Cube models from above: 11+ non-verbal reasoning
A model built from cubes is drawn in 3D. Which option shows it from directly above?
What the questions look like
The model is drawn with its front facing you. The options are plans: squares showing where the cubes are when you look straight down, with the front at the bottom. From above, a tall stack and a single cube both show as one square.
Find each stack
Work out how many places on the base have cubes, row by row.
Forget the heights
Every stack shows as one square from above.
Keep the front at the bottom
The row nearest you is the bottom row of the plan, and left stays left.
A worked example
Which figure shows the model from above?
The back row has three stacks: two cubes high, two high and one. The front row has two single cubes, on the left.
From above, each stack is one square. The back row is the top row of the plan: three squares. The front row is the bottom: two squares, on the left.
Try 8 questions
New questions every time, in the style of GL Assessment’s papers, and marked when you finish.
The usual mistakes
Counting cubes, not stacks
Drawing a square for every cube instead of every place.
Turning the plan round
Putting the front at the top, or swapping left and right.
Choosing the front view
The view from the front shows heights; the view from above doesn’t.
The other kinds of question
Each has its own page with a worked example and questions to try. What non-verbal reasoning is, and who tests it.
With Exam Prep, Thena sets practice papers in your child’s test’s style and goes over every mistake with them on her board: £49 a month with the Solo plan.
Questions about cube models from above
Does the height of a stack show from above?
No. From directly above, a stack of three cubes and a single cube both show as one square, so the plan only shows where cubes are, not how many are piled up.
Which way round is the plan?
With the front of the model at the bottom. So the row nearest you in the drawing is the bottom row of the plan, and its left stays on the left.
Thena goes over every question your child gets wrong
She draws it on her board, finds where it went wrong and works it through with them, then gives them one like it to do alone.
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