You see a small model made of cubes stacked on a flat base. It’s drawn from the front, a little to the right and from above, so you see the fronts, the right-hand sides and the tops.
You pick its plan: the view from straight above, drawn flat like a map. Imagine looking down on the model from the ceiling.
1
The model. Stacks of white and grey cubes on a base of six places: 3 wide and 2 deep, or 2 wide and 3 deep.
2
The heavy line. It marks the front edge.
3
The plans. Five flat grids, in Rush and in the exam. A square is a stack’s top, and a dashed square is a gap with no stack.
Which plan shows it from straight above?
1
2
3
4
5
An NVR question from Rush, level 3.
Chapter 2
Solve it in 3 steps.
Here’s the question. Each step crosses out plans until only one is left.
The question
Which plan shows it from straight above?
1
2
3
4
5
An NVR question from Rush, level 3.
Step 1
Count the stacks.
From straight above, a stack is one square, however tall it is. This model has five stacks and one gap, so its plan has five squares. Option 1 has six: cross it out.
12345
Five stacks, so five squares.
Step 2
Put the front at the bottom.
The heavy line is the front edge, so the front row becomes the plan’s bottom row, and left stays on the left. Find something lopsided: both all-grey stacks are on the left. Options 2 and 3 have the grey front square on the right. They’re flipped, so cross them out.
12345
Front row: grey, gap, white along the bottom.
Step 3
Check each top’s colour.
From above you see only the top block of each stack. Along the back that’s grey, white, white: the back middle is grey underneath, but white on top. Option 5 makes the back left white, but that stack is grey all the way up. Cross it out, and option 4 is left.
12345
Back row: grey, white, white. It’s option 4.
Three mistakes it sets
The model from the question.
The mistake
Do this instead
Picking the view from the front. Option 1 is what you’d see standing in front. The back-middle stack fills the gap, so the bottom row looks full. Rush’s hardest level always offers this plan.
Count the stacks. From above, every gap shows.
Picking a mirror image. Options 2 and 3 have the grey stacks on the right. Left and right have swapped, and option 3 has a colour wrong too.
Keep the heavy line at the bottom, then check one lopsided thing.
Misreading a hidden top. Option 5 makes the back left white. That stack hides behind the front-left one, so only its top shows, and it’s grey.
Read every top in turn, back row then front row.
So it’s option 4. Five squares, the grey stacks on the left, the gap at the front middle, and every top the right colour.
Remember: Count, front, tops.
Chapter 3
When it gets harder.
Rush’s other wrong plans, one card each: the rule, an example and the trap.
PlanSwappedTurned
The front row along the top
The front row is always the plan’s bottom row.
The lone front stack is on the left, so the bottom row is square, gap, gap. Trap: that row along the top. With its square still on the left, front and back are swapped. On the right, the plan is turned right round, as if seen from the back.
PlanTrap
A colour hidden underneath
From above, only the top block’s colour shows.
The left stack is grey with a white block on top, so its square is white. The right stack is white with grey on top, so its square is grey. Trap: the grey you can see on the side of a stack.
PlanTrap
Same count, gaps moved
Check where every gap is, not just how many.
At Rush’s first level every plan has the right number of squares, so counting crosses none out. Here the gaps are the middle and front places on the right. Trap: four squares, but the middle gap on the left.
PlanTrap
A stack you can hardly see
Every top is a square, even one peeping out from behind.
The short back-middle stack sits right behind the front block, so only its top shows. From above it’s a square like any other. Trap: a plan with a gap at the back middle.
Chapter 4: In the exam
Round shapes, points and other sides.
Some practice papers build models from cylinders, cones and pyramids too, draw the plans as plain outlines, or ask for the view from the front or a side. Rush doesn’t ask these, but the same checks work.
Learn these: four shapes from above and from the side
A cone and a pyramid both look like a triangle from the side. From above, the cone is round with a dot for its point, and the pyramid is square with lines to its point. A cylinder is a circle from above and a rectangle from the side.
Cube
From above
From the side
Cylinder
From above
From the side
Cone
From above
From the side
Pyramid
From above
From the side
Which shows the model from directly above?
ABCDE
Find the footprint. The base is 3 wide and 2 deep, so the plan is 3 across and 2 down. Nothing stands at the front middle, so the plan has a gap there. D has a full bottom row with a square on top: it’s the view from the front.
Put the front at the bottom. The cylinder, the gap and the pyramid go along the bottom, cylinder on the left. E has them along the top, and A has them the wrong way round.
Draw each shape from above. The cylinder is a circle, and the pyramid a square with lines to its point. C shows a triangle, the pyramid from the side.
So it’s B. A gap at the front middle, the cylinder’s circle on the left, the pyramid’s square and lines on the right.
Remember: Footprint, front, shapes.
Other ways the exam asks it
From the front
From the right
The view from the front. Now height counts and depth doesn’t. Each column is as tall as its tallest stack, so the front gap fills up with the stack behind it.
The view from a side. Stand where the arrow is. From the right, the front of the model is on your left and the back on your right.
“Which model has this plan?” Run the same checks the other way: count each model’s stacks, then find its gaps and its front row.
A block that sticks out. A block jutting out over empty space still shows as a square from above.
Bigger models. Take them one row at a time, starting with the front row.
Chapter 5
Try it yourself.
Six real questions from Rush, easy to hard, 60 seconds on the clock.
It's the view from directly above, drawn flat. A floor plan is the same idea: a house seen from above with the roof off. In these questions each stack of blocks becomes one square, however tall it is.
Which way round should my child picture the model?
From the front, where the heavy line is. Left and right swap if you picture yourself above the model facing the wrong way, which is where the mirror-image answer comes from. Ask your child to imagine leaning over the model from the front: then the front is nearest them at the bottom, and left stays on the left.
Is it worth building the models?
Yes, a few times. Build a small model from toy bricks, draw its plan, then look down on it from above to check.
Rush: 11+ Practice & KS2 SATs
Practise plan views in Rush.
Top View as 100-second games, easy at first and harder as your child improves
Every miss kept with the right answer and why
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Rush: 11+ Practice & KS2 SATs
