Verbal Reasoning Tutoring

One-to-One Verbal Reasoning Tutor for the 11+

Verbal reasoning is the only 11+ paper that is not on the national curriculum — which is why a bright child can be top of the class and still lose marks on it. Our online verbal reasoning tutor teaches all 21 GL-style question types by name, in the order that moves scores fastest.

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GL-Style21 Question TypesYears 4–6Codes & LogicVocabulary
What We Teach

The Four Families of Verbal Reasoning Questions

Twenty-one question types, taught as four families — because a child who can name the family has already chosen the method.

6 of the 21 types

Vocabulary & Meaning

Synonyms, antonyms, odd ones out, analogies, double meanings. These are the marks a well-read child collects almost free — so we build vocabulary deliberately rather than testing what is already there.

5 of the 21 types

Letters & Spelling Patterns

Hidden words, compound words, moving a letter, the same missing letter. Fast marks once the child stops reading the question and starts scanning for the shape of the answer.

6 of the 21 types

Codes & Sequences

Letter codes, word–number codes, letter connections, number series. The types most children freeze on — and where a taught method turns a guess into a reliable mark within a few lessons.

4 of the 21 types

Logic & Information

Reading information, missing numbers, complete the sum. Short paragraphs of facts that must be worked, not skimmed. Consistently the hardest family, and the one that separates a qualifying score from a ranking one.

What a Taught Method Looks Like

Three Questions, Three Methods

This is the difference between practice and teaching. Not “do more papers” — a rule the child can apply to a question they have never seen.

Codes & Sequences

If FLAME is written as GMBNF, how is CODE written?

The method: Test one letter, not five. F → G is one step forward, so apply +1 to every letter.

DPEF

Letters & Spelling Patterns

Find the four-letter word hidden across two words: “Please take her old coat.”

The method: Read the sentence as one unbroken string and scan the joins, never the words themselves.

HERO — hidden in “her old”

Letters & Spelling Patterns

Move one letter from BRAND to PAT so that both stay real words.

The method: Try removing each letter of the first word in turn; only then check whether it fits the second.

BAND and PART

Every worked example on this page was written by Tutormint — none are reproduced from published practice papers. For one example of each type, read our free guide to all 21 verbal reasoning question types.

A tutor and a Year 5 child working through a verbal reasoning letter-code question together on a video call
Why It Works

Why 11+ Verbal Reasoning Help Works Faster Than Maths or English Help

Verbal reasoning appears nowhere in the Department for Education's statutory programmes of study for English at key stage 2. State primaries have no reason to teach it, and almost none do. GL Assessment publishes free familiarisation material precisely because children may never have seen these questions before.

That single fact changes the maths of preparation. In 11+ Maths and 11+ English, a tutor is improving something a school has already been teaching for six years — real gains, but incremental ones. In verbal reasoning, the child is starting from zero on a paper the exam weights equally. There is more headroom here than anywhere else on the test, which is why it is usually the first thing we fix.

The catch is that headroom closes. A child who meets letter codes for the first time in a timed mock in August loses the marks and the confidence in the same hour. Our 11+ tutoring programme front-loads verbal reasoning for exactly this reason: recognition first, method second, speed last.

In the Lesson

How Our Verbal Reasoning Tuition Is Sequenced

Every lesson follows the same three-part shape, because the order matters more than the material.

  1. 01

    Name the question

    The child learns to identify which of the 21 types they are looking at, on sight, before attempting it. Publishers letter the types differently — Type A in one book is Type E in another — so we teach recognition of the question, never the label.

  2. 02

    Drill one method per type

    One repeatable method per type, practised untimed until it is automatic. A method that works under no pressure is the only kind that survives a timed paper.

  3. 03

    Add the clock last

    Timing, the two-pass approach and answer-sheet discipline come once accuracy is stable. GL papers are multiple-choice with a separate answer sheet — a right answer on the wrong line scores zero — and there is no penalty for guessing, so a blank is the only genuinely wrong answer.

Which of the 21 types your child faces depends on the region — many areas set only a subset. Tell us the target school and the sequence is built around that paper, not a generic one. Shape questions are handled on our non-verbal reasoning tutor page.

A Year 5 child reading at home, building the vocabulary that six of the 21 verbal reasoning question types reward

Find Out Which Question Types Are Costing Marks — Free

One free demo class with an experienced 11+ tutor, including a short diagnostic across the verbal reasoning families. You will leave knowing which types your child recognises and which they are guessing on. No payment, no obligation.

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Sitting the exam this autumn? See the full 11+ programme or read when to start 11+ preparation.

Common Questions

Verbal Reasoning Tutoring FAQs

Answers to the questions parents ask before booking a free verbal reasoning demo class.

It is taught. Verbal reasoning tests learned techniques dressed as innate cleverness — cracking an alphabet shift or spotting a hidden word across a word boundary are methods, not talents. That is the whole reason a paper marketed as untutorable responds so well to tutoring. What cannot be shortcut is vocabulary, which is why we run reading and word work alongside technique from the first lesson.

GL-style papers draw from a bank of 21 types, though most regions set a subset rather than all of them. We cover every type your child's region can set, and our free guide to all 21 verbal reasoning question types gives a worked example of each with the answer and the method — no paywall, no sign-up.

CEM withdrew from the paper-based 11+ market in 2023, and most former CEM regions have since moved to GL Assessment or to their own bespoke papers. If you have been given CEM-era advice from a forum thread, check the school's current admissions page before buying anything — the format guidance from before the change is out of date. Our guide to the GL Assessment 11+ covers the format now in use.

Year 5 is the ideal window — a full year of low-pressure weekly practice before exams sat in September of Year 6. Starting later still works, but the plan changes to the highest-value question types and timed technique. Our guide on when to start 11+ preparation sets out the year-by-year version.

Faster than any other 11+ paper, because most children start from no exposure at all. Recognition of the question types comes within weeks; consistent speed under timing takes months. Beware of anyone quoting you a guaranteed points gain — scores are age-standardised, so the number your child needs depends on the region and, in ranking areas, on the other children sitting it that year. Our explainer on 11+ standardised scores covers how the conversion works.

Very. They are different skills wearing similar clothes. English rewards comprehension, inference and written expression; verbal reasoning rewards pattern recognition against a clock. A child who reads widely has a real advantage on the vocabulary types and no advantage at all on codes and sequences, which is exactly where lessons should go.

Verbal reasoning also appears in independent-school pre-tests and some scholarship papers, and the same methods transfer directly. Beyond entrance exams, the reading and vocabulary work carries into KS3 English. Tell us the target assessment and we will say honestly whether specialist verbal reasoning lessons are the right use of your money.

Lessons are 1 hour and start from £15 per lesson for 11+ preparation. Your first demo class is completely free, there are no sign-up fees, and there is no contract — you can pause or stop at any time. Full rates are on our pricing page.

Keep Reading

Non-Verbal Reasoning Tutor11+ Online TutoringAll 21 VR Question TypesGL Assessment 11+ ExplainedWhat Is a Good 11+ Score?Online English Tutor
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