Identify the translation, rotation, or reflection relating a shape and its image.
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
The move has already happened. Play each card on the outline and find the one that lands on the ghost exactly.
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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.
Reading a transformation from the coordinates
Compare each labelled corner with its image to see which single move was made.
Reflection in the x-axis
Reflection in the y-axis
Translation 3 right, 1 down
Rotation of 90° clockwise
Answer: Reflection in the y-axis
How you get there
A (-5, -3) ends up at A'(5, -3), and the other two corners move the same way, which means the single move that fits all three corners is "Reflection in the y-axis".
Why the other answers tempt
A translation slides every corner the same distance, so it never changes the sign of a coordinate.
If they are stuck, say this
Compare one corner with its image first: if both coordinates changed sign the shape has been turned, and if only one changed sign it has been flipped.
The move has already happened. Play each card on the outline and find the one that lands on the ghost exactly.
The move was “Turn 90° anticlockwise about (-4, 2)”. The card beside it, “Turn 90° clockwise about (4, 3)”, is the same kind of move, so calling it a turn settles nothing: what has to be read is which way round it turns, and which point it turns about. It comes down to one corner. A starts at (-1, -3) and the ghost has it at (1, 5); the other card sends it to (-2, 8) instead. That card does get one corner exactly right, which is why one corner is never enough on its own. That is the exam-safe method: settle what is different about the two cards, then pin it down with a single corner.
Step 1. Look at it. Drag the track to play a card and watch where the outline goes. Scrub back to try another.
Step 2. Name the move. Which card was played? Pick the one that lands the outline exactly on the ghost.
What to say if they get stuck
Both cards play the same kind of move, so deciding it was a turn does not choose between them. What is different is which way round it turns, and which point it turns about.
Follow one corner. A starts at (-1, -3) and the ghost has it at (1, 5), so the right card has to send it exactly there.
Check a second corner before you lock in. The wrong card here lands one corner exactly where the ghost has it and every other corner somewhere else.
How identify a geometric transformation differs from the skills beside it
The same exercise practises several skills, and telling them apart is often the difficulty rather than the exercise itself. On this page the skill is: identify the translation, rotation, or reflection relating a shape and its image, and it stops where identifies the transformation from supplied figures or coordinates. It does not execute the transformation.
Questions parents ask about identify a geometric transformation
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.
Identify the translation, rotation, or reflection relating a shape and its image. It is one of 55 named maths skills in the 11+, in the geometry strand, and this page carries 1 interactive exercise that practises it.
A translation slides every corner the same distance, so it never changes the sign of a coordinate. The wrong answers on this skill are built out of that, not out of random numbers, so it is worth naming out loud before your child meets it under time pressure.
Point at the next move rather than explaining the whole rule. Compare one corner with its image first: if both coordinates changed sign the shape has been turned, and if only one changed sign it has been flipped.
The skill map draws the line here: Identifies the transformation from supplied figures or coordinates. It does not execute the transformation. 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 geometry strand holds 15 skills that are tested together, and the pages next to identify a geometric transformation are plot or read a coordinate, preserve measure under a rigid transformation and reflect a coordinate. Each has its own exercise and its own link, and none of them needs an account.
Use Which Card Was Played?, embedded on this page. It is the exercise the skill map attaches to identify a geometric transformation, 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.
Knowing which maths topic to practise is most of the work
A free diagnostic covers arithmetic, fractions, geometry, measure and data handling, and comes back with the topics to spend the next few weeks on.
