TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. Introduction
2. About the author
3. Approach to abstract reasoning exercises
3.1. Overview
3.2. Most common abstract reasoning rules
3.3. EPSO abstract tests
3.4. Method to solve these questions
3.5. Strategies to improve your score
3.6. Mental gymnastics
4. Sample questions
5. Analysing and solving questions
Five steps to solve the exercises
Exercise 1
Exercise 2
Exercise 3
Exercise 4
Exercise 5
Exercise 6
Exercise 7
Exercise 8
Exercise 9
Exercise 10
Exercise 11
Exercise 12
 Exercise 13
Exercise 14
Exercise 15
Exercise 16
Exercise 17
Exercise 18
Exercise 19
Exercise 20
6. Conclusions and recommendations
Appreciation to the reader
1. INTRODUCTION

This book is intended to help prepare abstract reasoning tests for

competitions or selection procedures, especially those ones organised by the
European Personnel Selection Office (EPSO), like Administrators (AD),
Assistants (AST), and contract agents (CAST), to get a job in the EU
institutions.
For many candidates, this type of tests is really difficult to face, especially
if they are not used to undergo psychometric evaluations or intelligence
tests based on finding the logic in various series.
So I will explain here the tools that you need to pass an abstract reasoning
test, making you trust your own abilities to succeed in your future
competitions.
First, I will give you an overview about this kind of exercises, clarifying the
particular conditions of EPSO tests, as well as presenting my method to
solve the abstract reasoning questions.
Then, in the main part of this book, we will analyse in detail a series of
sample exercises, carefully chosen and very similar to the ones that you are
going to find in the real exams.
As in our two previous books for the numerical reasoning test [1] , the reader
should not expect to find a wide collection of exercises aimed only to
practise, as they are already available in other books and platforms (some of
which are very useful; I will recommend them here), but we will better
focus on teaching the candidate various techniques and strategies to
improve their performance in abstract reasoning.
So, instead of presenting a large number of exercises with a quite short
description of each solution (mostly based on explaining why this or that
option is right and the others are wrong), which is often an obstacle to its
full understanding for many candidates with the above mentioned
difficulties, I prefer to select a smaller number of exercises, from the types
more frequently found in real tests, to explain each one in depth, guiding
you step-by-step along the process –mental and technical– that will allow
you to get to the correct answer of every question.
In the end, I will summarise my conclusions and recommendations about
abstract reasoning tests, as a reminder to the reader.
I hope that, as you become familiarised with this kind of exercises, I will be
able to show you that they can be seen as something even amusing (e.g.,
like those pastimes on the newspapers and magazines), and always useful to
improve your logical skills and creative thinking.
Finally, I encourage you to devote enough time and effort to prepare your
selection procedures. No professional success of your life will be
comparable to the satisfaction and excitement of passing an open
competition, and getting a job at the public administration.
I wish my readers the best of luck.
2. ABOUT THE AUTHOR

He is an economist and official at the public administration in Spain, having

held several positions as a head of unit from 2009 to the present, mostly in
the areas of human resources, finance, programme management, law
enforcement and general administration.
He has been a successful candidate in the verbal, numerical and abstract
reasoning tests of the highly competitive EPSO Administrators' cycle and
various EPSO CAST FG IV profiles.
He has also worked as a national expert at the European Commission,
provided training to civil servants, and coached many candidates for the
EPSO reasoning tests, helping them improve their numerical and abstract
thinking abilities.
3. APPROACH TO ABSTRACT REASONING EXERCISES

