What is a matrix reasoning test?

What a task looks like

A matrix reasoning test consists of tasks that show a grid of three by three cells. Eight of the cells contain figures; the ninth is empty. Below the grid are six options, and the task is to choose the one that fits the empty cell. There is always exactly one correct answer.

The figures in the cells follow rules that hold along the rows, along the columns or both. The rules govern different parts of the figure: shape, number, size, fill, direction, lines along the edge, a dot that moves. On the easiest tasks one rule applies. On the hardest, three or four apply at once, and the options differ in a single detail.

The tasks are timed and get harder as you go. The test does not measure knowledge; it measures the ability to see a pattern and draw a conclusion from it, without words and without numbers. That is why the format is also called non-verbal or abstract reasoning.

If you would rather see a task than read about one: five tasks can be solved on the start page, with answers.

The rules behind every task

What makes the format practisable is that the rules are few. We count fourteen rule types, and every task is built from one or more of them. Anyone who has seen all fourteen does not have to discover anything new during the test, only recognise.

The rules can be grouped by what they do:

• Series. Something changes by the same amount for every cell: step by step change, number of sides, degree of fill and movement along a path.
• Distribution. Three values each appear once in every row and column: three values distributed and nested figures.
• Combination. The third cell is built from the first two: patterns combined, patterns cancelling out and arithmetic on the number.
• Transformation. The cell is flipped or turned: mirroring and rotation of the whole cell.
• Linkage. One property determines another: conditional rule and covariation.
• Constant. A property stands still in every cell. That rule is in almost every task and is rarely the problem.

Every rule has a page of its own with a solved example and the answer. All the rules are collected here.

A working order that helps

The most common mistake is to look at the options first. Then you search for what looks right instead of what is right, and the wrong options are built to look right. The order below avoids that.

1. Split the cell into parts. Shape, number, size, fill, direction, lines, dot. Each part is governed by its own rule.
2. Find the rule for each part in rows one and two. Then check that it holds in the columns too.
3. Build the answer in your head before looking at the options. Which shape, how many, how large, which fill.
4. Eliminate options that break a rule. Several differ in a single detail, so go through one part at a time.
5. Use the time. A hasty mistake costs more than a few extra seconds, especially in an adaptive test where a mistake lowers the level of the next task.

Common mistakes

• Seeing a rotation where there is a mirroring. A turned L and a mirrored L look different, and the options often differ exactly there. Fix your eye on something that breaks the symmetry.
• Looking for a direction when the rule is a distribution. Three values that each appear once per row look like chance until you count.
• Reading two layers as one. A figure inside another follows its own rule. Read the outer one first, then the inner one.
• Settling for the row. Many rules hold in the columns too, and the empty cell must fit both ways.
• Trusting the eye on small differences. Six or seven corners, one size step, a quarter of fill. Count instead of estimating.

How much practice is needed

The format settles in after a few days. What matters is to have seen every rule type at least once, to have done a few timed tasks, and to have understood every mistake instead of just moving on. A few focused sessions give more than weeks of scattered practice.

Practice makes a difference on this kind of task: anyone who knows the format does not have to learn it during the test, makes fewer careless mistakes and uses the time better. Nobody can promise a result, and the level in our app is the app's own scale, not a prediction of any other test.

What separates good practice from bad is the answer. An answer that only says which option was correct teaches nothing. An answer that says which rule applied, and exactly what you missed, means the next task with the same rule goes right.

Matrix, logical, abstract, non-verbal

The words are used interchangeably, and all of them can refer to the same task. Aptitude or psychometric test is the broad term for tests that measure thinking, and such a test may contain several parts. Logical reasoning is the part about patterns and inference. Abstract and non-verbal reasoning say the same thing from another angle: no words, no numbers. Matrix reasoning is the format: a grid of three by three figures with one cell missing.

In recruitment the logical reasoning test is usually a matrix test, and that is what can be practised here. How the whole aptitude test is used in selection, and how to prepare in a few days, is on the page about logical reasoning tests in recruitment.