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Non-verbal Reasoning · Spatial

Find an embedded shape

Locate a target shape within a more complex figure despite distracting lines.

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 shape on the card is hiding in the tangle. Sweep the spotlight, then tap its edges one by one.

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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.

Shapes hiding in a tangle

Which one of these four shapes is hidden in the tangle of lines?

Work this one through before trying your own. The tangle holds 15 lines. Exactly one of the four shapes below can be traced along them.

  1. A
  2. B
  3. C
  4. D

Answer: A

How you get there

Shape A is the only one of the four that can be traced out of the tangle, because a hidden shape keeps every side length and every corner angle however it is turned. Lock onto its longest side, about 50 units, find a line that length in the tangle, then check that the next side turns the way the tile says it should. The other three tiles have a side of the wrong length or a corner in the wrong place, so no matter where you start they run out of lines to follow. The lines that cross the shape or carry on past its corners are camouflage and belong to nothing.

Why the other answers tempt

A shape that is nearly right is wrong: check every side length, not just the number of corners.

If they are stuck, say this

Find the longest side of one tile, hunt the tangle for a line that long, then check whether the next side turns the way the tile says it should.

Now do it live in Shape Spotlight

What this exercise is doing

Shape Spotlight

The shape on the card is hiding in the tangle. Sweep the spotlight, then tap its edges one by one.

An embedded shape keeps its side lengths and its corner angles no matter how it is turned, so you can hunt for it side by side. Lock onto one distinctive side, follow it to a corner and check whether the next side turns the way the card says it should. Lines that cross the shape or run past its corners are just camouflage.

What to say if they get stuck

  1. Drag the spotlight around - only the lines under it light up, so you can search a bit at a time.
  2. Start from the longest side of the card shape and look for a line that length anywhere in the tangle.
  3. Rotated shapes keep every side length and every corner angle. Only the direction changes.

Open Shape Spotlight on its own page to share it

Related non-verbal reasoning skills

All non-verbal reasoning 11+ skills

Questions parents ask about find an embedded shape

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.

Locate a target shape within a more complex figure despite distracting lines. It is one of 22 named non-verbal reasoning skills in the 11+, in the spatial strand, and this page carries 1 interactive exercise that practises it.

Non-verbal reasoning is the paper families most often leave until last

A free diagnostic covers matrices, series, odd one out, rotation, reflection and the 3D questions, and shows where the time is worth spending.

Start the free 11+ diagnostic