3.1. Overview
Abstract reasoning can be defined as the ability to reason logically with
fresh, unfamiliar information to solve new problems, in an independent way
of any prior knowledge.
This ability is more and more appreciated by recruiters in a constantly
changing environment, so we will often find tests to measure abstract
reasoning skills in many selection processes, not only for private companies
in leading sectors (e.g., consulting, technology or sustainable energy), but
also in open competitions for the public administration.
To better understand the concept of abstract reasoning and what is expected
of the candidate in these tests, it is useful to introduce here the notions of
fluid intelligence and crystallised intelligence , presented for the first time
in 1963 by the psychologist Raymond Cattell, in his psychometrically-
based theory [2] :
- fluid intelligence is the ability to solve novel reasoning problems
and is related to skills such as logical analysis, flexible thinking,
and creativity. For example, this is the type of reasoning measured
by using figure series or shape associations, like the ones required
in the EPSO abstract reasoning tests to which we dedicate this
book.
- crystallised intelligence is the ability to use prior knowledge and
experience, by accessing learned information from long-term
memory, and is related to the studies, culture, background, and
professional experience, among other factors. For example, tests on
arithmetical problems, vocabulary, drafting, or a field interview are
all of them designed to measure this kind of intelligence.
3.2. Most common abstract reasoning rules
If you have carefully read the previous concepts, you will probably find a
certain contradiction in our title for this section: seeing that abstract
reasoning is about solving new problems with unfamiliar information and
independently to any prior knowledge, how could we set any kind of ‘rules’
on these exercises at all?
Fortunately for our purpose here, any skill, physical or intellectual, ‘soft’ or
‘hard’ (and even the ‘fluid’ ones), can be trained and improved, by devoting
enough time and effort to analyse and develop it. So we can study the most
common types of series used in abstract reasoning tests to try to prepare in
advance our potential lines of response.
This way, after analysing in detail a wide variety of abstract reasoning
questions from different selection procedures, private and public
organisations, books, and online platforms, we can summarise below the
most common variation rules that we have found in our research:
- Rotations (of objects or positions)
- Inversions
- Reflections
- Translations (in a grid, line, blank space…)
- Superpositions
- Compositions
- Visual arithmetic (using addition and subtraction; including
evolving rules, e.g., moving 1 place, 2 places, 3 places…: +1, +2,
+3…; or moving back and forward: +1, -2, +3, -4…)
- Transformations (shape, size, shade…)
- Sequences/alternations: they may reset, reverse or repeat
- Indicators with instructions (pointing to a future
location/change/disappearing; activating movement or colour
change, etc.)
- Combined or interacting rules (e.g., changes in position and size,
reflections and translations…)
3.3. EPSO abstract tests
The abstract reasoning tests of the competitions organised by EPSO are
aimed at measuring the fluid intelligence in the sense that we explained, and
usually based on one or more of the variation rules above mentioned.
According to the text of most calls that include this exercise (AD, AST,
CAST) or the EPSO website when clarifying their tests, we can see that the
pre-selection test or ‘first round’ of the competitions comprises an abstract
reasoning test to assess “your ability to think logically and understand the
relations between concepts involving no linguistic, spatial or numerical
elements”.
The test, like the others of this phase (verbal and numerical reasoning ones),
is done using the computer, so they are called Computer-Based Tests
(CBT).
Moreover, the format of this pre-selection round is based on Multiple-
Choice Questions (MCQ), so you need to quickly study the series and make
your deductions to find out which is the right answer from the options
offered.
The abstract reasoning test is usually composed of 20 questions and lasts 20
minutes, with a pass-mark of 10/20 for both AD and AST competitions. For
the CAST calls, the pass-mark (10/20) is combined between the numerical
and abstract reasoning tests, so if your performance were poor in one of
these parts (e.g., 3/10), you could offset it by a good result in the other part
(i.e., 7/10 in this example), and eventually pass this round.
Of course, we should pay attention to every particular call that we are going
to apply for, to check if some other conditions or pass-marks are
established.
During the exam, you will have available on your desk a couple of
laminated sheets with erasable markers that are provided for the numerical
part of the CBT (as well as a physical calculator), which you could use in
case you needed to take some notes on the steps in the series, although we
recommend making all your deductions mentally to save time.
About the structure of the abstract reasoning tests, each question is
composed of:
- the statement of the question itself – a standard sentence like ‘Which
figure is next in the series? ’ or similar (so, as you can see, unlike the other
reasoning tests, the language chosen for the CBT is completely irrelevant
here);
- five items shown of the series that you should carefully analyse (shapes,
patterns, changes…);
- five answer options from which you have to select the sixth item (hidden)
of the series, i.e., the only one that meets all the rules that can be deducted
from the previous items.
The number of items shown or answer options could vary in future EPSO
competitions indeed, but the techniques and mental process explained in our
book to guide you to find the right answer would be valid and applicable in
any case.
3.4. Method to solve these questions
When facing an abstract reasoning question, first step is to identify the
shapes or designs in the five items shown of the series, this is to say, the
objects used to form the five diagrams (circles, squares, triangles…) and
also their properties (size, shade, border…).
Second, we should study the visual changes or variations in these objects
through the different steps (items) of the series.
This way, we will be able to deduce the logical rules followed by the five
diagrams shown, e.g., rotation, superposition, translation, etc.
Then, we should apply each rule to the last step of the series, in order to
figure out how the objects will appear in the sixth item, and eliminate the
incorrect answer options – the ones not meeting every rule.
Finally, we will be able to select the right option and double-check that it
follows all the logical rules.
Note that the number of rules will depend on the difficulty level of the test,
which is related to the type of the selection process you are participating in.
For example, in the highly competitive Administrators’ generalists AD5
cycle, having 25,000 or 30,000 candidates for a relatively small number of
vacancies in the reserve list, you will normally find questions including
three or four logical rules, each one of them allowing you to eliminate one
or two of the answer options. On the contrary, in the CAST tests, where
EPSO does not set a limited number of vacancies and needs to select a
much higher pool of candidates, you can find questions with only one
logical rule, this way leading you to the solution much faster. Halfway
between both cases, we can see many specialists’ competitions or selection
processes for more specific positions in which the number or difficulty level
of the logical rules is adjusted accordingly, taking into account their
expected number of candidates and the positions to be filled.
3.5. Strategies to improve your score
I will recommend here some techniques and tips that could be helpful to
improve your performance in this kind of tests:
- At your first glance at the diagrams, follow your intuition to
analyse possible variations and rules, after practising with the
patterns that we will propose and as many other samples as you can
find.
- Compare groups of steps in the diagrams: we can often find
relationships between the odd items of the series (1-3-5), on one
hand, and the even items, on the other hand (2-4-solution); or the
first three items (1-2-3) and the second three (4-5-solution). We can
also compare the diagrams in pairs, e.g.: 1-4, 2-5, 3-solution; or 1-
5, 2-solution.
- Be aware of time management : if we must solve 10 questions in
10 minutes, we have 1 minute per question. This way it is easy to
see how our progress is going; for example, we should have
responded the question number 5 having at least 5 minutes
remaining before the end of the exam. Of course, as we explained
in our book for numerical reasoning, you could take some seconds
from an ‘easier’ question to dedicate to a harder one, but please
note that time restriction is tighter here, with only one minute per
exercise, so I strongly recommend not getting stuck in a
complicated question, and learning to mentally distribute your time
per question.
- Study each rule separately to discard options. You may not need to
verify all the rules; some questions contain distractions. Sometimes
you can simplify the exercise by defining only one rule
- Mark clearly the options passing your filters : if you need so, and
to speed the process up, use your fingers to point out the remaining
options on the screen, e.g., A-C-E after filtering with the first rule,
A-C after the second rule, etc. This is much faster than writing
them down in your note board (and, even if you feel a little
embarrassed by doing so, because these gestures do not look the
most elegant ones in public indeed, you can rest assured that none
of the stressed candidates in the test room will be paying attention
to your gestures there!).
- Always answer all questions : remember that there is no negative
marking for incorrect answers in this test, so it is a must to answer
all the questions, even if we had only a few seconds left and were
forced to do it randomly for our last responses, trying to choose the
most likely ones.
- Practise a lot , by using different materials and sources [3] , sticking
to the time, and simulating exam conditions (computer-based tests)
as far as possible.
- Write down your ideas and ‘shortcuts’ to find the solution to each
exercise, especially to the ones you found more difficult or you
could not solve by yourself.
- If you run out of time and thoughts, try to find common elements
in the alternative answers : often, the test designer needs to put
some elements (shapes, colours, positions…) from the right answer
in the other options, to make them meet some of the rules, in order
to complicate the task of the candidates. For example, if three or
four answer options contain a white circle and another three have a
black square in a certain position, it is quite likely that the right
answer includes both shapes in the same position. Of course, this
effect can be ‘camouflaged’ sometimes by the designer (as I will
try in this book!), but still it can be useful to filter some alternatives
out.
3.6. Mental gymnastics
To finish our approach to the abstract reasoning tests, we propose you to
develop your skills in this field by doing some ‘brain exercise’ or mental
gymnastics.
Training your brain will serve not only to bring you new insights on the
logical tasks of this test, but also to have a little rest (and fun!) while you
are still doing something productive for your preparation. This can certainly
be useful to boost your numerical and verbal reasoning abilities too.
To this purpose, we recommend trying some websites and apps that can
improve your attention, processing speed, flexibility, memory, problem
solving, spatial perception, visual arithmetic, etc., like the following ones:
- Lumosity: www.lumosity.com
- Elevate: https://elevateapp.com
- Peak: www.peak.net
- NeuroNation: www.neuronation.com

