Abstract Reasoning

AR is one of my weakest areas. Sometimes no matter how hard I look I just don't see the pattern.

The kaplan mnemonic is:

S   hape
C  olour
A rrangement
N  unmber
S  ize

I don't usually have time to go through these for each question, so I don't think the kaplan method was really useful to me in this section. Sometimes even if I know the problem lies in the arrangement of the shapes, I can't actually find how they differ. It's so frustrating because it doesn't seem like something you can change about yourself. You either see the pattern or you don't. Maybe I'm just being pessimistic and it is something you can practice and get better at. I will practice it and see.

13 minutes to answer 55 items. -about one minute for each question (11 of them)
Reference point- at question 27 you should be at about 6mins 30 secs

Steps:

1. ignore the test shape!

2. look at the set and find the pattern (using SCANS/or 'CATSPENIS' mneumonics)

3. check the test shape

4. eliminate and select

** if it takes you too long to figure out the test shape, mark an answer and flag (ALT + F), (ALT+N)


Some patters:

*Shapes go clockwise, other set goes counterclockwise

*Relationship between direction of arrow and a shape: for example in set A- arrow pointing downwards represent 3/4 of a circle, arrow pointing right represents 2/4 of circle, arrow pointing up represents 1/4 of circle and arrow pointing left represents both 1/1 and no circle present. So you can see that two shapes are changing. The arrow is going clockwise and the circle is also increasing by 1/4 with each clockwise turn of the arrow.

*Set A- more sides on outer shape than inner shape - e.g. square containing a triangle
Set B- more sides in inner shape than outer shape -e.g. square containing pentagon


*Set A- at least 3 circles close to each other
Set B- no two circles are close to each other and each box contains 6 circles

*Set A- odd number of shapes. There are more shaded than not. At least one quadrilateral and one black hexagon.
Set B- even number of shapes with none shaded. At least one quadrilateral.

*Set A- shapes point to the right
Set B- shapes point to the left

*Set A- triangle above circle
Set B- circle above triangle

*Set A- odd number of shapes. Bottom left shape is black
Set B- even number of shapes. Top right shape is black

*Set A- Right angled triangle
Set B- isosceles triangle

*Set A- biggest shape is white, smallest shape is black
set B- smallest shape is white (the other shapes are not necessary black)

*Set A- all straight shapes are filled, 2 quadrilaterals means arrow points right
Set B- all curved shapes are filled. 2 quadrilaterals means arrow points left

*Set A- has an even number of shapes, with none shaded- Ignore the smiley face (very hard to ignore)
set B- off number of shapes, more shaded than not. Ignore the smiley face.

*(hard)
Set A- the interior angles of all shapes and intersecting lines summates to 720 degrees
Set B- the interior angles of all shapes and intersecting lines summates to 360 degrees

*Set A- square enclosed by a circle, if no square then triangle
Set B- square enclosed by triangle, if no square then circle