Non-Verbal and Abstract Reasoning
What you must understand
Abstract reasoning asks you to find patterns and rules in shapes, symbols, grids, and sequences without relying on language. Core concepts: rotation and reflection, translation, number of sides or elements, shading and colour changes, alternating sequences, and matrix rules where rows or columns follow a consistent transformation. You must track multiple attributes at once - position, orientation, size, count, and shading.
Traps to watch
- Single-attribute focus: you notice rotation but miss that shading also alternates.
- Assuming a rule from too few examples: confirm a pattern across at least three steps.
- Direction errors: clockwise versus anticlockwise, and mirror images versus rotations (a reflected shape cannot be rotated into its mirror).
- Distractor options that match one attribute but break another.
- Overcomplicated rules: the simplest consistent rule is usually correct.
Rule of thumb and worked example
Isolate one attribute at a time - position, then orientation, then count, then shading - and write the rule for each. Eliminate options that break any confirmed rule.
Example: A shape rotates 90° clockwise each step while the number of dots increases by one. After three steps the arrow has turned 270° clockwise (equivalent to 90° anticlockwise) and has gained three dots. Any option showing the correct rotation but the wrong dot count is wrong; only the option satisfying both rules is correct.
Practise by describing each figure aloud in terms of its attributes.