Verbal Reasoning Number Codes

What one looks like

The method

Five beats: check the direction, repeats, anchor, complete the rest, key in the answer — and their first letters spell CRACK.

Three things the video comes back to

• The word they ask for is not always the extra one. It can be one you have already anchored. If this question had asked for FORT, you would not start again — FORT is right there with its code underneath it.
• You get several questions off one cracked code. Crack it once, then key each new word straight in. Ask for TOAD off the same set and you already have every letter: T is 8, O is 6, A is 1, D is 2 — 8612.
• Sometimes they hand you the code and want the word back. Same process, only now you key in letters instead of numbers. Take 7612 off the same key: 7 is R, 6 is O, 1 is A, 2 is D — ROAD.

And one more, because it is the thing that stops children dead: two letters can sit in the same place. If a number is 2nd in two codes and both L and A are 2nd in two words, nothing on the board yet tells you which it is. Do not get stuck. Write "A or L" underneath it, move to the next repeat, and carry on — anchoring the words will settle it.

Rules to watch

• Repeats first, everything else second. A number in more than one code, then the letter that sits in those same places. Without a repeat you are guessing; with one you are certain.
• Write down the place, not the thing. "The 9 is 3rd here and 4th there" is what does the work. A digit you have merely noticed tells you nothing.
• Jumbled means jumbled. The two lists sit one above the other, and the eye trusts a layout more than a sentence. Code one does not belong to word one.
• Nothing is left over. Three codes and four words is not a mistake. One word has no code printed, and it is often the one the question is about.
• The shortcut, when it is there. Sometimes two words differ by a single letter — TORN and BORN, STORE and STORM — and two codes share three digits in the same places. Take it: it is faster. But plenty of sets have no pair like that, so do not go hunting for one. If you cannot see it in five seconds, go back to the repeats.
• When the words share all their letters. Some sets are full anagrams — STALE, STEAL, LEAST, SLATE. Letters cannot help you, so count instead. Three words start with S but the codes start 2, 2 and 4. One letter cannot be two digits, so the 4-code is the odd word out. That contradiction hands you a whole word.
• The digits are labels, not places. Letter Codes, the type next door, shifts each letter along the alphabet, so alphabet order is everything there. Here it is nothing: 5 means M in this one question and means nothing at all in the next.

Watch for these traps

We looked at all 208 wrong options in our bank. One trap accounts for nearly all of them.

• The right digits in the wrong order. 172 of the 180 wrong options on "find the code" questions — over nine in ten. Only one wrong option in the whole bank has a wrong digit. So once your key is right, only the order can beat you. Eighty are your answer with two digits swapped, which is almost impossible to spot by looking. Read your code back against the word, one letter at a time.
• The code written backwards. Seven of the 180, and the tidiest version of the trap above: 7529 offered as 9257. Start from the word's first letter every time.
• On a "find the word" question, another word from the list. Twenty-one of the 28 wrong options there. Every option is a real word, and most are printed in front of you, so nothing looks odd. Each of those questions offers exactly one word that is not in the list. That check kills one option and no more.
• Starting with the digits and staying there. The digits look like the puzzle, so that is where the eye goes. But a number means nothing until you have found where it repeats and matched it to a letter. Digits point; words answer.
• Not writing the key down. Four words, three codes and up to eight letters is more than anyone holds under time pressure. A key kept in your head loses a digit, and a lost digit becomes a swapped one.
• Reading past "not in the same order". It is one line of small print and it is the entire question.

Try these yourself

Now have a go yourself — tap the code that is right.

Related

• The complete 11+ question-type guide
• VR: Letter Codes — the other codes type: each letter shifts along the alphabet by a jump you have to work out
• NVR: Shape Codes — the same code-cracking skill with pictures, and it has a video too
• VR: Letters for Numbers — each letter is handed a number, and you work out a sum and answer with a letter
• VR: Number Series — spot the pattern and continue it

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.