Another common pattern in abstract reasoning comes in the form of rotation. Rotation is often used in conjunction with other patterns like direction and position.

What’s a rotation?

A rotation turns a shape or line about a fixed point.

This point is called the centre of rotation.

You need three things in a rotation:

1. the direction of the rotation (clockwise or anti-clockwise)
2. the angle (45°, 90° and 180° are the most commo)
3. the centre of rotation (this is sometimes the tricky part in abstract reasoning to pinpoint).
   

The centre of rotation could allow the shape to rotate around:

• vertically
• horizontally
• at an angle
• in the case of many 2D shapes, around a given point on the page.

The first 3 points are more difficult rotations and usually used with 3D shapes (and in very difficult abstract reasoning exams using 2D shapes). And, your more common abstract reasoning questions focus on the last dot point – a rotation around a given point (often repeated at a set position) on the page.

A well-known rotation is the Earth. While it circles the sun (it doesn’t rotate the sun), it rotates on its own imaginary axis. 1 rotation = 1 day (24 hours).

BorisFromStockdale / CC BY-SA

Why is this important?

Rotation is prevalent in many abstract reasoning questions whether by itself or with other patterns. Knowing how to detect rotation as a pattern visually will help you to answer questions more quickly.

When you have a rotation pattern, express it in words as:

Previous shape rotated n degrees, clockwise/anti-clockwise at point in x position.

To detect an abstract reasoning question with rotation, you’re looking at images/parts that have:

• repeating constant position (for the centre point).
• an angle change in a particular direction.
• original dimension of the shape stays the same.

Essentially, you’re looking for ‘invisible’ multiple points where at each point, the shape has been rotated by a given degree.

Let’s look at rotation visually (discussed in video).

Underdark / CC BY-SA

Lukas Stockner / CC BY-SA

Let’s apply this area now as a pattern detection method to the following question/s.

Example Question/s

Watch video for explanation of the following question/s:

Key Rules to remember

• The direction of the rotation (clockwise or anti-clockwise)
• The angle (45°, 90° and 180° are the most common)
• The centre of rotation (this is sometimes the tricky part in abstract reasoning to pinpoint)

Practice time!

Now, it's your turn to practice.

Click on the button below and start your practice questions. We recommend doing untimed mode first, and then, when you're ready, do timed mode.

Every question has two solutions videos after you complete the question. The first is a quick 60 second video that shows you how our expert answers the question quickly. The second video is a more in-depth 5-steps or less explainer video that shows you the steps to take to answer the question. It's really important that you review the second video because that's where you'll learn additional tips and tricks.

Once you're done with the practice questions, move on to the next checkpoint.

Now, let’s get started on your practice questions.

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