Last, but not least, a classic game like chess deserves a special reference as
a tool to foster all the above mentioned skills. There are many sites to play
online, of which we highlight a few:
- FIDE Arena: https://arena.myfide.net
- Chessgames: www.chessgames.com
- Chessbase: https://play.chessbase.com
- Chess24: https://chess24.com
4. SAMPLE QUESTIONS
In this chapter, we are going to initially provide the questions and answer
options as you will find them at the real test, that is, without any comment
or tip from us, so you can try to solve them on your own. Later, after
reading our solutions, this part will also allow you to practise again by
repeating the exercises from time to time.
We are going to present very similar questions to the ones used by EPSO in
their sample tests and real exams. For the purpose of our book, we consider
essential to show you, step by step, how to analyse and solve this kind of
questions.
In other manuals and platforms, like the ones we already mentioned, you
can find a large number of exercises from different styles and authors,
which is really convenient to practise as much as possible.
In our book, we prefer to focus on fewer questions instead, in order to
explain in a more detailed manner –thinking of the candidates with a
particular difficulty to face these tests– how to apply our method and the
mental process that will guide the reader to reach the solutions in the fastest
and safest way.
It is now your time to take action.
We recommend dividing our 20 questions in two groups of 10 questions, to
make the most of your practice and learning, and following the same
approach with each group:
- You should try to answer the first 10 questions in 10 minutes (one
minute per question), meeting the time restriction of the EPSO test.
- Then, you should try to solve again the same 10 questions on your
own without time limit, using all the time you need.
- Finally, you can read our solutions and explanations about these
10 questions, and, after a couple of weeks practising with other
materials and platforms to gain more ease and speed, you can
repeat this test to put into practice your new skills.
- You should repeat the same process with the second group of 10
questions (time restriction; no time limit; reading our solutions;
taking the test again after a few weeks).
5. ANALYSING AND SOLVING QUESTIONS
Five steps to solve the exercises
Before start solving the questions, let us review the approach to abstract
reasoning tests that we explained at the beginning of our book, by listing
the following steps:
1) Identify the shapes or designs in the five items shown of the series, this is
to say, the objects and their properties.
2) Study the visual changes or variations in these objects through the
different steps of the series.
3) Deduce the logical rules followed by the five diagrams shown.
4) Apply each rule to the last step of the series, in order to eliminate the
incorrect answer options – the ones not meeting every rule.
5) Select the right option and double-check that it follows all the logical
rules.
Next, we will show our method to solve every exercise with a detailed
explanation, including some tips to speed your choices up and to ease your
visual comprehension of the series, which will be useful for you to face
other similar questions in your tests.
-Exercise 1 solved-
Solution:

