Non-Verbal Reasoning
What is tested
Non-verbal reasoning asks you to find rules in pictures. The main formats are series (a figure changes step by step), analogies ('this figure is to that figure as…'), 3×3 matrices with a missing cell, odd one out, and combined or superimposed shapes. The attributes that change are limited: number of sides, size, shading, position, orientation, symmetry, and the number or type of small shapes inside a larger one.
Traps
- Treating a mirror image as a rotation, or vice versa. A rotation turns the shape; a reflection flips it.
- Reading a matrix left-to-right when the rule actually runs down each column.
- Counting corners when the rule counts sides, or ignoring a change in shading.
- Choosing an answer that gets one attribute right and another wrong - the correct option must satisfy every rule at once.
- Assuming a rule applies to the whole series when it alternates.
Rule of thumb
Break each figure into separate attributes and track them one at a time: shape, count, shading, position, rotation. Write the rule as a sentence ('the arrow rotates 90° clockwise and the shading alternates'). Then test each option against the sentence.
Worked example
A series shows a square with a dot that moves from top-left, to top-right, to bottom-right. The dot is travelling clockwise one corner at a time, so the next position is bottom-left. A distractor with the dot in the right place but the square rotated fails the second rule - nothing else was supposed to change.