Abstract Reasoning: What It Is, How IQ Tests Use It, Answers
Abstract reasoning is the ability to find the rule behind an unfamiliar pattern of shapes and apply it to predict what comes next, without relying on words, numbers or prior knowledge. IQ tests use it as their main window on fluid intelligence, and employers use the same item types (series, matrices, odd one out) to predict how quickly you learn on the job. Below you will find what the tests actually measure, how IQ and employer versions differ, and eight practice questions with explained answers.
What Is Abstract Reasoning?
Psychologists split general intelligence into two broad parts, a model that goes back to Raymond Cattell and was later developed with John Horn:
- Fluid intelligence (Gf): solving problems you have never seen before, spotting relationships and working out rules on the spot.
- Crystallised intelligence (Gc): what you have learned and can retrieve, such as vocabulary, facts and procedures.
Abstract reasoning tests are built to tap Gf. Because they use circles, arrows, dots and lines rather than sentences, a 45-year-old accountant and a 19-year-old student start on roughly equal footing. Nobody has been taught that "the black dot moves one corner clockwise", so the item tests whether you can see it.
You will meet the same skill under several labels: non-verbal reasoning, inductive reasoning, diagrammatic or figural reasoning, matrix reasoning and logical reasoning (in some publishers' catalogues).
How Abstract Reasoning Appears in IQ Tests
| Test | Abstract reasoning element | Typical use |
|---|---|---|
| Raven's Progressive Matrices | Entire test is matrix completion | Research, education, some selection |
| Wechsler scales (WAIS for adults, WISC for children) | Matrix Reasoning and Figure Weights subtests (in the Fluid Reasoning index of the current WISC and WAIS editions) | Clinical and educational assessment |
| Cattell Culture Fair Intelligence Test | Series, classification, matrices and conditions | Research, cross-cultural testing |
| Stanford-Binet | Non-verbal fluid reasoning subtests | Clinical and gifted assessment |
| Mensa admission tests | Supervised tests that vary by country, often including matrix or figure items | Entry for scores at or above the 98th percentile |
Raven's Progressive Matrices, first published by John C. Raven in 1938, is the purest example: every item is a grid with one missing piece, and the items get harder by adding more rules at once. Scores on Raven-type tasks correlate so strongly with full-scale IQ that researchers often use them as a stand-in for general intelligence. If matrix items are your main concern, our guide to matrix reasoning questions breaks the 3x3 format down rule by rule.
What the Test Is Really Measuring
When you solve an abstract reasoning item, several mental processes run together:
- Noticing variables. You list what can change: shape, size, shading, position, number, orientation.
- Inducing a rule. From a few examples you form a hypothesis such as "one extra line each step".
- Holding several rules at once. Harder items combine two or three rules. This loads working memory, and it is the main reason difficulty climbs so steeply.
- Testing and rejecting. Good reasoners check their rule against every example before committing, and abandon it quickly when it fails.
That last point explains why practice helps more than people expect. Much of the gap between average and strong scorers is not raw insight but disciplined checking.
IQ Tests vs Employer Aptitude Tests
The item formats look similar, but the experience is not.
| IQ test | Employer aptitude test | |
|---|---|---|
| Purpose | Estimate ability level for clinical, educational or research use | Rank applicants for a job |
| Timing | Often untimed or generous | Strict, usually 30 to 75 seconds per item |
| Setting | Often one-to-one with a psychologist | Online, often unsupervised, sometimes re-verified later |
| Score | IQ standard score (mean 100, SD 15) | Percentile against a norm group of applicants |
| Difficulty | Ramps up until you fail several items | Fixed set or adaptive, mixed difficulty |
The practical consequence: someone who scores well on an untimed IQ test can still underperform on an employer test because of time pressure. The reverse also happens. We cover the wider comparison in aptitude tests vs IQ tests, and how employers use these scores in our IQ tests in recruitment guide.