As we said in our approach to the abstract reasoning tests, our first step to
understand the series of any exercise is to identify the objects. Here, we can
see only two objects: a white arrow and a black square.
Having a fast look at the five items and the answer options , which we
always recommend in advance, we can check that both objects keep the
same colour through the whole series, so we can deduce that the colour is
irrelevant to determine the right answer in this exercise.
Second, we should study the variations in these objects along the series. Let
us start with the square.
We see that the square goes from the top right corner in the first item of the
series to the bottom right corner in the second item, following the path that
we indicate with a dashed line below:

In the third item of the series, we note that the square went from the
previous position to the top left corner, following this ‘route’:

So it seems that it took one additional step compared to its previous

movement.

Then, the fourth picture shows that the square goes to the top right corner
again, moving only one ‘step’, as we mark below:
And finally, in the fifth item the square appears on the bottom left corner,
taking again two steps around the picture:

At this point, we can clearly see that the square is moving clockwise
through the corners of our picture.
About the sequence of this movement, we have observed that it took:
- One step from items 1 to 2
- Two steps from items 2 to 3
- One step from items 3 to 4
- Two steps from items 4 to 5
This means that the sequence is: one, two, one, two…
So, in the next item of the series (the solution), the square should move
again one step, to the top left corner, as we show here:

Note : In this book, we will use the grey colour to anticipate the positions
and movements in the solution.
Now, according to our method, we can filter the answer options to select
only the ones meeting this rule that we have deduced, this is, having the
square in the top left position.
This way, we should select only two diagrams, B and E, as potential
answers, and eliminate three options for our subsequent analysis: A, C and
D.
This type of movement of an object through the corners of a diagram is
quite common in abstract reasoning tests, and you should be ready to
identify its different variations, for example:
- a sequence alternating 1 step and 2 steps, like in this exercise (1,
2, 1, 2, 1, 2);
- a sequence alternating 1 step and 0 steps, so the object would keep
its position in those diagrams without movement (1, 0, 1, 0, 1, 0);
- sequences of anticlockwise steps, e.g., 1 step ‘back’, 2 steps
‘back’… (-1, -2, -1, -2), like the following:

Next, let us analyse the second object of our series: the white arrow (we
will skip the square in the following diagrams to focus our attention only on
the arrow).
We can note that, from the first to the second item of the series, the arrow
moved (or, more precisely said, rotated) anticlockwise 45 degrees :

If you feel you have a certain difficulty to handle angles (after too many
years since your last math lessons at school), we recommend at least
reviewing these basic figures to help you with the visual rotations:
In the third item of the series, we see that the arrow rotated clockwise 90º
from the previous position:

Then, the fourth diagram shows that the arrow rotated anticlockwise again,
and 135º this time:

Later, in the fifth picture the arrow rotated clockwise 180º , always referred
to the previous position:

Therefore, the sequence of its movement is the following:

- anticlockwise 45º from items 1 to 2
- clockwise 90º from items 2 to 3
- anticlockwise 135º from items 3 to 4
- clockwise 180º from items 4 to 5
We can notice that the arrow is alternating anticlockwise and clockwise
rotations, and increasing 45º at every step.
So, in the final item of the series –the solution–, the arrow should rotate
anticlockwise 225º (which is the result of 180º + 45º):

Finally, we should apply this rule to our remaining options, B and E, to

check which one matches the position of the arrow. This way, we find that
the diagram B is the right answer.
Note that you would have reached the same conclusion if you had started by
studying the arrow’s movement: in that case, you would first have filtered
and selected B and D options, and then applied the rule on the square and
chosen the same right answer.
As we already said, we recommend double-checking (with a last quick
look) that your answer follows all the logical rules found.
My advice:

This exercise is relatively easy to be solved in less than one minute,

considering that it contains only two rules and they are not hard to deduce.
Still, if you have some trouble in working with angles or doing mentally
quick additions, there is a shortcut to deduce the position of the arrow much
faster, without having to perform any sum of angles at all.
First, note that, from items 1 to 2, the arrow rotated ‘up’ from the middle of
the right side (where the arrow head pointed at the beginning) to the top
right corner in item 2. While, from items 2 to 3, the arrow rotated ‘down’
doubling the previous distance, this is, not only undoing the path already
travelled (going back to the middle point), but also adding the initial
distance to its walk on the opposite side. Here I have included some little
lines on the original diagrams to better illustrate this reasoning:

So, to simplify and speed up my analysis of the series, I can consider that
the arrow rotated one step ‘up’ from (items) 1 to 2, and two steps ‘down’
from 2 to 3.
In fact, this is simply to say that I will take a 45º rotation as ‘one step’ in
my reasoning.
Let us do the same with the rest of the diagrams:

