A square is folded, a hole punch goes through every layer, and your child has to picture the opened sheet. Two rules cover every version of the question: holes double with each fold, and each new hole is a mirror image across the fold line.
Quick answer: in a fold and punch question a square of paper is folded, holes are punched through all the layers, and you pick the drawing of the opened sheet. Every fold doubles the number of holes, so one fold gives two layers, two folds give four and three folds give eight. Each hole gains a partner mirrored across the fold line, and you unfold the folds in reverse order. Counting alone eliminates most wrong options.
Fold and punch, also called hole punch or paper folding, is one of the most reliably scored spatial question types once a child has seen it twice. A square of paper is folded once, twice or occasionally three times. A hole punch goes through all the layers. The paper is then opened out, and your child picks the drawing that shows where the holes ended up.
The same skill appears under a different label in the CAT4, where the figure analysis questions ask you to visualise a punched and folded sheet, and in some GL non-verbal reasoning papers as part of the spatial section. A related question type folds a flat shape into a solid instead: that one is covered on the nets and cubes page.
Rule one: holes double with every fold. One fold means two layers, so one punch makes two holes. Two folds mean four layers, so one punch makes four holes. Three folds mean eight layers and eight holes. Two punches through a twice-folded sheet give 2 × 4 = 8 holes. Counting alone usually kills two or three of the five options before you look at any positions.
Rule two: the new holes are mirror images across each fold line. Undo the folds in reverse order, one at a time. Each time you undo a fold, every hole you already have gains a partner on the other side of that fold line, the same distance away from it. A hole near the fold stays near the fold; a hole near the outer edge lands near the opposite outer edge.
Doing it in reverse order matters when there are two folds. Unfold the last fold first, then the first fold, and the positions come out right every time. Children who try to picture the finished sheet in one leap tend to mirror across the wrong line.
In each one the dotted line is the fold line. Cover the options, predict the answer, then check.
Count first. One fold makes two layers, so one punch must give exactly two holes. That removes A, which still has one hole, and E, which has four.
Then check the mirror line. The fold is the vertical centre line, so the second hole must be directly across from the first, the same distance from that line. C mirrors downwards across a horizontal line, which is the wrong axis. D puts the second hole on the same side of the fold, close to the right-hand edge, which is not a mirror image at all.
B has two holes at the same height, equally far from the centre fold, so B is correct.
Count first. Two folds make four layers, so one punch gives exactly four holes. That eliminates A and B, which have two, and D, which has three.
Undo the last fold first. The last fold was left to right down the vertical centre line, so the hole gains a partner mirrored across that vertical line, giving two holes in the top half of the paper.
Then undo the first fold. That one was bottom to top across the horizontal centre line, so both holes gain partners mirrored downwards, giving four holes arranged in a neat rectangle, symmetrical about both centre lines. E has four holes but they are scattered with no symmetry, so C is correct.
Count first. Two layers and two punches give 2 × 2 = 4 holes. A has two and B has three, so both are out.
Now mirror across the fold. The fold line is horizontal and across the middle, so each hole gains a partner the same distance above the line as the original is below it. The hole close to the fold produces a partner close to the fold; the lower hole produces a partner higher up.
D has four holes but it has reflected them left to right instead of top to bottom. E mirrors in the right direction but measures the distances from the top edge instead of from the fold line, so its holes sit too close to the edge. C is the true mirror image, so C is correct.
Fold and punch is easy to practise at home with nothing more than paper and a hole punch, and it is worth doing before the drilling starts. Fold a sheet, let your child predict the pattern out loud, then open it and check together. Once predictions are reliable, move to written questions where the paper stays in the imagination.
Pip's free 24-question Non-Verbal Reasoning practice paper is a printable PDF with a full worked answer key, and it includes spatial-style puzzles alongside the 2D reasoning families. Every other subject is on the 11+ printables page, also free and with no sign-up.
Related question types: nets and cubes for folding a flat shape into a solid, cube rotation for turning a solid, and the full spatial reasoning guide for all eight types.
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A full Non-Verbal Reasoning paper at real exam difficulty, including spatial-style puzzles, with a printable answer sheet and a worked answer key for every question.
Download the paperAll eight spatial reasoning question types in one place, with diagrams, the solving rule for each and which exams test them.
Read the spatial reasoning guideFree English, Maths, Verbal Reasoning and Non-Verbal Reasoning papers, each with worked answers, plus vocabulary flashcards and interactive tools.
Browse the printablesA square of paper is folded one or more times, a hole punch goes through all the layers, and the paper is opened out. You are shown drawings of the opened sheet and pick the one with the holes in the right places. It is question type 6 of the eight spatial reasoning types used in 11+ style papers.
Every fold doubles the number of layers, so it doubles the number of holes. One fold gives two layers and turns one punch into two holes; two folds give four layers and four holes; three folds give eight. Two punches through a twice folded sheet give eight holes in total. Counting is usually enough to eliminate two or three options.
Across the fold line, and at the same distance from it. Undo the folds in reverse order, last fold first: each time you undo one, every hole you already have gains a partner on the other side of that line. A hole close to the fold produces a partner close to the fold, and a hole near an outer edge produces one near the opposite outer edge.
The skill is the same. The CAT4 tests figure analysis, which is fold and punch style visualisation, as part of its spatial work. The CAT4 itself is a cognitive abilities test used inside schools rather than an 11+ entrance exam, and we cover that distinction on our CAT4 spatial reasoning page.
Yes. Pip publishes a free 24-question Non-Verbal Reasoning practice paper as a printable PDF with a full worked answer key, and free printable papers for every other 11+ subject, with no sign-up. You can also make your own in seconds with a sheet of paper and a hole punch.
Paper folding folds a flat sheet flat again and asks about holes. 3D shape folding, also called nets and cubes, folds a flat shape up into a solid and asks which faces end up opposite or which cube the net makes. They use related visualisation but different rules, and nets and cubes has its own page.
Less than most types. Fold and punch is highly learnable, and many children go from guessing to reliable in one sitting once they have seen a real sheet unfolded. A short set of questions a few times, rather than a long drill, is usually enough.
Keep going: the full spatial reasoning guide covers all eight question types, CAT4 spatial reasoning explains where figure analysis fits, nets and cubes covers folding into solids, and the free Non-Verbal Reasoning practice paper is a printable PDF with worked answers.