Click to enlargeShapes & Patterns
Rotation, reflection, shading and the patterns behind them.
- 12 tests of 40 questions in every book, in two sections of 20
- No more than 20 questions of one type in a week, so each type is learned properly
- Built for three passes: two timed attempts on the progress chart, then a cold third pass before the exam
- Full answer key
Want the whole series? The full Non-Verbal Reasoning series is £197, under £20 a book.
How this book is used in our course
Each test is sat under the clock: two sections of 20 questions. Mark, record, and go back over every wrong answer with the child explaining the rule they missed. The book is built for three passes: the second attempt weeks later proves the rule stuck rather than the answer being remembered, and a cold third pass before the exam proves it is still there.
Where it sits in the series
- Previous book in the series: Book 1, NVR Foundations
- Next book in the series: Book 3, Codes, Grids & 3D Basics
What's inside NVR Mastery 2
Five real pages from the book, so you can see exactly what your child will work from. All 10 sample pages are in the viewer.
Twelve tests on the shape skills: rotation, reflection, symmetry, hidden shapes, silhouettes, adding and subtracting figures.
Each test pairs a GL core type, similarities, odd one out, series, analogies, matrices, codes or pattern grids, with a shape skill. The shape skills are where Year 4 children lose most NVR marks, because they try to see the answer instead of checking it. Every one has its own technique guide.
Turn the page in your mind, not the shape: a turn never makes a mirror image.
Pick a distinctive part, a corner or a small shape, and note what sits next to it going clockwise. Find the same part in each option and check the neighbours are still in the same order. Mirror images reverse the order, so they can be crossed out at once. This is the check that turns rotation from a guess into a certainty.
Copying the half across without reflecting it is the classic trap.
Two guides on one page. Pattern grids, the 16- and 25-square GL type. Then unfolding shapes: the opened shape is the folded half plus its mirror image, so count squares outward from the fold line on each row and copy them on the other side. The finished shape must be symmetrical about the fold.
The grid type that carries more marks than any other on the GL paper.
A three-by-three grid with one square missing, and two features following different rules: shape along the rows, shading down the columns. Twenty of them in fifteen minutes, in Year 4, so by Year 5 the method is automatic.
Every answer states the rule that proves it.
"2. E: In every figure on the left, the large shape is a heart." "6. A: In every figure on the left, the small shape inside is white." A child sees which feature they missed; a parent can explain it without ever having studied NVR.
All 12 tests in the book follow the pattern shown here.
Other Year 4 books in NVR Mastery
NVR Foundations
The first meeting with series, odd one out and analogies.
Codes, Grids & 3D Basics
Shape codes, matrices and the first 3D questions.
Spatial Reasoning
Nets, cubes, views and folding.
Year 4 Test Book
12 mixed tests of everything in Books 1–4.