Wolverhampton/Walsall-Style Mock
The Wolverhampton/Walsall-Style Mock is modelled on the 11+ tests used by West Midlands selective schools including Wolverhampton Girls' High School and Queen Mary's Grammar School, Walsall, which have covered some combination of English, maths, verbal reasoning and non-verbal reasoning in different admissions cycles. This mock focuses on the non-verbal reasoning strand: picture-based pattern questions such as series, matrices, odd-one-out, rotation and reflection, requiring no reading.
Before you start
Make sure you're comfortable with these topics first:
Method
- Learn to identify the question family (series, matrix, odd one out, analogy, rotation, reflection) at a glance, since each has a different, reliable solving method.
- For series questions, look for more than one changing feature at once (shape, shading, size, number of sides) rather than assuming only one thing changes.
- For odd-one-out questions, check every shape against every possible rule (number of sides, shading, size, symmetry) before deciding, since the odd one out is sometimes subtle.
- For rotation and reflection questions, track a single distinctive feature (a shaded corner, an arrow, a dot) through the transformation rather than the whole shape at once.
- Move quickly through questions you find familiar to bank time for trickier ones later in the section.
- Use short, regular practice sessions in the run-up to the test, since recognising these visual patterns quickly comes from repeated exposure.
Worked example
A sequence of four shapes shows a square that both shrinks in size and gains one more shaded corner at each step (1 shaded corner in the largest square, 2 in a smaller square, 3 in an even smaller square). What should the fifth shape in the sequence look like?
- Identify the two rules operating together: the square gets smaller at each step, and the number of shaded corners increases by one each step.
- Apply the size rule: the fifth shape should be smaller again than the fourth.
- Apply the shading rule: the fourth shape has 4 shaded corners, so the fifth should have all 4 corners shaded, since a square only has 4 corners.
- Recognise the limit of the pattern: once all corners are shaded, the shading rule cannot continue increasing, so the answer must show a fully shaded square.
- Final answer: the smallest square in the sequence, with all four corners fully shaded.
Practice questions
Type your answer and press Check to be marked straight away, or reveal the answer and mark yourself.
Q1In a sequence, a triangle gains one extra dot along its base at each step (1 dot, 2 dots, 3 dots). How many dots will the fifth shape have?Show answer
Answer: 5 (the rule is add one dot each time: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5).
Q2Which shape is the odd one out: a shape with 4 sides and 1 line of symmetry, a shape with 4 sides and 1 line of symmetry, a shape with 4 sides and 2 lines of symmetry, a shape with 4 sides and 1 line of symmetry?Show answer
Answer: The shape with 2 lines of symmetry, since the other three only have 1.
Q3A shape is rotated 90 degrees clockwise. If a shaded triangle sits in the top-left corner of the original shape, where will it be after the rotation?Show answer
Answer: In the top-right corner (a 90 degree clockwise rotation moves top-left to top-right).
Q4A shape is reflected in a horizontal mirror line. If a black dot sits in the bottom-right corner of the original shape, where will it be in the reflection?Show answer
Answer: In the top-right corner (reflecting in a horizontal line flips top and bottom, not left and right).
Q5In a matrix analogy, a large grey circle is to a small grey circle as a large white triangle is to what?Show answer
Answer: A small white triangle (the rule is: the same shape and shading, but smaller).
Q6A 3D block is built from 2 layers: the bottom layer is a 4x3 arrangement of cubes and the top layer is a 2x2 arrangement sitting centrally on top. How many cubes make up the block in total?Show answer
Answer: 16 (bottom layer 4x3=12, top layer 2x2=4, 12+4=16).
Exam-style questions
Written in the style of a 11+ exam paper, with a full mark scheme.
A sequence of shapes shows a circle divided into equal segments, with the number of segments increasing by one at each step (2 segments, 3 segments, 4 segments) and one extra segment becoming shaded at each step (1 shaded, 2 shaded, 3 shaded). How many segments in total, and how many shaded, will the fifth shape in the sequence have? Explain your reasoning. (3 marks)
Show mark scheme
Tick each line you got. Your score builds from the marks on the scheme.
Nothing ticked yet - 3 available
A 3D block is built from three layers of cubes: a bottom layer of 3x3, a middle layer of 2x2 sitting centrally, and a top layer of a single cube. If one cube is then removed from the very top of the block, how many cubes remain? Show your working. (3 marks)
Show mark scheme
Tick each line you got. Your score builds from the marks on the scheme.
Nothing ticked yet - 3 available
Free printable worksheet
Want more practice on paper? Download the wolverhampton/walsall-style mock worksheet pack - 19 pages of exam-style questions with a full mark scheme. One email opens every download in this browser for 14 days - no account, no card. Print it for personal and classroom use.
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