3D Rotation

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.

So the whole type comes down to one question. Turned, or mirrored?

The method

Five beats: measure the arms, find the landmark, read the bend, say it on every option, check a second corner.

1. Measure the arms. Count the longest straight run of cubes. Then count how far along it the other cubes join on. A turn moves an arm. It never changes how long the arm is.
2. Find the landmark. Pick the cube with the most neighbours, or the lone cube sticking out. Find it in every option still standing.
3. Read the bend. Find where the shape turns a corner. Look along the long arm from its far end and ask one thing: does the next part go left, or right?
4. Say it on every option. Out loud, one at a time. "Left. Left. Right." The odd one out is the mirror.
5. Check a second corner. Only if two options survive. Most of these shapes bend in two places, so read the other bend the same way.

Beats 1 and 2 clear the near misses. Beat 3 decides, and it has a name of its own: the bend test.

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 holds as many cubes as the right answer. Counting cannot cross out a single one, so do not spend a second on it.
• Same neighbours is not proof. A mirror image keeps every neighbour and every arm length. 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 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 it only turns up in the harder half. Practise it with real cubes.
• 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 an arm, or joined one place further down. The arms catch 35 of these on their own, and the landmark cube catches the rest.
• The mirror image. 20 of the 80, one on every single question. Same cubes, same neighbours, same arm lengths, 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 the arms are right but they bend 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. Read the inside lines: they show which cubes step towards you and which step away.

Stuck at 30 seconds? Cross out on arm length and the landmark. 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 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.