Nonverbal Reasoning
The Nonverbal battery removes words and numbers and asks you to reason with shapes and transformations. Its three subtests are Figure Matrices, Figure Classification, and Paper Folding. Because nothing is labeled, the rule must always be inferred from what changes and what stays the same between figures.
Figure matrices
Track attributes one at a time: shape, number of sides, count of objects, size, shading, orientation, position, and whether parts are added or removed. In a 2×2, the change from left to right must match the change from top to bottom, and both must hold. In a 3×3, find the transformation that works across a full row, confirm it on a second row, then apply it to the missing cell. When two attributes change at once, the answer must match both.
Figure classification
Three figures share a rule that is usually a combination, such as 'closed figure, exactly one line of symmetry, one dot inside.' Test each option against every part of that rule; the best answer satisfies all of it. Distractors are built to share one obvious feature - same shape, same number of objects - while failing the rest.
Paper folding
Each fold doubles the layers, so one punch through all layers produces 2ⁿ holes for n folds. The unfolded sheet must be symmetric across every fold line: each hole is mirrored to the other side at the same distance and in the same relative direction. A punch landing exactly on a fold line makes one hole, not two, because the halves join when the paper opens.
Worked example
Top row of a 2×2: a small black triangle pointing up on the left, the same triangle in white pointing up on the right. Bottom row: a large black triangle pointing up on the left. The left-to-right rule is shading inversion while size, shape, and orientation stay fixed. The missing cell is a large white triangle pointing up. A small white triangle would copy the top row's size and break the column rule.
Traps that cost marks
- Finding a row rule that breaks the corresponding column rule.
- Choosing an answer matching shape but not count, shading, or orientation.
- In paper folding, counting holes correctly but ignoring symmetry or which side of the fold line they sit on.
- Assuming every punch makes two holes when it lands on a fold.
- Accepting the first classification option that looks close instead of testing all of them.