Verbal Reasoning Make a Word
The STEAL method in four minutes — one real question, solved step by step.
A Make a Word question gives you two groups of three words. In the first group, the middle word is made from letters of the two words beside it: word one and word three. You find the missing middle word of the second group, made the same way.
Its letters can come from any place in those words, in any order. So you copy the recipe — which word, and which place, each letter comes from. Never copy the word itself.
The video above and the worked example below take apart the same question.
The method
Five steps: stack the groups, trace each letter to its word and place, explain the recipe in places, apply it to group two and look for your word, letter by letter — their first letters spell STEAL, because the middle word steals its letters from the words beside it.
- Step 1 of 5
Stack the groups
Picture group two under group one, in your head, word under word. Now the places line up. - Step 2 of 5
Trace each letter to its word and place
Go through the middle word of group one, one letter at a time. Find each letter in word one or word three, and count its place from the front: first, second, third. A letter can come from any place, even the middle. - Step 3 of 5
Explain the recipe in places
Put the recipe into places in your head, such as “fourth of word three, then second of word one”. Then check it: those places must rebuild the word you were given. If they do, the recipe is right. - Step 4 of 5
Apply it to group two
Take the same places in the words below. That builds your word, before you look at the options. - Step 5 of 5
Look for your word, letter by letter
Check every letter against the options, not just the first. A wrong answer can be your word with one letter changed. If your word is not there, trace the letters again.
About 35 seconds each.
Four things to watch out for
We looked at all fourteen Make a Word questions in GL's own practice papers. The examples below are the video's, and they are in our practice questions too — none is GL's.
- Wrong answers are often one letter off. In twelve of GL's fourteen, at least one wrong answer is the right word with one letter changed. In (plant [bowl] brown) · (storm [?] break), the recipe builds beat. Seat, boat, best and bear each change one letter, each in a different place. So check every letter, not just the first.
- Letters can come from anywhere. Only one of GL's fourteen takes its letters just from the starts and ends of the words, and six start with a letter from word three. In (beach [tea] crust), the t is the last letter of crust, and the e and the a come from the middle of beach. So never check only the starts and the ends.
- The right letters prove nothing. All but one of GL's 56 wrong answers use only letters from group two's words. In the worked example, all five options can be made from puppy and catch. Only the recipe picks out cut.
- Copy the recipe, not the word. Sometimes the first group's middle word is offered as an option. GL does this once in the fourteen. In (bikes [win] clown) · (world [?] night), win is an option, but it is only the first group's word. The recipe builds a different one.
Try these yourself
Now have a go yourself — tap the word that builds the missing word.
Related
- The complete 11+ question-type guide
- VR: Word Pairs — the same positional idea with only ONE source word
- VR: Letter Connections — one letter finishes one word and starts the next
- VR: Move a Letter — shift one letter to make two new words
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.