This way, the sequence of the movement became super simple now:
- one step ‘up’ from 1 to 2
- two steps ‘down’ from 2 to 3
- three steps ‘up’ from 3 to 4
- four steps ‘down’ from 4 to 5
Consequently, the arrow should rotate five steps ‘up’ in the solution.
We can make this simplification and say ‘up’ and ‘down’ here, instead of
the most appropriate ‘clockwise’ and ‘anticlockwise’, because it is a short
movement, of course less than a full rotation.
By using this shortcut, you will not need to perform mental calculations and
you will be able to solve this kind of exercise in just a few seconds.
-Exercise 2 solved-
Solution:

When having a first look at the five diagrams of the series, as well as the
answer options, we can easily find that there is only one type of object here,
a triangle, which can take two colours – black or white.
Secondly, by watching the items more carefully, we can note that the total
number of triangles increases from one item to the next one. In these cases,
one of the first and fastest ideas to check is to count the number of triangles
in each diagram and verify if there is some kind of sequence in its variation.
But, before starting counting triangles anxiously, we should check in the
answer options if knowing the total number of them would be relevant for
us to filter some options out.
Unfortunately, we find that all the answer options are composed of 11
triangles, so we can not discard any option by using a rule about the total
number of triangles.
Still, even if you did not see this first ‘pitfall’ of the exercise, of course you
should not get discouraged (no time for this in one minute!) and must keep
looking for other rules.
Let us study the number of black and white triangles, which also varies
from one picture to another:
- From item 1 to 2, the number of black triangles is reduced from six to
five, so one black triangle is removed . Meanwhile, two white triangles are
added in the same step.
- From item 2 to 3, the number of white triangles is reduced from two to
one, so one white triangle is removed now. At the same time, two black
triangles are added , increasing from five to seven.
- From item 3 to 4, the number of black triangles is reduced again, from
seven to six – one black triangle is removed . And, like in the first variation
of the series, two white triangles are added in the same step, increasing
from one to three.
- From item 4 to 5, the number of white triangles is reduced from three to
two – one white triangle is removed . And simultaneously, two black
triangles are added , increasing from six to eight.
At this point, you probably noted that the sequence here consists of
alternating between removing one and adding two triangles of different
colour in each step.
If you need a little help to visualise this, we present a little table below with
the variations in each kind of triangles (that you could also reproduce in
your note board at the exam if you need so):

Therefore, we can deduce that, in the next turn, to obtain the solution
diagram, we should subtract one black triangle and add two white triangles ,
always from the previous diagram (item 5), so the right answer option must
have seven black triangles and four white triangles.
Finally, we verify that only answer option B contains the required number
of black and white triangles, so it is the solution of our exercise.
Instead of the single ‘alternating rule’ that we defined and I summarised in
the table above (-1, +2; +2, -1…), there is another possibility to define the
sequence of this series, which is dividing that rule into two sub-rules: one
for the odd turns and another one for the even turns.
This way, we could say that, in even turns (items 2, 4, and the solution), one
black triangle is removed and two white triangles are added. While, in odd
turns (items 1, 3, and 5), one white triangle is removed and two black
triangles are added.
In my opinion, it is not worth doing this when just the opposite variation
happens in each turn, because defining separate rules for even and odd turns
will take you longer than simply applying the changes needed in the final
turn.
My advice:
After a first look at this style of series –containing groups of similar or
identical shapes– and realising that I will have to add and/or subtract
several of them to find the solution, which is what we call ‘visual arithmetic
’ in abstract reasoning, my first thought is usually aimed to check if
numbers could help me somehow to solve the exercise faster.
I know that many candidates are afraid (or even scared) of maths and
calculations, but, in my experience in teaching, I think this is because they
underestimate their own skills in this field and, what is even more relevant,
they overlook how powerful is understanding numbers and improving
numerical reasoning in many areas of our life, including, of course, to face
abstract reasoning questions too [4] .
So, before my dear (‘numerical-hater’) readers decide to run away from
another gruelling math lesson and go quickly to the next exercise, let me
introduce in just a couple of minutes a little, but amazing, trick to speed up
your conclusions here by using numbers.
Having a first look at the answer options, we can quickly deduce that we
will need to figure out the number of black and white triangles to choose
the right answer. But, having a second look at them, a bit more in detail, we
realise that, if we have to count these objects, then we prefer counting the
white ones indeed, because they are much fewer. Moreover, there is a
different number of white triangles in each answer option (five triangles in
A, four in B…), so we only need to calculate the number of white triangles
to find the right answer.
With this reasoning, we can focus only on the white triangles of the series
to try to analyse their sequence. Note that here I did not perform the
previous study to obtain the ‘-1, +2’ rule; I am a newcomer to the exercise
and, in the table below, I will just mark the total number of white triangles
that I see in each diagram:
Apparently, there is no clear sequence, if you do not have a very keen eye
for maths. But you do not even need it to find the sequence out. You only
need to remember one of the most important strategies that we
recommended in our chapter 3 (as I am sure you will, after reading our
book a couple of times), which is to compare the diagrams in groups , e.g.,
1-3-5 and 2-4, 1-4 and 2-5…
And, in our first and most common comparison, 1-3-5, 2-4, this is, odd and
even items… Voilà !

