The goal for abstract reasoning is to uncover the pattern and then use that pattern to find out which multiple-choice option is correct.

But there are two main rules to solving abstract reasoning.

1. Each abstract reasoning image is made up of parts.
2. Patterns can be within an image or within the sequence of images. A sequence is a series of images – examples of them are shown below.

Within these two main rules, the patterns that you should look out for are as follows:

• Rotation – by what degree?
• Position movement – by how much and where?
• Direction – N, E, S, W and those in between, like NE, NW etc…
• Colors – black, grey, white, patterns…
• Size – becoming bigger, becoming smaller?

Let's look at the following images to illustrate these 2 main rules:

Pointillism Pumpkin by Samantha Geernaert

http://fineartamerica.com/featured/pointillism-pumpkin-samantha-geernaert.html

For the above, we've considered:

• The whole picture
• Individual parts (dots itself) – pattern exists in the colouring of the dots.

Now for the next 2 examples, we will go through:

1. Made up of parts.
2. Patterns can be within an image or within the sequence of images.

Example 1

Example 2

Let’s look at some example questions:

Example 1

Example 2

Example 3

Key Rules to remember:

• Parts of the image – the changes are usually likely to occur there as opposed to the 'whole picture'.
• Consider patterns within the image and outside of the image within the sequence.

Common patterns are:

• Rotation – by what degree?
• Position movement – by how much and where?
• Direction – N, E, S, W and those in between, like NE, NW etc…
• Colors – black, grey, white, patterns…
• Size – becoming bigger, becoming smaller

Now it's time to do your assignment.

1. Download the assignment questions here.
2. Print it out or if you want to do it electronically, save it.
3. Complete the questions to it.
4. Then check the solutions on the video below. The answer key is also on the final page of your downloaded assignment questions.

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