InView cheat sheet

The task is to find the one word that does NOT share the attribute common to the other four; that shared attribute is the classifying rule.

Test rules in this order: class membership (all are birds), part-whole (all are parts of a car), function (all are cutting tools), degree (all lie on one intensity scale), and derivation (all are nouns formed from verbs).

A valid rule must fit exactly four words and exclude exactly one; a rule that excludes two or more words is the wrong rule.

If two rules each exclude only one word, prefer the more specific and concrete rule over a broad abstract one.

When the list contains one superordinate term and three subordinates, the superordinate is usually the odd word.

Look for synonym sets: three near-synonyms plus one near-antonym means the antonym is the answer.

Words with several meanings (bank, bat, spring) can be forced into a category by a secondary meaning; evaluate each under its most common meaning first.

Compound-word traps: a two-part word may belong to the category through one element while its other element points to a different domain.

Build a precise bridge sentence linking the two stem words; the same sentence, unchanged, must read correctly with the answer pair.

Core relations to test: synonym, antonym, part-to-whole, whole-to-part, category-to-member, member-to-category, function, cause-effect, degree, worker-tool, worker-product, and sequence.

Direction is part of the rule: a part-to-whole stem cannot be answered with a whole-to-part choice.

Grammatical shift matters: child : young (noun to adjective) requires an answer with the same shift, not merely a related idea.

Degree pairs must keep direction and magnitude: if the stem runs weak to strong, the answer must also run weak to strong.

When two choices satisfy the bridge sentence, tighten the sentence with an extra qualifier until only one choice fits.

Reject choices that are merely associated by topic with the stem but lack the stem's exact relation.

Analyse one attribute at a time: shape, size, orientation, shading, number of elements, position, and presence of internal lines.

Rotation: measure the angle turned between consecutive frames; a constant increment carries into the next frame (common steps are 45, 90 and 180 degrees).

Reflection versus rotation: a mirrored figure reverses handedness (clockwise order of features becomes counter-clockwise); rotation leaves handedness unchanged.

Counts often follow +1, +2, +3 or doubling; write the counts out as a number series to expose the rule.

Alternating patterns: check odd and even positions separately before concluding that no rule exists.

Position tracking: follow one element around corners or grid cells; its movement is usually constant in both direction and step size.

Shading: look for simple alternation, inversion every second frame, or progressive darkening of one region per step.

If one frame breaks an otherwise smooth pattern, the series is probably two interleaved strands rather than a single rule.

Format is A : B :: C : ?, so the transformation that converts A into B must be applied to C in the same direction and with the same magnitude.

Catalogue the change explicitly: rotation angle, reflection axis, size factor, colour swap, element added or removed, element moved, count change.

Reflection reverses orientation; rotation preserves it. Check an asymmetric landmark (a flag on a pole, a notch on one side) to tell them apart.

Quantities must match: if A to B adds two dots, C to the answer adds two dots, not one and not three.

Eliminate choices that apply the correct transformation in reverse (B to A instead of A to B).

Eliminate choices that transform only part of the figure; the rule must apply to every element consistently.

When two answers look plausible, look for a secondary attribute such as shading or an interior line that only one choice preserves.

Number series: compute first differences; constant difference means arithmetic, constant ratio means geometric; otherwise compute second differences.

Common families: arithmetic (+d), geometric (×r), squares, cubes, primes, alternating two-strand series, and Fibonacci-style series where each term is the sum of the previous two.

Average = sum ÷ count; sum = average × count. For an evenly spaced set the average equals (first + last) ÷ 2.

Percent change = (new − old) ÷ old × 100. A 20% increase must be followed by a 16.7% decrease to return to the original value.

Distance = rate × time. For a round trip, average speed = total distance ÷ total time, not the mean of the two speeds.

Combined work: 1/T = 1/a + 1/b, where a and b are the individual times needed to finish the job alone.

Ratio problems: convert to parts; total ÷ number of parts gives the value of one part.

Successive percent changes multiply: a 10% rise then a 20% rise equals one 32% rise, not 30%.