Verbal Reasoning Letter Codes
The SHIFT method in five minutes — one real question, solved step by step.
What one looks like
A Letter Codes question shows one word and its secret code. Every letter has jumped along the alphabet, and your job is to work out the jumps and make the same ones on a new word.
Have a look at the easy one beside this. Every letter has moved one place forward, so the whole thing is one jump repeated. Most are not that kind — but every one is the same idea, and the alphabet is printed above the question in the real paper so you never have to do it from memory.
The rule is never written down for you, every letter gets its own jump, and a jump is allowed to run off the end of the alphabet and start again — which is the part that catches people, and which the method has a whole step for.
The method
Five beats: see which way, hold it over, inspect each jump, follow it out, test it — and their first letters spell SHIFT.
- Step 1 of 5
See which way
"What is the code for CAT" turns a word into code. "What word has the code JJMH" turns a code back into a word. Two of every three go the first way, so the third one catches people. Underline which you have before you do anything else. - Step 2 of 5
Hold it over
Write the example word, then its code straight underneath, one letter under the other. Side by side hides the jumps; stacked shows them. This is an action, not a thought, and it is worth the four seconds. - Step 3 of 5
Inspect each jump
Count the gap for each pair on the printed alphabet and write the number above it. Four letters means four numbers and you need all of them — the commonest mistake in the whole type is reading the first jump and assuming the rest. Alternating means it repeats every two, which is not the same as the signs swapping: −1 −4 −1 −4 alternates and never changes sign once. - Step 4 of 5
Follow it out
Now run your jumps on the new word, along the printed alphabet rather than in your head. Two things live here. Wrap: the alphabet has no edge — go back past A and you land on Z, then Y, then X. Flip: if you are decoding, every jump reverses, so +3 −2 becomes −3 +2. - Step 5 of 5
Test it
Read each letter of your answer back against the jump that made it. And if you decoded, the answer has to be a real word — that is a check the other direction does not give you.
About 30 seconds each.
Rules to watch
There are four families. Count the jump row first and it tells you which one you have.
- The same jump every time. SUN becomes TVO, jump row +1 +1 +1. Twenty of our fifty questions. The jump is always 1, 2 or 3 places, forward or back.
- Jumps that take turns. LION becomes MHPM, jump row +1 −1 +1 −1. Also twenty of our fifty — exactly as common as the one above, so never assume you have the easy one.
- Jumps that grow. Each letter moves by its own place in the word. HAT becomes ICW, jump row +1 +2 +3. Eight of our fifty.
- A mirror. Each letter swaps with its partner from the far end, so A goes to Z, B to Y, C to X. BEG becomes YVT. Two of our fifty. The tell is a row that makes no sense: some jumps forward, some back, at least one bigger than 10. Test it by folding the alphabet between M and N, or by number — counting A as 1, a letter and its partner always add up to 27. Do not go by size alone: in LAD becoming OZW, the L only moves three places, because L sits near the fold.
Our codes never run past Z. A real paper can, and then the alphabet loops back round to A.
Watch for these traps
Every wrong option is built out of a real mistake. Here they are in the order they turn up in our bank.
- One letter wrong, the rest right. Much the most common: 60 of the 200 wrong options, with another 67 wrong on two letters. Together, well over half the list. It looks right because most of it is. Count every jump back before you choose.
- Flattening a row that takes turns. You count the first jump, call it the rule, and use it on every letter. It happens on 15 of our 20 alternating questions. DESK's true row is +1 −1 +1 −1, and both EFTL (all +1) and CDRJ (all −1) are waiting there.
- The whole shift out by one. Every letter moves, but two places instead of one. 22 of the 200. This is counting the letter you stand on as "one". Point at the next letter along.
- Inventing turns that are not there. The opposite slip, on 15 of our 20 same-jump questions. MILK shifts back one all the way to LHKJ, and LJKL — back, forward, back, forward — is offered.
- Starting the turns on the wrong sign. Right family, wrong foot: DESK gives CFRL instead of EDTJ. 9 of the 200. Write the first jump with its sign before anything else.
- Going the wrong way along the alphabet. You shift forward when the code shifts back. 11 of the 200, always on a "what is the code for" question. Circle the minus signs in your row.
Stuck? Write the jump row out in full — never decide from the first letter. A row with a jump bigger than 10 in it is a mirror, not a miscount. Then choose from what is left. Never leave a blank.
Try these yourself
Now have a go yourself — tap the code that is right.
Related
- The complete 11+ question-type guide
- VR: Number Codes — jumbled number codes matched to words, where the digits are labels rather than alphabet places
- VR: Letters for Numbers — here A really is 1 and Z is 26. There the key is made up and A might be 54
- VR: Letter Series — spot the jump row and carry it on
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.