Non-Verbal Intelligence and Reasoning
What is tested
Non-verbal reasoning asks you to infer a rule from shapes alone. The main types:
- Series - a figure changes step by step; track rotation (usually 45° or 90°, clockwise or anticlockwise), number of sides, added or removed inner elements, and shading alternation.
- Analogy - the same transformation must be applied to a second figure.
- Odd one out - check side counts, symmetry, enclosed regions, and whether the figure can be drawn without lifting the pen.
- Mirror and water images - a mirror reverses left and right but not top and bottom; a water image reverses top and bottom.
- Paper folding and punching - unfold in reverse order, mirroring holes across each fold line.
- Embedded figures and figure counting - count every size, including composites formed by overlapping lines.
- Matrix completion - a rule holds across each row and each column.
Traps
- Changing one property while ignoring another, such as rotation and shading shifting together.
- Counting only the obvious triangles or squares and missing those built from two or more parts.
- Confusing the mirror image with the water image, or reflecting about a diagonal axis.
- Assuming the number of elements is constant when the rule adds one at each step.
Rule of thumb
Describe each figure in about four words - for example "square, two dots, clockwise, dark" - and compare descriptions along the series. Whatever changes is the rule; whatever stays fixed is the invariant. Confirm your answer against at least two consecutive steps before committing.
Worked example: a pointer turns 90° clockwise each step and alternates filled/hollow; after four steps it points in its original direction but with the opposite shading.