The magic of numbers whispers in our ears again.

We have divided the main sequence into two super, super simple sub-
sequences, one for the odd items (first row in the table above) and another
one for the even items (second row), both sub-sequences consisting in just
adding one white triangle each time .
So, with the certainty that numbers and maths give us, we can only accept
as a correct answer the option that continues the second row (sub-
sequence), having 4 white triangles, and this way solving this question in
maybe less than 15 or 20 seconds (do not you love numbers a little more
than at the beginning of this exercise?).
By the way, if you had a third look at the answer options, you would realise
that their number of black triangles is also different and you could use this
same brief procedure to solve the exercise only with them, in that case
considering that the numerical series would be:
But counting the black triangles would take you longer and you do not need
to do this to solve the question, as we said.
In any case, do not worry if you do not see the shortcut to solve this
exercise, because you really have time to perform the initial analysis and
find the ‘-1, +2’ rule in one minute or less. My goal is to show you that, if
you can see a shortcut of this kind in one or two questions at your exam,
you will save a precious time to dedicate to other questions.
-Exercise 3 solved-
Solution:

We start this exercise by doing our usual tasks: identifying the shapes (only
white squares) and analysing their variations.
Initially, it seems that the changes do not follow a recognisable pattern or
numerical series.
At this point, I would like to mention that, in my experience analysing
hundreds of questions from EPSO and many other abstract reasoning books
and platforms, when you find this variety of diagrams, clearly divided in
two sectors , more often than not you will face an exercise with instructions
: one of the sectors explains the change (previous or next) of the other
sector. That is the reason why the test designer normally decides to put a
line in the middle of the diagram and help us a little bit about what to
expect here (in a gesture of generosity that we can never thank enough).
So, with this first idea in our mind, let us focus on the first variation, from
item 1 to item 2:

We can see that the upper part of the item 2, compared to the upper part of
the item 1, was reduced in two white squares, and it was not a random
reduction: the squares eliminated were exactly the ones that appear in the
lower side of the item 1.
Then, we study the second variation (items 2 to 3):

Here we can see that the square in the lower part (item 2) has not been
subtracted from the upper side (which was impossible in any case, because
there was not a square in the equivalent position), but added instead.
In the following step of the series, between items 3 and 4, no squares are
subtracted or added in the upper part, which matches the blank space at the
lower side of item 3:

Next, we analyse the variation from item 4 to item 5:

And we observe that a square have been added in item 5, upper side,
according to the instruction received in item 4, lower part, and always
respecting the relative position of the object.
So we can deduce that the variation in the upper side of each diagram
follows the instructions from the lower side, and alternating subtraction and
addition of objects.
In consequence, to obtain the final diagram in the solution, we should
subtract the square located at the position shown in the lower side of item 5
from its upper side:

The only answer option matching the new upper side is option D.
My advice:
This exercise is not difficult to solve in the time available, and there are no
shortcuts to take, because the instructions in the lower part are randomly
chosen, while the arithmetical operations are not sufficient to simplify our
task (e.g., 4 – 1 = 3 squares), considering that the position of the squares is
also relevant and we have several answer options that contain 3 squares.
So my advice here is to keep it simple and avoid unnecessary complications
in your analysis. For example, you could feel tempted to define a rule for
odd items and another rule for even items, consisting in the subtraction or
addition of squares in each case.
But note that every variation affects to two items, the initial one that
contains the starting image and the instruction, and the final one that shows
the resulting picture. This way you could tangle a little when defining your
rule, e.g., subtracting from item 1 (odd) to get item 2 (even), was it the rule
for the odd or the even step?
Better to take the easiest way and just alternate between subtraction and
addition: if I added objects from 4 to 5, I have to subtract from 5 to the
solution.
Another tip to provide here, for abstract reasoning questions in general, is
that we can anticipate a rule, but we should be ready to take a fresh look at
every step of the series .
In this exercise, after finding the first subtraction, we could have anticipated
that all the subsequent instructions would be subtractions too – a wrong
conclusion. Or imagine that you see a very similar exercise to this one in
your exam and, after finding the first variations, subtraction and addition,
you assume that the rest of the steps will match our exercise, ignoring the
fact that other combinations are also possible, like for example:
- subtraction
- addition
- no effect
- subtraction
- addition
- no effect (solution)
Or a trickier one, doubling the operation but starting with a single (second)
one:
- subtraction
- addition
- addition
- subtraction
- subtraction
 - addition (solution)
So we should watch with new eyes, as we said, every diagram and change
of the series.
Certainly, that is the reason of this EPSO test: to try to measure our
creativity to face problems and situations with a new focus each time. In
some exercises, like this one, we need to find relationships between objects
(the instructions). In other questions, like the exercise 1 we already
explained in this book, we should be able to isolate problems (e.g.,
analysing the movements of the square independently from the arrow ones)
or even avoid distractors, as we will see too.
All this is related to the skills sought by EPSO when introducing this type
of tests, and we hope that thinking a little of ‘the reasons behind the
reasoning tests’ will help and motivate our readers for the preparation of
their exams.
-Exercise 4 solved-
Solution:

