2D Views of 3D Shapes
The FLAT method in four minutes — one real question, turned to face the eye and laid flat.
A shape built from cubes is shown, with an eye beside it. You pick the flat picture of what you would see from where the eye is.
The eye shows exactly where you stand. The words say a side — from above, from the front, from the right, from the left or from the back — and the eye is drawn on that side, looking at the shape. "From the left" means the shape's own left side, the one the eye is looking at. It does not mean the left of the page. Follow the eye.
The whole skill is one line. Cubes lined up behind one another make one square. The picture throws depth away, so it counts squares, not cubes: eight cubes can make six squares, or four.
The options come in two kinds. Most are pictures made of squares. On five of our eighteen exam-level questions they are line drawings, where a line inside the drawing matters too.
The video above and the worked example below take apart the same question. One thing is different: the video shows the five options in another order, so the answer is lettered C in the video and A here. Same picture, different place in the line-up.
The method
Four steps: find the eye, look across and up, any cube there, tell left from right — and their first letters spell FLAT, which is what the picture is: the shape, laid flat.
- Step 1 of 4
Find the eye
It shows exactly where you are standing. Picture the shape turning until the side the eye looks at faces you. - Step 2 of 4
Look across and up
From there, count the squares across, then up. Any option that is a different size goes. It is the quickest cut. - Step 3 of 4
Any cube there?
Go square by square and ask: is there any cube in that spot, however far back? If there is, the square is filled — one square, however many cubes hide behind it. Any option with a square missing, or an extra one, goes. - Step 4 of 4
Tell left from right
Find something that sits at one end, like a square that hangs below. Which end is it at? The view from the opposite side is the same picture back to front, so it has everything else right — and it goes here.
Give each one 30 to 35 seconds. If you may write in the booklet, sketch the empty grid from step 2 and fill it in.
Rules to watch
- Follow the eye, not the word. "From the left" is the shape's own left — the side the eye is looking at — not the left-hand side of the page.
- Hiding is the point. Every question is built so cubes vanish behind each other. Work out what is hidden, not what shows.
- From above, height stops mattering. A tower five cubes tall covers one square of the floor. From the side, depth stops mattering instead: a row running away from you makes a single square.
- Counting squares settles nothing. On 12 of our 13 exam-level square-picture questions, at least one wrong picture holds as many squares as the right one. Use the count as a check, never as an answer.
- The shaded square helps, but it does not decide. Seven of our thirteen shade one cube for you. On two of them, the back-to-front picture shades that very same square, so step 4 still has to finish it.
- Line drawings: read where the lines are. A line inside the drawing marks a step — one cube standing nearer than the one beside it. On four of our five line-drawing questions, every option has the same number of lines inside. Read where they are, not how many.
Watch for these traps
We looked at every wrong option in our eighteen exam-level questions.
- The view from somewhere else. 43 of the 72, the biggest group by far. A true, careful picture of the right shape, from a side nobody asked about — once, even from underneath. Only the eye tells you which is which. Step 2 catches 29 of them on size alone.
- One square out. 16 of the 72. The right picture with one square added, removed or moved. Step 3 catches every one, square by square.
- Back to front. 16 of the 72: 8 are the right picture flipped over, and 8 are the true view from the opposite side, which comes to the same thing. On the square-picture questions they match on size and on the number of squares, so only step 4 catches them.
- The right outline, a line in the wrong place. 5 of the 72, one on every line-drawing question. The outline is correct and a line inside has moved. Read the inside as carefully as the edge.
Stuck at 30 seconds? Get the size right, get the left and right right, pick and move on.
Try these yourself
Now have a go yourself — tap the picture that shows that view.
Related
- The complete 11+ question-type guide
- Different Views — the same idea, but the options are 3D
- 3D Rotation — the same shape turned, and the mirror trap
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.