the wrong part, hatched the other way, or too much of it. But if the examples shade differently, shading is not the rule.
- The wrong way round. An arrow, an arc or a path turning the other way, or a mirror image where the examples are only turned.
- The one that looks most like the examples. It copies an example's look and breaks the rule. Looking alike is not a rule.
Try these yourself
Now have a go yourself — tap the figure that is most like them.
Related
- The complete 11+ question-type guide
- The SHAPES+S checklist — the seven letters, with a video of their own
- NVR: Odd One Out — the same game the other way round
- NVR: Analogies — copy a change from one pair to another
All example questions come from the Brainblox question bank — practise this question type inside 25+ learning 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.