This exercise contains several little objects (white triangle, grey square and
black circle), all of them keeping the same shape and colour across all the
diagrams and answer options, as we can check in our first quick look.
The objects change their position in relation to the areas bounded by other
much bigger shapes (two squares and two circles – we do not count the
frame of the diagram) that overlap from the centre of the picture, so it
seems that the key of the exercise could be the position of the little objects
in relation to these areas.
Let us analyse the movement of each little object.
Black circle

The black circle is located at the inner circle in the diagram 1, and it is
again in this area in the diagram 2, although it moved to the upper part. We
still do not know if this displacement will be relevant or not.
Then, in the third diagram, the little black circle goes to the inner square in
the middle of the picture. And it repeats this relative position in the diagram
4, with a very little displacement to the left (it seems that it has nothing to
do with the previous displacement and must be random).
Later, in diagram 5, the little circle jumps to the outermost area in one of the
corners of the image.
So we can see that its movement consists in jumping from one to another
area, in a direction inwards, and staying twice in each area.
You could introduce here a distinction between odd and even turns, with the
object jumping or staying accordingly, but I think this complicates a little
the rule, while the idea of ‘staying twice’ or repeating twice is more clear
and intuitive.
Finally, by applying this first rule, we can deduce that the little circle should
repeat its position in the outermost area (no matter the corner) in the
solution diagram, so we can filter out the options A and B, keeping only C,
D and E, as potential answers.
White triangle

This object starts moving from the inner square in the middle of the picture
(item 1) to the outermost area (item 2).
Then it continues jumping from one area to the other, in a direction inwards
(like the little circle) but in this case never repeating its position: it jumps
one area in each turn. This is probably the easiest movement to see in this
exercise.
So, if we apply this second movement (or rule) to find out the position of
the triangle in the solution, we deduce that it should appear in the inner
square in the middle again. This happens only in answer options A, B and
C, but we already discarded A and B with the previous rule, so only C can
be the right answer, as in fact it is.
Note that we do not need to study the movement of the grey square, because
it would not provide us with relevant information now. In some exercises,
you do not need to find out and apply all the rules designed by the test
author to solve the question.
Still, of course we are going to analyse this movement to explain the
question in full, and also considering that you do not have to follow a
particular order in your analysis of the three objects to reach the same
conclusion.
Grey square
This object moved from the inner square in the middle (diagram 1) to the
intermediate square in diagram 2, and then to the outermost area in diagram
3. So it seems that it jumps two areas in each turn, in this case in a direction
outwards. We should check this in the remaining diagrams.
Following the same logic, it jumped from the outermost area to the inner
circle in diagram 4 (this is, taking a first step to the inner square in the
middle and a second step to the inner circle), so ‘travelling’ two steps or
areas in this turn too.
And finally, it jumped again two areas in diagram 5, reaching the outer
circle, always in the same direction outwards.
Therefore, if we apply this rule of jumping two areas outwards to the last
picture, we can deduce that the grey square will take a first step to the
outermost area and a second step to the inner square in the centre of the
picture again, which is the position that should occupy in the solution. This
matches the option C that we had already selected.
In case that you had analysed the three objects in a different order, for
example starting by the grey square and following with the black circle, you
would have first selected options B and C as potential answers, and then
chosen again C, without studying the move of the triangle.
Needless to say that if you had some time left at the end of your exam, of
course you should check the variations or rules not studied in the previous
questions, to make sure that your answer is right.
My advice:
In this sort of questions about analysing the movement of several objects,
sometimes you can find an unexpected shortcut to save time when you do
not need to check all the rules (movements) of the shapes, like we saw
above.
But let us see what would have happened if we had decided to start
analysing, for example, the grey square and the white triangle (or vice
versa).
In that case, we would have applied the rules and filtered out the answer
options A, D, and E, but still having the options B and C as possible correct
answers, forcing us to study the movement of the third object, the black
circle.
To avoid this and ensure that you are taking the shortest way to solve the
exercise, my advice is to double-check the answer options in advance,
looking carefully for differences between the positions of the objects, as we
are going to explain.
Probably now we are entering the field of ‘high-level’ abstract reasoning,
but I think that this perspective could be useful for the candidate in certain
exercises sooner or later.
So, imagine that we are again at the beginning of the exercise, just with our
first idea that the key here could be the position of the little objects in
relation to the different areas.
Let us have a careful second look at the answer options. We can notice that
options B and C have the grey square and the white triangle in the same
position, so we can anticipate that, even if we discover that the position of
both in the middle is right, we will have to study the movement of the black
circle in any case.
We have deduced that, among the three objects, we should analyse the
movement of the circle in the first or second place, but never the last one.
We are happy with this valuable finding indeed, but, are we fully satisfied?
Of course not! We want to extract all potentially useful information from
the answer options to simplify and quicken our task as much as possible
(we are insatiable candidates now and nothing can stop us).
We continue analysing the other alternative answers and we find a similar
‘match’ between D and E options: both have the grey square and the black
circle in the outermost sector, so, to choose between these options, we
would be forced to study the white triangle too. Second conclusion: better
not leaving the triangle for the last moment either.
In consequence, we should start by studying the movements of the black
circle and the white triangle (or vice versa, no matter the order here), this is,
those that can help us the most to differentiate the alternatives .
On the other hand, this question is also good to illustrate one of the
strategies that we recommended in our chapter 3: try to find common
elements in the alternative answers , because often in this type of exercises
the options with more common elements have more chances to be the right
one.
This way, in case that we run out of ideas, or if we have very little time left
(imagine we wasted a lot of time with a previous difficult question and we
have only 5 or 6 seconds to finish the exam), and knowing that we should
always mark an answer, which option should we choose?
Well, we can see that the white triangle the inner square in the middle of the
picture is a common element in answer options A, B, and C, while the black
circle appears in the outermost sector in options C, D, and E (the grey
square is not repeated more than two times in the same position in any of
the diagrams).
So the most logical action from our side would be to mark option C, the
only one having the triangle and the circle in their most frequent positions.
(Warning: please, do not try to use this procedure as a first idea in all your
exercises, because it may also fail! And especially do not blame your
devoted author and teacher in that case…).
This is just a last resort if you run out of ideas or time, and it is grounded in
two reasons:
- the test designer usually needs to hide the correct option by
putting some of the right elements in other options too;
- a matter of probability (maths again in our rescue): chances are
60% in favour of the common elements (3 out of 5 diagrams),
versus 20% for the independent ones (1 out of 5).
-Exercise 5 solved-
Solution:

