Cube net questions look like the hardest thing on a spatial reasoning paper and are actually the most rule-driven. One rule about opposite faces solves most of them, a second rule catches the mirror trap, and dice nets come with a free arithmetic check.
Quick answer: a cube net is a cube unfolded flat. To read one, find the three pairs of opposite faces: squares separated by exactly one square in a straight line end up back to back, so they can never both be visible on one drawing of the cube. On a standard die the opposite faces also add up to seven. A cube has exactly 11 different nets, and the two by three rectangle is not one of them.
A net is a cube unfolded flat, like a cardboard box cut open and pressed down. In an 11+ or CAT4 spatial reasoning question your child is shown one of two things: a flat net with a different symbol on each of its six squares, and five drawings of a finished cube (which cube could the net make?), or a finished cube and five nets (which net folds into it?).
Only three faces of a cube are ever visible in one drawing, so every question is really the same job: decide which faces can sit next to each other once the paper is folded, and which faces end up back to back where they can never be seen together. Get that one idea and the whole question type collapses into about fifteen seconds of work.
This single rule answers most cube net questions without any real mental folding.
Faces separated by exactly one square in a straight line end up opposite each other on the cube. Opposite faces are back to back, so they can never both appear in the same drawing. Any option that shows an opposite pair side by side is wrong, and in a typical five-option question that eliminates two or three answers straight away.
On the cross net above, look along the vertical column of four squares. The triangle and the white diamond have exactly one square between them, so they are opposite. The black circle and the star also have one square between them, so they are opposite. That leaves the two side flaps, the cross and the white circle, which must be the third opposite pair. Six faces always split into exactly three opposite pairs, so once you have found two pairs the third is whatever is left.
A second, quieter rule catches the harder options: three faces meeting at a corner always appear in the same order round that corner. If an option shows three faces that really are neighbours but with two of them swapped over, you are looking at a mirror image of the cube rather than the cube itself, and it is still wrong. Children spot this fastest by folding one real paper net and turning it in their hands a few times.
When the rule is not enough, use the base-and-walls method.
Choose one square in the middle of the net and imagine it lying flat on the table. The squares directly touching it are the four walls, and they all fold upwards.
Fold each touching square up, one at a time, keeping track of which wall is front, back, left and right. Squares further out fold again and become the lid.
Write the three opposite pairs down before you look at the options. Then read the options only to find the one with no forbidden pair in it.
Dice questions look harder because the symbols are dots, but they come with a free checking rule. On a standard die, opposite faces always add up to seven: 1 with 6, 2 with 5, and 3 with 4. That is true of every ordinary six-sided die, so it gives your child a way to test an answer that has nothing to do with folding.
Use it in both directions. If a question asks which number is opposite the 2, the answer is 5 without any folding at all. If a drawing of a die shows a 3 next to a 4, that drawing cannot be a standard die, because 3 and 4 are opposite. Watch for the trap, though: some 11+ papers deliberately use non-standard dice, so only apply the sum-to-seven rule when the question says the shape is an ordinary die.
This is a genuine piece of mathematics rather than an exam tip: a cube has exactly 11 different nets, counting two nets as the same when one is a turn or a mirror image of the other. Every net your child will ever meet in a spatial reasoning paper is one of the eleven below, which is why the shapes start to look familiar surprisingly quickly.
Six of them are the family with a row of four squares and one square attached above and one below. Three are built round a row of three, one is a staircase of three pairs of squares stepping across, and one is two strips of three squares stepped past each other. Notice what is missing: the flat two by three rectangle is not a net of a cube, and neither is any shape with four squares round a single corner point, because two faces would land on top of each other.
Try each one with your child before opening the answer. The green box marks the correct option.
Find the three opposite pairs first. The row of four squares gives two of them: the triangle and the black circle have one square between them, and the cross and the white circle have one square between them. The two leftover squares, the star and the white diamond, must be the third pair.
A shows the star next to the white diamond, an opposite pair side by side, so it is impossible. B shows the cross next to the white circle, the second opposite pair. C shows a black diamond, which is not on the net at all, the classic dud cube.
D is the sneaky one. The cross, the triangle and the star really are neighbours on the net, so nothing is back to back, but they run round the corner the wrong way: D is a mirror image of the real cube, not the cube. Swap the two front faces and you get E, which is the genuine article, so E is correct.
The fast route. On a standard die every pair of opposite faces adds up to 7, so the face opposite the 3 must be the 4. That is option C, and it took no folding at all.
The slow route, as a check. The 3 sits in the middle of the vertical column of four squares: 1, then 3, then 6, then 4. Faces one square apart in a straight line are opposite, so the 1 is opposite the 6 and the 3 is opposite the 4. The two side flaps, 2 and 5, are the last pair. All three pairs add to 7, which confirms the net really is an ordinary die.
Both routes agree, so C is correct. If they had disagreed, the net would not have been a standard die and only the folding answer would count.
A is the two by three rectangle, and it is the most common wrong answer in the whole topic. Try to fold it: the two end columns come up as walls, the middle column becomes the base and one wall, and you are left with two faces stacked on the same side of the cube and a hole opposite them. It is not one of the eleven nets.
C fails for the same reason in a different arrangement: folding it lands two of its squares on the same face of the cube, leaving a gap elsewhere.
B is the three-and-three net: two strips of three squares, stepped past each other so that they meet along one edge. One strip wraps round three faces of the cube and the other strip wraps round the remaining three. Every face is covered exactly once and nothing overlaps, so B is correct.
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Browse the printablesFaces separated by exactly one square in a straight line end up opposite each other once the net is folded. Six faces always split into three opposite pairs, so once you have found two pairs the remaining two squares must be the third pair. Opposite faces are back to back, so they can never both appear in one drawing of the cube.
Exactly 11, counting two nets as the same when one is a rotation or mirror image of the other. Six of them are a row of four squares with one square above and one below, three are built round a row of three, one is a staircase of three pairs, and one is a zigzag. The flat two by three rectangle is not a net of a cube.
On a standard six-sided die opposite faces always add up to seven, so 1 is opposite 6, 2 is opposite 5 and 3 is opposite 4. That gives you a way to answer or check a dice question without folding anything. Only apply it when the question says the shape is an ordinary die, because some papers deliberately use non-standard dice.
Use the base and walls method. Pick one square in the middle of the net and imagine it flat on the table, then fold the squares touching it upwards as the four walls, keeping track of which is front, back, left and right. Squares further out fold again to become the lid. Write down the three opposite pairs before looking at the answer options.
Because three faces meeting at a corner always appear in the same order going round that corner. If two of them are swapped over, the drawing is a mirror image of the cube rather than the cube itself, so it is still wrong. This is usually the hardest distractor in a five-option question.
Nets and cubes appear in GL Assessment non-verbal reasoning in the regions that include a spatial element, notably Kent, Buckinghamshire and Lincolnshire, in the ISEB Common Pre-Test non-verbal reasoning section, and in the CAT4 as part of its spatial work. Check what your target school actually uses, because coverage varies by region.
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Keep going: the full spatial reasoning guide covers all eight question types, cube rotation handles turning a finished solid, block counting covers hidden cubes, and the free Non-Verbal Reasoning practice paper puts them together.