Cubes & Nets

Cube-net questions are a favourite in 11+ non-verbal reasoning. A child is shown a flat shape and asked which cube it folds into — or which faces end up opposite. With a few clear rules, these become reliable marks.

What is a net?

A net is a cube unfolded and laid flat. Fold it back up and each square becomes one face. The cross below is the most common net: the four squares in a line wrap around the cube, and the two side squares become the remaining faces.

Finding opposite faces

Most questions come down to one skill: which faces sit opposite on the finished cube. Three rules cover almost everything:

• Opposite faces never touch. If two squares share an edge in the net, they sit next to each other on the cube — never opposite.
• The “skip one” rule. In a straight line of three squares, the two on the ends are opposite; the middle one separates them.
• Each face has exactly one partner. A cube has three pairs of opposite faces — no more, no less.

All 11 nets of a cube

There are exactly eleven different nets that fold into a cube — no more. Any flat arrangement of six squares that is not one of these (for example a 2×3 block) will not fold up correctly. Here they all are:

Tips to get these right every time

• Find the opposite pairs first — it instantly rules out wrong answers.
• Watch the direction and position of patterns on each face (arrows and shapes rotate as the net folds).
• Fold real paper nets at home — a few minutes teaches more than a page of theory.
• Eliminate options rather than hunting for the perfect one.