Abstract and Spatial Reasoning: Rules, Rotation and Nets
Abstract reasoning asks you to find the rule governing a sequence or set, then apply it. Spatial reasoning asks you to manipulate objects mentally. The concepts are: rotation versus reflection (a reflected shape cannot be rotated into its mirror image), axis and angle of rotation (90°, 180°, 270°), number of sides, symmetry and enclosed regions, position and movement of elements (clockwise steps, alternating direction), alternation of two interleaved sequences, and nets folded into cubes.
Traps include: options that are mirror images offered as rotations; rules that hold for the first three figures but break at the fourth; two rules operating at once (one for shape, one for shading); and distractors that change only one attribute when the rule changes two. In cube-folding, remember that opposite faces on a net can never be adjacent on the cube - this eliminates options quickly. Count carefully: a shape may gain a side each step while also rotating.
Rule of thumb: describe each figure in words - number of elements, their positions, colours, orientations - and look for what stays constant before hunting for what changes. If nothing is constant, suspect two alternating sequences.
Worked example: A dot moves one corner clockwise, then two, then three. The next move is four corners clockwise - which, on a square, returns it to the starting corner. Options showing a two-corner move are traps built from continuing the previous step.