Non-verbal reasoning questions use shapes and diagrams instead of words or numbers. The child looks for a rule (a turn, a change of shading, a shape gaining a side) and applies it. It is not usually taught as a school subject, which is why it can feel strange at first, and why a little familiarity goes a long way.
Dubai College lists non-verbal reasoning as one of the three areas in its Year 7 entrance assessment, with English and mathematics (source: the school’s Year 7 frequently asked questions, read 16 October 2026).
What it looks like
Here is a short sequence drawn by our own figure generator. Each figure follows the same rule as the one before it.
The common question types
- Sequences: what comes next in a row of figures.
- Matrices: a grid with one square missing; the rule runs along rows and down columns.
- Odd one out, and like the first two: find what a group shares, then the figure that does or does not share it.
- Rotation and reflection: which figure is the same shape turned, or its mirror image.
- Spatial questions: nets of cubes, cube views, paper folding and hidden shapes.
How to help without teaching tricks
The best habit is to name what changes. Ask your child to say out loud what is different from one figure to the next: “the arrow turns, the dot moves”. Then check each answer option against every change, not just the first one noticed. Wrong answers are often built to match one part of the rule and miss another.
Everyday play helps too: jigsaws, tangrams, building blocks, folding and cutting paper, spotting patterns in tiles. None of it needs to feel like test preparation.
How our questions are made
Every non-verbal figure on Mockplan is drawn by code from a rule, so the correct answer follows from the rule by construction. Each question is then checked for any second reading that could make another answer defensible, and solved independently a second time before it goes live.