Worked Example: Solving an Item Step by Step
Imagine a series of four boxes. Box 1 holds a large white circle with a small black square at the top. Box 2 holds a large white circle with the small square at the right. Box 3 holds a large black circle with the small square at the bottom. Box 4 holds a large black circle with the small square at the left. What is box 5?
Step 1: list the variables. Circle shading, square position. Nothing else changes.
Step 2: find each rule separately. The square moves 90 degrees clockwise each step: top, right, bottom, left. The circle shading goes white, white, black, black, so it changes every two boxes.
Step 3: apply both rules. The square returns to the top. The shading pattern white-white-black-black repeats, so box 5 is white.
Answer: a large white circle with the small square at the top.
Step 4: check against the options. If one option shows a black circle with the square at the top, it is a trap for anyone who assumed the shading simply stays black once it changes.
Practice Questions With Answers
Each item is described in words. Sketching it on paper takes ten seconds and makes it easier.
Question 1
A row of five squares contains dots. The squares contain 1, 2, 4, 7 and 11 dots. How many dots are in the sixth square?
A) 14 B) 15 C) 16 D) 18
Answer: C. The differences are +1, +2, +3, +4, so the next difference is +5 and 11 + 5 = 16.
Question 2
An arrow appears in each figure. Figure 1: a black arrow pointing north. Figure 2: a white arrow pointing north-east. Figure 3: a black arrow pointing east. What is figure 4?
A) A black arrow pointing south-east B) A white arrow pointing south-east C) A white arrow pointing south D) A black arrow pointing south
Answer: B. The arrow turns 45 degrees clockwise each step (north, north-east, east, so south-east next), and the colour alternates black, white, black, so figure 4 is white.
Question 3
Which figure is the odd one out?
A) A triangle with 3 dots inside B) A square with 4 dots inside C) A pentagon with 5 dots inside D) A hexagon with 5 dots inside
Answer: D. In every other figure the number of dots equals the number of sides. The hexagon has 6 sides but only 5 dots.
Question 4
A 3x3 grid. Each cell contains one shape (circle, square or triangle) with one fill (black, white or striped). Row 1: black circle, white square, striped triangle. Row 2: white triangle, striped circle, black square. Row 3: striped square, black triangle, missing. What is the missing cell?
A) White circle B) Black circle C) White square D) Striped circle
Answer: A. Every row and every column contains each shape once and each fill once. Row 3 already has a square and a triangle, so the missing shape is a circle; it already has striped and black, so the fill is white. Column 3 (striped triangle, black square, white circle) confirms it.
Question 5
A 3x3 grid in which each cell contains a number of short vertical lines. Row 1: 1 line, 2 lines, 3 lines. Row 2: 2 lines, 3 lines, 5 lines. Row 3: 3 lines, 4 lines, missing. How many lines are in the missing cell?
A) 5 B) 6 C) 7 D) 12
Answer: C. In each row the third cell equals the first two added together: 1 + 2 = 3, 2 + 3 = 5, so 3 + 4 = 7.
Question 6
Each figure is a 2x2 block of small squares (top-left, top-right, bottom-left, bottom-right), some of them shaded. In each row, figure 3 is made by overlaying figures 1 and 2. Row 1: figure 1 shades top-left and top-right; figure 2 shades top-right and bottom-right; figure 3 shades top-left and bottom-right. Row 2: figure 1 shades top-left and bottom-left; figure 2 shades bottom-left; figure 3 shades top-left. Row 3: figure 1 shades top-right, bottom-left and bottom-right; figure 2 shades top-left and top-right. Which squares are shaded in figure 3?
A) Top-left, bottom-left and bottom-right B) All four squares C) Bottom-left and bottom-right only D) Top-right only
Answer: A. Squares shaded in exactly one of the two figures stay shaded; squares shaded in both cancel out (row 1 loses top-right, row 2 loses bottom-left). In row 3, top-right appears in both and disappears, leaving top-left, bottom-left and bottom-right.
