How to Answer 11+ NVR Similarities Questions

A similarities question shows you two or three example figures that belong together, then asks you to pick the answer figure that is most like them. The examples are in a secret club. Your job: work out the club rule, then find the one option that qualifies.

The catch — and the reason this type feels alien at first — is that club members don't have to look alike. Two figures of completely different sizes can share a rule; a zigzag and a box can both "hold exactly three marks". The rule never lives in the general look of the figures. It lives in one checkable feature: shape, size, shading, number, position, direction. Whatever varies between the examples is not the rule; whatever every example shares is.

That flip — from "what do they look like?" to "what do they all have?" — is the whole skill, and a week of practice builds it.

The method

1. Find the club rule. The shapes in the group are in a secret club — maybe "all have 6 sides" or "all have a dot inside". Look for what EVERY example shares.
2. Remember: members don't have to look alike. Count sides, count parts, check shading — the rule is often a number.
3. Use what varies to rule things out. If the examples are different sizes, size is not the rule. Whatever changes freely between examples is a red herring.
4. Say the rule as a sentence, then test each option against it. Exactly one option should qualify. If two qualify, your rule is too loose — sharpen it.
5. Check one feature at a time: shape, size, shading, number, position, direction. Work down the list; don't jump around.

A worked example

Pick the figure that is most like the example figures.

1. Look at the examples: two pentagons, both shaded black — but different sizes. So size varies freely and is not the rule.
2. What does every example share? Five sides, and black shading. That's the club rule: black, five-sided.
3. Test the options. A is a black pentagon — five sides, black: it qualifies. B and E are pentagons but unshaded — right shape, wrong shading. C is a grey triangle — wrong on both counts. D is a grey hexagon — six sides, and grey isn't black.
4. Exactly one option joins the club.

Answer: A

The rules you'll meet

Every similarities question in the bank builds its club from one of these families:

• Same shading — every example is black, or every example is grey, whatever shape it is. The answer just has to match the shade.
• Same kind of shape — all stars, in any size or shading.
• Same number of sides — all four-sided, all six-sided, or trickier: all with an odd number of sides (three, five, seven).
• Curved versus straight — every example is curved with no corners, or every example has only straight sides.
• Everyone carries the same feature — a dot inside each figure, or a frame drawn around each one.
• A counting club — every example contains exactly three squares, or exactly two circles, or exactly four marks — while arrangement, shading and everything else changes freely.
• A half rule — exactly half of each figure is shaded; or half the squares in each strip are black; or the inner shape is exactly half the size of its outer.
• The inside matches the outside — each example's small inner shapes are the same kind as the shape holding them.
• The same kit of parts — every example is built from the same trio: say, one solid shape, one shape with a cross inside, and one plain outline — whatever container holds them.
• The same construction — three shapes nested in the same order; three shapes chained with the circle always the middle link; two parallel lines cutting the figure into exactly three parts.
• An aiming rule — the arrow inside each example points at the small circle attached outside. Direction is the club badge.

The traps

The lookalike. One option copies the examples' overall style — same size, same feel — but fails the actual rule. "Most like" means "obeys the rule", never "resembles".

The half-member. In a two-part rule (black and five-sided), the wrong options each get one part right: a white pentagon, a black hexagon. Check both halves before you commit.

Counting the wrong thing. If the examples hold different numbers of shapes, counting them isn't the rule — but the wrong count still catches your eye. Use what varies to cross features off.

The too-loose rule. "They're all shapes with bits inside" catches three options. A real club rule admits exactly one answer; if yours admits two, sharpen it and test again.

Related

• The complete 11+ question-type guide
• NVR: Odd One Out — the same rule-hunting, run in reverse
• NVR: Shape Codes — features that earn letters instead of membership

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.