3D Rotation
The TWIST method in four minutes — one real question, turned in 3D step by step.
A shape built from cubes sits at the top. You pick the option that shows the same shape, turned. Same solid, new angle. Nothing added, nothing taken away.
One wrong option is always the mirror image. All twenty exam-level questions in our bank carry one, and no amount of turning will ever reach it.
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 E in the video and A here. Same picture, different place in the line-up.
The method
Five beats: tally the long row, see where it joins, imagine the turn, see which way it bends, take the one left — and their first letters spell TWIST, which is what you do to the shape in your head.
- Step 1 of 5
Tally the long row
Find the longest straight row of cubes and count it. Don't count every cube: every option has the same number. A turn can move the row, but it never changes how long it is, so any option whose longest row is a different length goes. - Step 2 of 5
Where does it join?
Look at where the other cubes meet the long row: at the very end, or further in, and how they step off. A turn never changes that either. - Step 3 of 5
Imagine the turn
Picture the shape turning until its long row lies the same way as the long row in the options. Name the turn if it helps: a spin on the spot, a tip onto its side, or a roll from corner to corner. - Step 4 of 5
See which way it bends
Look along the long row from its far end to the corner. The first cube steps out; does the next one turn left or right? The mirror image always turns the other way. - Step 5 of 5
Take the one left
One option survives. It is the same shape, just turned.
These are the slowest questions on the paper. Give each one 30 to 40 seconds. Take that time back on the word questions.
Rules to watch
- Counting cubes tells you nothing. Every one of the 80 wrong options in our exam-level questions holds as many cubes as the right answer. Count one row instead.
- There is always one long row. In all twenty exam-level questions here, the longest straight row is a single row, so it is a safe place to start.
- Same neighbours is not proof. A mirror image keeps every neighbour, every row length and every join. That is why the checks you trust most all say yes to it. Use them to cross out, never to choose.
- Use the outline, then drop it. An option with a plainly wrong outer edge can go. But on the harder ones, three options can share one outline, and then you read the lines inside instead.
- Turns come in three kinds. A spin on the spot, a tip onto its side, a roll from corner to corner. The roll is the hard one, and in our bank it only turns up in the harder half.
- Expect the answer to look odd. One shape drawn from two angles really does look different.
Watch for these traps
We looked at every wrong option in our twenty exam-level questions.
- One cube moved. 50 of the 80, by far the biggest group. The count is right and the shape is nearly right: one cube has slid along a row or joined one place further in. Beat T catches 15 of them on the long row alone, beat W catches 29 more on where it joins, and the last 6 only show up when you picture the turn and check the bend.
- The mirror image. 20 of the 80, one on every single question. Same cubes, same rows, same joins, often the same outline. Your two hands are the same shape mirrored, and no twist of your wrist makes one into the other. Cube shapes are the same. If everything matches but it bends the other way, cross it out.
- A twin outline. 10 of the 80. A different solid drawn inside the exact outer edge of the right answer. It kills the outline check, the one most children reach for first. The long row catches half of them and where-it-joins catches the rest.
Stuck at 30 seconds? Cross out on the long row and where it joins. Then choose by the bend, even if you are unsure. Never pick the one that looks most like the top shape — that is usually the mirror.
Try these yourself
Now have a go yourself — tap the figure that is the same shape turned.
Related
- The complete 11+ question-type guide
- Different Views — the same solid seen from another side
- Building Blocks — which set of blocks builds the shape
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.