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Different Views of 3D Shapes

▶  Watch: how to walk round to the eye4 min

The WALK method in four minutes — one real question, the table turned until the eye comes round.

A shape built from cubes is drawn with an eye beside it. The eye shows where you are looking from, and you pick the option showing that same shape from there.

The shape never moves. Nothing about it is turned over, added, taken away or rearranged — the only thing that changes is where you are standing. Every question says so in its first line: "The shape does not move — you look at it from…".

Every answer here is a block shape, never a flat grid. You stay at the side of the table, so the shape stays standing up, and the answer is that same solid drawn from your new place.

There are only three places the eye can be: the left, the right and the back. "From the front" is not asked, because the picture you are given is the view from the front. "From above" lives in a different question type (2D Views of 3D Shapes).

One warning about the words. "From the left" means the shape's own left side — the side the eye is looking at — not the side of the page nearest your left hand. Follow the eye.

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 B in the video and A here. Same picture, different place in the line-up.

The method

Four steps: where's the eye, around the table, landmark: count to both ends, keep the one left — and their first letters spell WALK, which is exactly what you do: walk round to the eye.

  1. Step 1 of 4

    Where's the eye?

    Find it and say which side it is on: the left, the right or the back. There is nothing else it can be.
  2. Step 2 of 4

    Around the table

    Picture yourself walking round the table to the eye: a quarter of the way round for the left or the right, half way round for the back. The shape does not move and does not tip, so nothing gets taller or shorter. From there, which way does the long part run, and which end is the tall part at? Any option that does not match is the shape seen from somewhere else.
  3. Step 3 of 4

    Landmark: count to both ends

    Find the shaded cube and count from it to both ends of its row. Two of our sixteen exam-level questions shade nothing — then pick your own landmark, like the tall stack or a cube that sticks out. Any option where the counts change is not this shape.
  4. Step 4 of 4

    Keep the one left

    It is the same shape, seen from the eye.

Give each question 30 to 35 seconds.

💡 Worked example
The shape does not move — you look at it from the right. Which option shows what you would see?
How to answer

Rules to watch

Watch for these traps

We looked at every wrong option in our sixteen exam-level questions.

Stuck at 30 seconds? Answer on the shaded cube's counts and move on.

Try these yourself

Now have a go yourself — tap the figure that shows that view.

✏️ Question 1
The shape does not move — you look at it from the back. Which option shows what you would see?
✏️ Question 2
The shape does not move — you look at it from the back. Which option shows what you would see?
✏️ Question 3
The shape does not move — you look at it from the right. Which option shows what you would see?

Related

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