11 plus Reading Information questions

What a Reading Information question looks like

Reading Information is one of the number and logic formats in the 11 plus verbal reasoning paper, and its name undersells it. It is not comprehension: no story, no vocabulary being tested, nothing to guess about a character. The question prints a short set of plain facts, usually about five people or five objects, then asks which one of five statements must be true if all of those facts are correct.

That word “must” is the whole question. Several of the five statements will fit the facts comfortably, but only one cannot fail to fit, and that is the answer. A statement that merely happens to be possible is wrong here, which is what has to be taught: elsewhere, an answer that fits is a good sign.

The facts come in a few shapes. Often they fix an order: who finished where in a race, or which house is at which number. Sometimes they compare amounts instead, such as who has more badges or who is taller. Sometimes they list who did what, so “everyone except Owen tried climbing” is read against three or four sentences of the same kind. A smaller group of questions drops the statements, gives two groups that overlap, and asks for a number.

Example one: five vehicles in five spaces

Five vehicles are parked in spaces numbered 1 to 5 from left to right: a car, a van, a bike, a truck and a bus. The car is to the left of the van, the van to the left of the bike, the bike to the left of the truck, and the truck to the left of the bus. Which of these must be true: the truck is in space 5, the bike is in space 3, the van is in space 3, the bus is in space 4, or the car is in space 2?

Taken in order, the facts hook into one chain: car, van, bike, truck, bus. Five vehicles, five spaces, so nothing can slide about. The car takes space 1, the van 2, the bike 3, the truck 4 and the bus 5. The answer is that the bike is in space 3.

“The truck is in space 5” is the wrong option most children reach for: the truck is named in the last two facts and feels like the end of the line, but the last of them puts the bus beyond it.

Example two: five kites

Tobias, Lena, Yusuf, Marnie and Rafi each flew a kite at the park, and no two kites were the same colour. The colours were red, yellow, green, blue and purple. Lena’s kite was green. Yusuf’s kite was purple. Tobias’s kite was neither red nor blue. Which of these must be true: Marnie’s kite was red, Rafi’s kite was blue, Tobias’s kite was yellow, Yusuf’s kite was yellow, or Rafi’s kite was yellow?

Share out the fixed colours first. Lena has green and Yusuf has purple, which leaves red, yellow and blue for Tobias, Marnie and Rafi. Tobias’s kite was not red or blue, so it was yellow. That leaves red and blue for Marnie and Rafi, with nothing to say which had which. The answer is that Tobias’s kite was yellow.

“Marnie’s kite was red” is the fair trap. Marnie might have had red, but she might equally have had blue with Rafi on red, and every fact would still hold. Both are allowed, so the statement does not have to be true, and “Rafi’s kite was blue” fails the same way.

Example three: two clubs with an overlap

There are 30 children in a class. 18 are in the maths club and 14 are in the science club. 8 children are in both. How many children are in the maths club but not the science club?

Start with the 8 in both, the only ones counted twice: they sit inside the 18 as well as inside the 14. The maths club splits into those 8 and everyone else, so the answer is 18 take away 8, which is 10 children.

6 is the option that catches most children: the same subtraction on the wrong group, 14 take away 8, which is the number in science only. The rest are figures already printed in the passage.

How to answer it

1. Read the whole passage before looking at the statements, counting how many people or things there are and how many places they have to fill.
2. Write them out in a line, or in order from most to least, and put in the facts that pin something down exactly first, like Owen at 10.00.
3. Add the looser facts one at a time. “Straight before” and “next to” lock two things together; “somewhere before” and “more than” only narrow things down, so leave those slots open.
4. Take each statement in turn and ask one question: could I picture a case where all the facts hold but this sentence is false? If you can, cross it out. The one you cannot break is the answer.
5. Where two groups overlap, sort the overlap out first: one group only is that group’s total with the overlap taken away, and at least one is the two totals added with the overlap taken off once.

Common mistakes

• Choosing a statement that could be true. This is where most marks go: two or three of the five usually fit one arrangement of the facts and fail another, and if two children could be either way round they stay either way round. Only the statement that survives every arrangement is right.
• Stopping partway along a chain. Told that Sara has more pets than Theo, Theo more than Uma and Vic more than Sara, a child who reads the first fact and stops will decide Theo has the fewest.
• Mixing two different measurements. One passage gives both how long children took over a quiz and how many they got right, and it is easy to call the child who finished three minutes ahead the quickest of all when only scores are pinned down.
• Taking the overlap off the wrong group in the counting questions. Answering with a figure already printed in the passage is the other frequent slip.

How to practise 11 plus Reading Information questions

The useful practice here is narrow: the habit in step 4, testing each statement by trying to break it rather than by seeing whether it fits. A child who reasons well can lose every mark on this type until that habit lands, and get them back quickly once it does. A few at a time beats a long sitting. It is one of around 25 verbal reasoning formats used in the eleven plus, so it repays being kept in rotation. 11+ Daily has a Reading Information project covering the ordering passages, the comparison ones and the two-group counting questions, alongside the other 11 plus verbal reasoning question types. Every question is original to 11+ Daily, nothing is a past paper, and the bank is re-checked in rounds. We have also written about how much 11 plus practice a child needs each day.

Questions parents ask