Verbal Reasoning Letters for Numbers

A Letters for Numbers question gives each letter a number. Then it gives you a sum written in letters. You work the sum out and answer with a letter.

Numbers in, letter out. Substitute first. Calculate second. Translate back last.

The five options are always A, B, C, D and E. So nothing is hidden in the options. Everything that can go wrong goes wrong in your working.

The method

Five beats: read the key, write the numbers on, work the sum, find the value and write its letter, check it back.

1. Read the key first. Before you even look at the sum. Are the five values jumbled? Almost always.
2. Write the numbers on. Put each value in small figures above its own letter, inside the sum. Do this once. Going back to the key halfway through is where mistakes come from.
3. Work the sum. Ordinary arithmetic, reading only what you have written. Do × and ÷ before + and −.
4. Find the value in the key and write its letter, not the number. Run your finger down the five numbers, look for your total, and answer with the letter beside it. The options are letters. If you are about to write 16, stop.
5. Check it back. Take your letter to the key, put its value into the sum, and run it once more.

About 30 seconds each.

Your answer must be one of the five numbers in the key. If it is not, you have made a mistake. That is a guarantee, not a hope. Very few question types tell you when you have gone wrong.

Rules to watch

• The key changes every question. A can be 54 in one question and 3 in the next. There is nothing to learn by heart here. Read the key every time.
• Most sums have three or four letters. Only 8 of our 35 are a plain two-letter sum. Expect two operations, not one.
• All four operations turn up. Plus, minus, times and divide, in most combinations. A sum can mix them: D ÷ B + A − C is a real one.
• Nothing ever comes out ugly. Every step of every sum lands on a positive whole number. A fraction or a minus number means you have slipped, not that the question is hard.
• The two ways of reading a sum always agree here. Some are taught to do × and ÷ first, others to work straight along the line. On all 35 of our questions the two give the same answer, so neither can cost you a mark. A real paper does not promise that. If they ever disagree, work out both and pick the one that lands on a value in the key.

Watch for these traps

• Answering with the number. The number is what you worked out, so it feels like the finished thing. The letter looks like an extra step rather than the real question. If you are about to write a number, you have stopped one move early.
• Assuming A = 1, B = 2 and so on. Letter Codes sits nearby in the paper, and there A really is 1 and Z really is 26. So the habit walks straight across. Here the key is made up fresh each time. Read it.
• Assuming the values grow down the list. Alphabetical order feels like size order. Only 5 of our 35 keys happen to agree with that, so it is wrong five times out of six. B is very often smaller than A.
• Copying the wrong row. Five rows of small numbers, read at speed, and D's value gets taken from E's row. This is why the numbers go above the letters once, at the start. Read one value off a neighbouring row and the guarantee catches it about nine times in ten. Your total lands on nothing.
• The slip that still lands on a letter. That leaves about one slip in ten landing on a real key value. Then nothing looks wrong at all. Step 5, checking it back, is the only thing that catches those.
• Panicking at a fraction or a minus number. Halfway through and you have 7.5, or −20. That is a signal, not a hard question. Go back to your written numbers.

If your total is not in the key, work through this rather than guessing:

1. Believe the guarantee. The answer is always one of the five values. No option is missing.
2. Re-copy the values above the letters. Reading one row off another is the most common slip here.
3. Redo the arithmetic. Try it the other way round, × and ÷ first, then straight along the line.
4. Check you have not quietly assumed A = 1.
5. Work backwards. Take each of the five values in turn as the answer and see which makes the sum true. Never leave it blank.

Try these yourself

Now have a go yourself — tap the letter that is the answer.

Related

• The complete 11+ question-type guide
• VR: Complete the Sum — make both sides of an equals sign match
• VR: Letter Codes — also letters and numbers together, but there A really is 1 and Z is 26. Here the key is made up and A might be 54

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.