Verbal reasoning practice examples for the Quest 11+
Practise comparing word meanings, finding a shared category and combining facts with these original Elevenate examples. The explanations show why each answer follows. These are independent teaching questions, not official Quest material.
Examples reviewed
01
Closest meanings across two groups
Select TWO words with the closest meanings, taking one word from each group.
First group: patient, sturdy, fragile
Second group: hollow, delicate, noisy
Choose TWO answers.
Apatient
Bsturdy
Cfragile
Dhollow
Edelicate
Fnoisy
Show worked answer
Answers: C and E
‘Fragile’ describes something that can easily be damaged or broken. ‘Delicate’ can carry the same meaning.
‘Sturdy’ means strong, while ‘hollow’ means having an empty space inside. Neither makes a closer pair across these groups.
‘Fragile’ is in the first group and ‘delicate’ is in the second. Select C and E.
02
Finding the shared category
Three of these words belong to the same category. Choose the TWO words that do not belong with those three.
trout, lantern, salmon, scarf, haddock
Choose TWO answers.
Atrout
Blantern
Csalmon
Dscarf
Ehaddock
Show worked answer
Answers: B and D
Trout, salmon and haddock are all kinds of fish. This gives a category containing three words.
A lantern is a light, and a scarf is an item of clothing. Neither is a kind of fish.
The two words outside the shared category are ‘lantern’ and ‘scarf’. Select B and D.
03
Deduction from an order
Five children — Asha, Ben, Chloe, Dylan and Eva — finish a race with no ties.
• Ben finishes before Chloe.
• Asha finishes after Chloe.
• Dylan finishes before Ben.
• Eva finishes after Asha.
Who finishes third?
Choose ONE answer.
AAsha
BBen
CChloe
DDylan
EEva
Show worked answer
Answer: C
Combine the first two clues: Ben finishes before Chloe, and Chloe finishes before Asha. Their order is Ben, Chloe, Asha.
Dylan finishes before Ben, so add Dylan at the start. Eva finishes after Asha, so add Eva at the end.
The complete order is Dylan, Ben, Chloe, Asha, Eva. It satisfies all four clues, so Chloe is third. The answer is C.
What to practise next
For a grouped word question, keep track of which group each word belongs to. Follow the instruction about choosing one word from each.
For an odd-two-out question, identify the link between the three words that belong together before selecting the other two.
For a logic question, write a simple order or diagram using only the stated facts. Check the finished order against every clue.