Question 7
Each figure is a circle with a small black dot on its edge and a number of straight lines inside. Figure 1: dot at the top, 1 line. Figure 2: dot at the right, 3 lines. Figure 3: dot at the bottom, 5 lines. Figure 4: dot at the left, 7 lines. What is figure 5?
A) Dot at the top, 9 lines B) Dot at the right, 9 lines C) Dot at the top, 8 lines D) Dot at the left, 9 lines
Answer: A. The dot moves a quarter turn clockwise each step, so after the left it returns to the top. The lines increase by 2 each time, so 7 + 2 = 9.
Question 8
A series of six shapes: white triangle, black octagon, white square, black heptagon, white pentagon, missing. What is the sixth shape?
A) Black hexagon B) White hexagon C) Black heptagon D) White pentagon
Answer: A. Two series are interleaved. Positions 1, 3 and 5 are white shapes gaining a side (3, 4, 5). Positions 2, 4 and 6 are black shapes losing a side (8, 7, so 6). The sixth shape is a black hexagon. Option C is the trap for anyone who only noticed that black shapes alternate.
Typical Traps
- Stopping at the first rule. In Question 2, the rotation is obvious; the colour change is the part people miss.
- Testing a rule on one row only. A rule must fit every row and column, not just the one nearest the gap.
- Ignoring interleaved series. When a sequence looks erratic, check odd and even positions separately, as in Question 8.
- Over-complicating. If your rule needs a paragraph to explain, look again for something simpler. Test designers rarely use more than three rules at once.
Time Strategy
On an IQ test with generous timing, use the time: check every option against your rule before answering. On an employer test, work from the per-item budget. Divide the total time by the number of questions, aim to bank a few seconds on the easy early items, and give yourself a hard limit of roughly twice the average before guessing and moving on. An unanswered question scores zero, and most employer tests do not deduct marks for wrong answers. Our abstract reasoning speed techniques cover pacing in more detail.
A Two-Week Practice Plan
| Days | Focus | Time per day |
|---|---|---|
| 1 to 3 | Learn the core rules: rotation, reflection, number, shading, position, overlay | 20 minutes |
| 4 to 6 | Untimed series and odd-one-out sets; write the rule down for each item | 25 minutes |
| 7 to 9 | Matrix items; check rows and columns every time | 25 minutes |
| 10 to 12 | Timed mixed sets at the speed of your target test | 30 minutes |
| 13 to 14 | One full-length timed test, then review every mistake | 40 minutes |
Keep a short error log: mistakes usually cluster around one or two rule types. If you are not sure which publisher's format you will face, use the test finder to match your employer to a test type.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is abstract reasoning the same as IQ?
No. Abstract reasoning is one ability within IQ. Full IQ batteries also measure vocabulary, working memory and processing speed, but abstract reasoning scores correlate strongly with the overall result, which is why it sits at the core of most tests.
Why do IQ tests use shapes instead of words?
Shapes reduce the influence of language, schooling and culture. A candidate who has never read a particular book can still spot that a figure rotates 90 degrees each step, so the item measures reasoning rather than knowledge.
Can practising abstract reasoning raise my IQ?
Practice reliably raises scores on the same kind of test, mostly because you learn the common rules and work faster. Research on retesting shows gains of roughly a quarter of a standard deviation, but there is little evidence that it changes underlying fluid intelligence.
How long does an abstract reasoning test take?
Clinical IQ subtests are often untimed or loosely timed. Employer tests are stricter: most give you between 30 and 75 seconds per item, with full tests running 15 to 30 minutes.
What is a good abstract reasoning score?
Employers usually compare you with a norm group and report a percentile. Anything above the 50th percentile beats the average applicant in that group. Cut-offs are set by each employer and rarely published, so aim to be comfortably above average rather than for a specific number.