Figure Sequences — Strategy & Tricks

📐 What the item asks

Four small grids in a row. Something changes from one to the next, always by the same rule, and you say what comes next. Nothing to discover — a rule to name, then apply.

Each grid holds a few shapes in mostly empty cells. Between matrices a shape can move to another cell, turn, flip between filled and hollow, change colour, or be joined by another shape. That list is complete.

The pairing matters. Options often share a Matrix 5 and split on the sixth, or on a colour. Picture only Matrix 5 and you land on a shortlist, not an answer. Build the rule — it gives you the sixth free.

Notice what made that easy: you read a rule off the first step, then checked it twice more. The rest of this guide is a faster way of doing that.

👀 The first two seconds

Before you track anything, count. Different counts along the strip means a counter, and the count alone kills most options. Equal counts — the usual case — means the same shapes are being moved, turned or recoloured.

Most items above the easy band combine two rows of that table. That is not a harder kind of item; it is two easy items stacked, taken one at a time.

🧠 One property at a time

One idea underpins everything: a matrix has independent properties — cell, orientation, fill, count — and each follows its own rule. Read them separately and each is easy. Read them together and you see fog.

1. Count. Different counts means a counter; equal counts means the same shapes moved.
2. Pick one glyph and track only it. Cover the rest with a finger. Say its cell number across the strip aloud: "1, 2, 3, 6".
3. Name the step and direction. How many cells, which way, and what it does at the wall — wrap, bounce back, or turn the corner.
4. Confirm on every step, not just the first. A rule read from M1 → M2 is a guess; it becomes a rule when it also makes M3 from M2 and M4 from M3. This habit prevents more wrong answers than everything else here.
5. Now the second property. Orientation, then fill, then colour. Read it, confirm it on all three steps. Properties are independent: a shape can turn without moving and move without turning.
6. Build Matrix 5 in your head before looking at the options. Apply each confirmed property to Matrix 4 once, then find your picture. Read the options first and they will suggest rules to you — the wrong ones are built to.
7. If your picture is not there exactly, eliminate by property. Strike every option breaking something you are sure of, cheapest first: count, then fill and colour, then cell, then orientation.

1 — Count. One shape each: not a counter. 2 — Track it. Cells 1, 2, 3, 1. 3 — Name it. One cell right along the top row, wrapping at the wall. 4 — Confirm. Three out of three, and the third step is the valuable one: a bounce would have gone back to cell 2, so the strip settles the edge behaviour. 5 — Second property. Filled, hollow, filled, hollow — toggling, also three out of three. 6 — Build it. M4 is hollow in cell 1; one right is cell 2; hollow toggles to filled. Matrix 5 is a filled square in cell 2 — and you never looked at an option.

✂️ Named tricks that buy seconds

The keypad. Say the walk aloud. "1, 2, 3, 6, 9" is instantly clockwise round the border; the same walk seen as pictures is a blur. Learn the ring order once.

Fill parity. When fill alternates, Matrix 5's fill depends on Matrix 4 alone. One glance, one flip, and every wrongly-filled option dies before you have thought about position.

The wall test. At an edge a walker must wrap, bounce, or turn the corner. Find the matrix where it first hits the wall — that one alone tells you which. Strips include it on purpose.

The return check. Four 90° turns return a grid to its start; two mirrors do the same. So if M4 is identical to M1, Matrix 5 is identical to M2 — no rule-building needed.

The disagreement scan. Read the six options as a column. Any property they all agree on is not being tested. The property they split on is the item.

Anchor first, then ignore. A shape identical in all four is an anchor. Confirm it once and stop looking — but check it in the options, where a favourite decoy quietly hollows it.

Mirror or turn? Take one corner shape. A left-right mirror keeps its row; top-bottom keeps its column; 90° keeps neither; 180° sends it to the opposite corner.

⚡ The 75-second routine

Seventy-five seconds is comfortable if the first ten are spent well. People who run out of time are rarely slow at rotating shapes; they are slow at deciding what to look at first.

What to skip. Colour, unless the options disagree about it. Any glyph that never changes. Any second glyph, until the first is solved. And Matrix 6 — derive it only if two options survive on Matrix 5.

When to guess. At 75 seconds, stop deriving and start eliminating. Take every property you have confirmed — one is enough — strike the options that break it, and take the survivor matching the most. With no negative marking that is the highest-scoring move.

🪤 Where the points leak

Decoys are not random near-misses. Each is the correct matrix with exactly one property broken — which is why elimination by property beats eyeballing. The standing cast:

• The copied matrix. An exact duplicate of M2 or M4. Familiar is not next.
• The wrong-way turn. Anticlockwise where the rule is clockwise — the commonest error here.
• Mirror sold as a turn. 180° and a top-bottom mirror agree on one symmetric glyph and nothing else.
• The tampered anchor. All correct, except the shape meant to stay identical.
• One step short. M4 unchanged, for those who found the rule and forgot to apply it.
• Fill drift. Right cell, right orientation, fill carried from M3 instead of M4.
• The shared Matrix 5. Three options agree on the fifth and split on the sixth.
• The rule that fits step one. Explains M1 → M2 beautifully, cannot explain M3.

🧩 Six worked items, easy to hard

Cover the options each time and build Matrix 5 yourself before opening the answer.

