Verbal Reasoning Letters for Numbers
The SUMS method in about three minutes — one real question, solved step by step.
A Letters for Numbers question tells you the number each letter stands for. Then it gives you a sum written in letters. You work out the sum, then give the answer as a letter: the letter that stands for your total.
Your total is always one of the five numbers you are given. If it is not, you have slipped. But a slip can land on one of the five as well, which is why the last step runs the sum again.
The video above and the worked example below take apart the same question.
The method
Four steps: swap each letter for its number, use the right order, match the total to a letter, sum it again — and their first letters spell SUMS, which is just what these are.
- Step 1 of 4
Swap each letter for its number
Read each letter's number from the question, every time the letter appears, and hold the sum as numbers. The numbers change every question, so never assume A is 1 and B is 2. - Step 2 of 4
Use the right order
Times and divide come first, then add and take away, working left to right. In these questions the times and divide always come before any add or take away, so you can work straight along the line. - Step 3 of 4
Match the total to a letter
Find your total among the five numbers and answer with the letter whose number it is, not the letter at that place in the alphabet. - Step 4 of 4
Sum it again
Run the sum once more. A slip can still land on a letter, so a total that is in the list is not proof on its own.
About 30 seconds each.
Rules to watch
- Expect three or four letters. Every sum in GL's practice papers has three or four, and most have four: a times or a divide first, and an add or a take away at the end. That is two or three steps, not one.
- A letter can appear twice. Half of GL's sums use one letter twice. Swap it both times.
- Every step is a whole number. A fraction or a minus number halfway through means you have slipped, not that the question is hard.
Watch for these traps
We looked at all fourteen Letters for Numbers questions in GL's practice papers. In ten of them, a common slip lands on one of the wrong letters.
- Get every sign right. A slip still lands on a letter. Take A = 6, B = 9, C = 25, D = 40 and E = 21. Then D − C + A is 40 − 25 = 15, add 6 = 21, which is E. Add the 6 first and you get 40 − 31 = 9, which is B, and B is waiting. In GL's papers, a sign done wrong, or read as its look-alike (+ as ×, − as ÷), lands on a letter in six of the fourteen.
- Don't stop one step short. Do every sign in the sum. Take A = 4, B = 18, C = 9 and D = 36. D ÷ A + C starts 36 ÷ 4 = 9, and 9 is C. But the sum is not finished: add 9 more and you get 18, which is B. Stopping short lands on a letter in four of GL's fourteen.
- The letter whose number it is. Not the letter at that place in the alphabet. If A = 1, B = 3, C = 5, D = 7 and E = 9, then A + C − B = 3. Three is B's number. C is the third letter, but that does not count. Every GL question whose answer is 1 to 5 offers that letter; none of our exam-level questions has an answer that small yet.
Total not one of the five? Read the numbers again, redo the sum in order, then match it. Never leave a 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 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.