Shaded Nets
The SOLID method in four minutes — one real question, the net folded up and every face checked.
A flat net is shown, with some of its panels shaded. The options are five 3D solids. You pick the solid the net folds up into.
Two things have to match: the shape of the solid, and the shading on it. Shape first. It takes seconds, and it throws out pictures whose colours are all correct.
These come from practice books, not from GL's own booklets. They train the same folding as Cubes and Nets.
The video above and the worked example below take apart the same question. One thing is different: the video shows the five solids 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 steps: spot the two ends, only keep that solid, loop the band round, inspect every face you can see, decide on the one left — and their first letters spell SOLID, which is what the question asks you to find.
- Step 1 of 5
Spot the two ends
Look for the shape that is on the net twice: two triangles, two pentagons or two L shapes. They are the ends of the solid. The rectangles wrap round between them, like a band. - Step 2 of 5
Only keep that solid
Every picture needs ends of that shape. Cross off any other solid, however right its colours look. - Step 3 of 5
Loop the band round
Fold the net up in your head. Keep the top flat, fold the rest of the band down round it, then fold the two ends in. Turn the solid to match the pictures. Which end can you see, and which is round the back? - Step 4 of 5
Inspect every face you can see
One at a time, and every one of them. One wrong face, and the picture is out. - Step 5 of 5
Decide on the one left
The one still standing is the answer.
Give each question 25 to 35 seconds.
Rules to watch
- A step is two faces. On a stepped solid the tread (flat) and the riser (upright) are different panels. Side by side on the net, in close colours, they read as one.
- Most of the solid is out of sight. Only the faces you can see can be checked — in our pictures, two or three on most solids, five on a stepped one. A colour round the back is real, but it settles nothing.
- Hunt a colour used only once. It sits on exactly one face, so a picture that shows it twice is out.
- One colour all round: no wrong way round. When every rectangle has one colour and both ends another, a solid built the wrong way round looks exactly like the answer, so no picture can be one.
Watch for these traps
- One wrong face. A picture can be right everywhere except one face. So check every face you can see, not just the first one that matches. In the example, B gets only the front wrong. Every one of our exam-level questions has a picture like this.
- The right colours on the wrong solid. Counting the colours won't catch it, so check the shape first. In the example, that's the box. In our bank, 16 of the 20 wrong solids are boxes.
- Built the wrong way round. Every face looks right except the end you can see: it wears the other end's shade. Only the fold tells you which end faces you. In the example, that's D. On two of our tents it shows on the sloping sides instead, which have swapped over.
Stuck at 30 seconds? Keep only the right solid, check the end you can see, then pick and move on.
Try these yourself
Now have a go yourself — tap the solid that the net makes.
Related
- The complete 11+ question-type guide
- Cubes and Nets — the same folding, with symbols on a cube
- 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.