🎯 Three drills for the scan

These train the reading, not the solving. Say your answer aloud before you open each one.

🧭 Solve one with me

A medium item of the kind that panics people: nothing sits still, and no single glyph is worth tracking. Answer each question before reading the next, and do not scroll to the options.

1. How many shapes? Three every time — circle, square, star. Nothing added or removed. Counter ruled out.
2. Does any shape have a simple walk? The circle goes 1, 3, 9, 7; the star 9, 7, 1, 3. Neither moves one cell at a time — they jump corner to corner. When individual tracks look wild, stop tracking individuals: the whole grid is transforming at once.
3. Turn or mirror? Use one corner. The circle goes 1 → 3, keeping its row, as a left-right mirror would. Now the square: 2 → 6. A left-right mirror sends cell 2 to itself, since 2 sits on the mirror line. So it is a turn.
4. Which turn? 1 → 3 → 9 → 7 is the top-left corner walking clockwise. Confirm with the square: 2 → 6 → 8 → 4, also clockwise. Three out of three.
5. Is there a shortcut? Four 90° turns return a grid to its start, and M1 to M5 is exactly four — so M5 equals M1. Check M4 is not already a copy of M1 (it is not: the circle is in 7), then read M1 off the page.
6. What will the decoys be? Predict them first. An anticlockwise turn, which from M4 reproduces M3. A 180° turn, which reproduces M2. Something with a hollowed circle.

📈 Build it up: easy, medium, hard

Work the tiers in order, untimed. The target is not a score — it is being able to say the rule in one sentence before looking at an option. If you cannot, the tier is not finished, however many you got right by recognising a picture.

Easy set — one property, untimed → 6 real easy questions · free, no login

Medium set — two properties and walls, untimed → 6 real medium questions · free, no login

Hard set — combined rules and decoys, untimed → 6 real hard questions · free, no login

Between tiers, re-read the traps section. Decoys at the next tier come from the same eight ideas applied to more properties at once, so the tier above is never as new as it looks.

⏱️ Against the clock

Speed here does not come from seeing faster; it comes from never re-reading. Every second spent going back to Matrix 1 is one the routine should have saved. Time each item and note where the seconds went: counting, tracking, confirming, or scanning options.

Easy set — 6 items, 35 seconds each → 6 real easy questions, against the clock · free, no login

Medium set — 6 items, 60 seconds each → 6 real medium questions, against the clock · free, no login

Hard set — 6 items, 75 seconds each → 6 real hard questions, against the clock · free, no login

🏆 Exam day

Twenty items, twenty-five minutes. Sets open with single-property items and thicken from the middle, so the early minutes are where time is banked or wasted. This family rewards a routine more than any other Core section: the reasoning is short, and most points lost go to a habit, not to difficulty.

• Count the shapes in all four matrices — two seconds, every item.
• Pick one glyph. Track only its cell. Say the numbers aloud.
• Name the step, the direction, and what happens at the wall.
• Confirm the rule on all three steps before accepting it.
• Second property: orientation. Third: fill. Confirm each.
• Build Matrix 5 in your head. Only then look at the options.
• Not there exactly? Strike on confirmed properties, cheapest first.
• Two survivors? Derive Matrix 6 — that is what the pair is for.
• At 75 seconds, take the option matching the most confirmed properties.

Mixed difficulty. Do not solve in order at any cost. Give a three-shape whole-grid item one pass; if the rule has not landed by 30 seconds, mark your best elimination and flag it. Two easy items rescued beat one hard item conquered.

The last thirty seconds. Stop solving. Answer every blank and flag — the option matching the most confirmed properties, or, if none, the one that is not a copy of an earlier matrix. An unanswered item is the only genuinely wasted one.

Exam simulation — 6 hard items at exam pace → 6 real hard questions, against the clock · free, no login

📋 Cheat sheet

• 20 items, 25 minutes, ~75 s each. Six options A–F, each a Matrix 5 + Matrix 6 pair. No negative marking.
• Only six things change: cell, orientation, fill, colour, size, count.
• Keypad: 5 is the centre; the ring runs 1-2-3-6-9-8-7-4 clockwise.
• Count first. Different counts = counter. Equal = same shapes moved.
• One property at a time, one glyph at a time.
• A rule seen once is a guess. Confirm on all three steps.
• At the wall: wrap, bounce, or turn the corner — the strip shows which.
• Fill parity: Matrix 5's fill depends on Matrix 4's alone.
• Return check: four 90° turns, or two mirrors, come back to the start.
• Mirror keeps a corner's row or column; 90° keeps neither; 180° goes opposite.
• Anchors: confirm, ignore — then check the options kept them.
• Build Matrix 5 in your head before reading a single option.
• Eliminate cheapest first: count, fill and colour, cell, orientation.
• Disagreement scan: the property options split on is the one tested.
• Decoys: a copy of M2 or M4, the wrong-way turn, the untoggled fill, the tampered anchor.
• Two options sharing Matrix 5? Derive Matrix 6.
• Stuck: name what is confirmed, strike what breaks it, take the best survivor.
• At 75 s answer and move; at 90 you steal from later items.
• Last 30 s: fill every blank. An unanswered item is the only wasted one.