Spatial Orientation and Map Reading
What this domain tests
Spatial Orientation and Map Reading tests whether you can place yourself on a street grid, name the side of the street and the direction of traffic, and turn a map or an address into a physical location. Questions may use a simple diagram or ask you to reason from street names and numbers.
Manhattan as the reference grid
Avenues run roughly north–south and are numbered from east to west (First Avenue on the East Side, Twelfth Avenue on the West Side). Streets run roughly east–west and rise in number going north. Fifth Avenue divides East from West addresses, so "200 West 42nd Street" lies west of Fifth Avenue and "200 East 42nd Street" lies east of it. In Manhattan, 20 blocks north–south is about one mile, and odd and even house numbers face each other across the street.
Working a location question
Fix the compass first, then the street, then the side. Standing on the north side of an east–west street facing east, your left hand points north. One-way arrows on a map show traffic direction, which determines whether a vehicle at the curb was facing toward or away from a sign.
Worked example
Find the north side of East 14th Street between Third and Fourth Avenues. East 14th runs east–west; "East" places it east of Fifth Avenue; Third and Fourth Avenues are consecutive, so the block is short. The north side is the side nearest 15th Street, one block north.
Traps
Mixing left and right with north and south while facing traffic. Counting avenues as streets. Forgetting that house numbers increase away from Fifth Avenue in both directions, so a low number is near Fifth and a high number is near the river.