Pattern Completion
Pattern Completion presents a design with one section missing and asks which option supplies the missing piece. On NNAT3 Level C the designs are geometric: colored shapes arranged in rows, columns, grids, or symmetric figures. The correct choice must satisfy every visible rule, not just the most obvious one.
Read the design in more than one direction
Check rows and columns separately. A row may alternate red triangle, blue square, red triangle; a column may repeat the same sequence downward. Also test symmetry: if the left half mirrors the right half, the missing piece on the right must mirror its partner on the left.
Worked example
A 3-by-3 grid has top row red triangle, blue square, red triangle; middle row blue square, red triangle, blue square; bottom row red triangle, blue square, missing. The third row alternates, so the missing cell is a red triangle. Column 3 is red triangle, blue square, red triangle, which confirms it. A choice that is a red square fits the color of the row but breaks both the shape alternation and the column.
Traps that cost marks
- Choosing on color alone or shape alone.
- Ignoring a line or border that must continue across the gap.
- Letting one row override a conflicting column; the real pattern satisfies both.
- Assuming mirror symmetry when the design is actually rotationally symmetric or only alternating.