11 Plus Exams Forum

Reviewing DS's answers to questions 74-80, he was stuck on a couple of them; two of the questions (#76, #79) appear to be wrong - or very nasty!

Q76: "code for GOAT is EMYR - what does BSAI mean"?
Well, G to M is -2, O to M is -2 and so on - applying a transformation of -2 to each letter of BSAI gives ZQYG - which is not one of the 5 options.
But now, switch the order of the question - so "EMYR is GOAT, what does BSAI mean?" That requires a transformation of +2, apply that to BSAI and you get DUCK, which is the correct answer.

Same switch required to get the right answer for Q79. The example and the other 5 questions do not need this switch.

Is this an error in the question setting? Or do candidates need to be ready to work out the transformation twice, which seams pretty mean on what are already quite time-consuming questions?

Any advice much appreciated!

The rule with these question types is that whatever you are looking for goes at the bottom and you then work downwards. So:

I am looking for a word, the word goes at the bottom (I write the code over the word) and I work downwards:

E M Y R
G O A T
+2 +2 +2 +2

B +2 = D
S +2 = U
A +2 = C
I +2 = K

For question 79, I am looking for a word, the word goes at the bottom and I work downwards:

I F E S
M A I N
+4 -5 +4 -5

X +4 = B
F -5 = A
J +4 = N
P -5 = K

If you are looking for a code, you write the word over the code and work downwards.

Doh! Thanks, I see the logic now....
Now I know what to look for, I can see that I didn't actually read the questions very carefully in the first place. Hope DS doesn't read this forum