Use a pictogram key to determine one represented quantity.
Free to use and free to share. There is no sign-up, no score, and nothing a child does here is recorded or sent anywhere.
Practise it now
Tap the Adventure row. Then use the key to say how many books it stands for.
It covers most of this skill rather than all of it.
Loading the interactive exercise. Nothing you do here is saved or scored.
A worked example
One question of the kind this skill is tested with, worked all the way through: the reasoning, and what the wrong answers are there to catch.
Topics chosen by children for the space project
Start with the Rockets row. How many children does it stand for?
Each icon stands for 2 children, so a half icon stands for 1.
4
5
7
6
Answer: 7
How you get there
The Rockets row draws 3 whole icons and a half icon, and the key says one icon stands for 2 children, which means the row is worth 7 children altogether.
Why the other answers tempt
Each icon is worth more than one, so the number of icons is never the answer on its own.
If they are stuck, say this
Count the icons in the Rockets row and multiply by 2; a half icon is worth 1, not the full 2.
Tap the Adventure row. Then use the key to say how many books it stands for.
The Adventure row draws 2 and a half pictures, and the key says each whole picture stands for 2, so the row stands for 5. Counting the pictures and stopping gives 2, which is the answer to a different question: a pictogram is drawn small on purpose, and the key is what turns what you can count into what it means. A part picture is worth part of the key, not a whole one.
Step 1. Find it. Tap the row the question names.
Step 2. Read it. Now use the key to choose how many books that is.
What to say if they get stuck
Find the bar, row or slice the question names before you read anything. Getting the label right matters as much as the reading.
The scale does not always count up in single steps. Work out what a single line is worth before you read anything off it.
Keep your finger level as you slide from the board across to the scale. Drifting up or down by a line is the commonest slip there is.
This is the wrong answer 11+ papers are built to offer, so it is worth watching for directly: a child who does this will look confident and still lose the mark. If it keeps happening on decode a pictogram key, the fix is the misunderstanding rather than more questions.
Questions parents ask about decode a pictogram key
Answered from what the skill map records about this skill, not from a template. Every answer here is on the page, and the same questions are the page's FAQ structured data.
Use a pictogram key to determine one represented quantity. It is one of 55 named maths skills in the 11+, in the data strand, and this page carries 1 interactive exercise that practises it.
There is a specific mistake recorded against this skill: counts symbols without multiplying by the key. 11+ papers are written to offer exactly that answer, so a child can be confident and still lose the mark. When it keeps happening, the fix is the misunderstanding rather than more questions.
Point at the next move rather than explaining the whole rule. Count the icons in the Rockets row and multiply by 2; a half icon is worth 1, not the full 2.
The skill map draws the line here: Includes fractional symbols only when stated by the key. A question past that line is testing a different named maths skill, which is worth knowing before you spend a week practising the wrong one.
The data strand holds 9 skills that are tested together, and the pages next to decode a pictogram key are interpret a pie-chart sector, read a bar-chart value and read a line-graph value. Each has its own exercise and its own link, and none of them needs an account.
Use Pictogram Reader, embedded on this page. It is the exercise the skill map attaches to decode a pictogram key, it runs in the browser with no account to make, nothing is scored, and nothing a child does here is recorded or sent anywhere. It also has its own link, so you can send it to a child without sending them anywhere else first.
One wrong answer is a slip, the same wrong answer every time is a habit
A free diagnostic looks at which mistakes repeat across all four subjects, not just whether decode a pictogram key was right on the day.
