Non-Verbal Reasoning Analogies

An analogy shows "A is to B as C is to ?". Work out how A changes into B, then do the same to C. The rule is not what B looks like. It is what happened to A.

Put a finger on C before you start: the third figure, just before the second arrow.

The method

Five beats: cover it, say what changed and what stayed, finish the rule, do it to C, check it.

1. Cover it. Hand over C and the options. Every wrong option is built to look likely.
2. Say what changed, then what stayed the same. Out loud, with a number or a name in it. "All four small shapes swap shade." Now the half everyone skips, and the one that wins marks. "Same size, still dashed." Stuck? Run the SHAPES+S scan below.
3. Finish the rule and say it as one instruction. Hard analogies carry two or three changes. Found a turn? Check the shade as well, and the count. Then say the lot in one go. "Turn it upside down, swap black for white, leave the tags alone." If you cannot say it, you have not found it.
4. Do it to C in your head. Say what you expect before you look.
5. Check every option against every part. Three parts means three checks. If two survive, you have missed a part, so go back to step 3. Never pick between survivors.

About 25 to 30 seconds each. Easy ones take 10, so bank that time for the hard ones.

Rules to watch

When nothing jumps out, scan the SHAPES+S.

• S — Shade. White, grey, hatched (thin diagonal lines) or black? The most common change of all. Shades swap, or one shape hands its shade to another. Judge a tone against the figure next to it, not from memory.
• H — How many. Count them. A shape can appear, vanish, split, double, or copy itself to each side.
• A — Angle. A quarter turn clockwise, a half turn, or reflected — flipped over like a mirror? Watch one corner. A turn walks it round the shape. A mirror jumps it straight across.
• P — Place. Moved, traded jobs, or gone inside? A small item becomes the big frame, the middle swaps with the corners, loose shapes tuck into containers, a whole ring shifts one place clockwise.
• E — Edges. A different shape? More sides? A solid line gone dashed?
• S — Size. Bigger or smaller?
• +S — Symmetry. Does the figure fold onto itself? Down the middle, across the middle, or the same upside-down. Fold the whole figure, not just its outline. Symmetry is rare in this type of question — check it last if all others fail. Easy to muddle: a mirror between two figures is Angle, above. This asks about one figure on its own.

Expect two or three changes, not one. A change can belong to one part only: the big shape turns while the little markers stay put.

Arrows, dashed lines and small badges are instructions. They show where copies will sit, or which parts turn black, and then they disappear.

Watch for these traps

Every wrong figure is almost your answer, with one thing wrong on purpose. Never choose by how it looks.

• One job not done. Much the most common. Your rule has three parts and the figure does two. Count your parts, then find each one.
• One job too many. Something that should have stayed still has moved as well. Say which parts stay put before you look.
• The right move, the wrong way round. Turned anticlockwise, stacked upside down, or swapped the wrong way. Put a direction in your rule.
• The right change on the wrong part. The correct move, done to the wrong shape or corner. Point at the part in C, then the same part in the figure.
• One too few, or one too many. Four copies came out as two, or a small mark has quietly vanished. Count the small shapes.
• C with nothing done to it. It feels safe because it matches C. Something must always happen.

Stuck? Work down this list rather than guessing.

1. Is B the same object, turned or shaded or resized? Or the same parts rearranged? That tells you which half of the scan to run.
2. See what the options disagree about. Anything they all share cannot be the rule.
3. Cross out on the one part you are sure of, choose, and move on.

Try these yourself

Now have a go yourself — tap the figure that completes the analogy.

Related

• The complete 11+ question-type guide
• NVR: Series — the same rule, shown four times instead of once
• NVR: Matrices — an analogy in a box, running two ways at once

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