Word codes & analogies

Letter substitutions on whole words, word-to-word relationships.

PETAL is to FLOWER as LEAF is to…? The children who get these right all do the same thing: they say the relationship out loud BEFORE looking at the options.

Name the relationship first

Step 1 · make a sentence

"a petal is PART OF a flower"

Step 2 · reuse the sentence

"a leaf is part of a … TREE"

Step 3 · then check the options

TREE is there → done

The relationship families GL uses

Part → whole
rung : ladder
Young → adult
cub : lion
Worker → product
baker : bread
Tool → action
pen : write
Object → group
bird : flock
Need → satisfier
parched : water

⚠ Watch out

The trap option is always ASSOCIATED with the third word but in the wrong relationship. For LEAF, the option GREEN is strongly associated — but "a leaf is part of a green" makes no sense. If you look at options before naming the relationship, the association grabs you.

Odd one out — find what the FOUR share

oak, pine, rose, birch, elm — which is the odd one out?

  1. Don't hunt for the weird one — hunt for what four have in common
  2. Oak, pine, birch and elm are all trees
  3. A rose is a flower

rose

⚠ Watch out

In odd-one-out questions the answer is rarely the first word listed — examiners bury it. And if two groupings both seem to work, GL wants the more specific one.

✏ Your turn

CUB is to LION as FAWN is to ___?

Show the answer
  1. Say the relationship: "a cub is the BABY of a lion"
  2. Reuse it: "a fawn is the baby of a …"

DEER

For parents — the full topic guide

Analogies, Odd One Out & Logic Puzzles — 11+ VR Topic Guide

Part of the GrammarMock topic guides. Drill with the Analogies and Logic Puzzles mini-tests.

Word analogies: name the relationship FIRST

"PETAL is to FLOWER as LEAF is to ___?"

The method that works: before looking at the options, say the relationship as a sentence. "A petal is a PART OF a flower." Then reuse the sentence: "a leaf is a part of a... TREE." Children who look at the options first get seduced by associations (STEM, GRASS); children who name the relationship first walk past the traps.

The relationship families GL uses (teach your child to spot which one they're in):

  1. Part → whole (petal:flower, rung:ladder, stanza:poem)
  2. Young → adult (cub:lion, fawn:deer)
  3. Worker → workplace/product (baker:bread, sculptor:statue, actor:stage)
  4. Tool → action (pen:write, palette:paint)
  5. Object → group name (flower:bouquet, bird:flock, cattle:herd)
  6. Word → synonym or antonym (hot:cold as wet:dry)
  7. Need → satisfier (parched:water, famished:food)
  8. Instrument → what it reveals (microscope:small, telescope:distant)

The trap in every analogy: an option strongly ASSOCIATED with the third word but in the wrong relationship. For LEAF the option TREE (part-of ✓) beats BRANCH (associated but a leaf isn't a part of a branch in the same clean way) and GREEN (associated, wrong relationship entirely).

Odd one out: find what the FOUR share

"oak, pine, rose, birch, elm — which is the odd one out?"

Reverse the thinking: don't hunt for the weird one, hunt for what four of them have in common. Four are trees; rose is a flower.

The hard versions hide the category one level deeper:

  • Function: sword, spear, arrow, axe (attack) vs shield (defence)
  • Property: violin, piano, guitar, cello (strings) vs trumpet (no strings)
  • Dimension: square, circle, triangle, rectangle (2D) vs cube (3D)
  • Meaning: happy, joyful, cheerful, delighted vs miserable (an antonym planted among synonyms)

If two different categorisations both seem to work, GL intends the more specific one. And a useful exam habit: the odd one out is rarely the first word listed — examiners bury it.

Logic puzzles: the drawing habit

Every 11+ logic puzzle rewards the same move: turn the words into a picture in the margin.

Ordering puzzles ("Carlos finished before Ben but after Aisha; Dina was last; Eli was second") → draw five slots, fill in the certainties first (Dina 5th, Eli 2nd), then place the chain A < C < B in the remaining slots 1, 3, 4. Answer questions from the completed picture, never from re-reading the text.

Seating/houses puzzles ("the blue house is between the red and yellow...") → boxes in a row, pencil in the fixed points (ends first), then the relative clues. If a clue can go two ways, try one; a contradiction later means flip it.

Two-set overlap puzzles ("30 pupils, 18 play football, 15 play tennis, all play at least one — how many play both?") → the inclusion-exclusion move: 18 + 15 = 33 counts the both-players twice, so both = 33 − 30 = 3. Draw two overlapping circles if the numbers get bigger.

Ratio/sharing logic ("Amy spent twice as much as Ben; Cara spent £3 more than Ben; together £27") → write everything in terms of ONE person (Ben): b + 2b + (b+3) = 27. The skill is choosing the person everyone else is described relative to.

Age puzzles → now/later table (see the Algebra guide).

Truth check, always: when the puzzle is solved, run the answer back through every clue in the question. Logic puzzles are the one question type where full verification takes ten seconds — spend them.

Timing strategy

Logic puzzles are the most expensive VR questions per mark — a hard one can eat three minutes. In the exam: do the ordering/seating ones (fast once drawn), and if a multi-condition beast resists after 90 seconds, guess and flag it for the end. Ten vocabulary marks beat one logic mark bought at the same time-price.

One-week plan

  • Days 1-2: analogies — say the relationship aloud before the options, 10 a day
  • Day 3: odd one out, including the buried-category versions
  • Days 4-5: ordering and seating puzzles WITH margin drawings (mark the drawing habit, not just the answer)
  • Day 6: overlap (Venn) and sharing puzzles
  • Day 7: Logic Puzzles mini-test, timed

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