First, we identify the objects of the diagrams: arrows and stars that can take
two colours – black or white.
Then, we start studying their position and variation.
Seeing that there are two stars in the item 2, one star in the item 3, again
two stars in step 4, and again one star in step 5, we could propose as a rule
that the series consists of alternating between two and one star (even
changing its colour when the star is alone). That would be a promising rule,
because there are also a couple of answer options that contain two stars,
matching what we would expect after the item 5. But, unfortunately, there
are no stars in the first item, so this potential rule is ruined.
We should refine a little more our reasoning. Why did the test designer
decide to use arrows in the series, among all the generic shapes available to
set a question?
According to our experience in abstract reasoning tests, the arrows are
usually employed to indicate not only directions of a movement (quite
obviously), but also some kind of instructions for the place they are
pointing to.
Let us see again what happened from the step 1 to the step 2. It seems that
two stars appeared in the second step, exactly in the same place that the
arrows were pointing to in the previous step. Moreover, each star took the
same colour of the arrow that indicated its position. So we could anticipate
as a possible rule that each arrow points to the place in which, in the
following item, a star of its same colour will appear.
Then we go and see the rest of the diagrams with this idea in mind, but open
to modify it if necessary.
In diagram 3, we find that, while the white star occupies the place required
to respect our proposed rule, this is, where the white arrow pointed in the
previous step, the black star has disappeared. A good reason for this could
be that the black arrow in the previous step pointed to a place out of the
diagram, so its star has no place to go.
Please, take into account that, in similar exercises containing instructions
with arrows, is quite common too that, when an arrow points to a place out
of the image, the object associated may appear on the opposite side of the
picture, in the following way:

But this is not the case of our present exercise, as we saw, with the black
star disappearing.
Next, we evaluate the diagram 4 and we check that the anticipated rule is
perfectly met: both stars, black and white, appear where the previous arrows
of the respective colour were pointing to.
And in diagram 5, we find the black star in the position that we expected,
where the black arrow was pointing in the previous step, while the white
star has disappeared this time, again according to the fact that the white
arrow was pointing to a place out of the picture in the step 4. This confirms
our reasoning about the missed black star in the diagram 3.
Therefore, to meet the instructions given by the arrows in diagram 5, the
solution should include a black star in the position required by its arrow (we
can preselect options A and C, the ones meeting this condition), and should
not contain a white star, because the white arrow in item 5 pointed, again, to
a place out of the picture (so we should reject option C).
This way, the only option meeting the rule is answer option A.
My advice:
This exercise is quite easy to solve, provided that you ‘see’ quickly enough
the instructions given by the arrows. The correspondence in colours can
help you with this.
Note that there are other possible variations of this exercise that you could
find in your exam, like the stars (or other objects) taking the opposite
colours to the ones of the arrows.
About the rules identified in this exercise, we can consider that the ‘missed
star when its arrow previously pointed to a place out of the picture’ is a
second rule or just a variation over the main rule: the star ‘tries’ to appear,
in fact it is ‘there’, but we can not see it because it is out of our
screen/paper.
I personally prefer this second approach: the fewer rules, the better to solve
the exercise faster and also to minimise the possibility of making mistakes
in their application.
-Exercise 6 solved-
Solution:

At a first glance, we can see that this exercise is composed of different

objects (squares, circles, a little sun) with several variations in colour and
size.
When we face a question like this one, apparently having several rules to be
studied, before analysing in detail each object and its variation, we
recommend trying to find first some generic rules that affect to the whole
diagram and easier to detect visually.
In this exercise, one of the easiest rules to find is the arrangement of the
objects.
In this sense, we observe that the three geometrical shapes appear in a
diagonal way in all the diagrams, and this diagonal changes its position in
the following way:

So it follows a sequence of repeating two diagrams in each position

(starting by a single ‘second’ one).
This way, we can deduce that the three shapes in the solution diagram
should have this arrangement:

We can already apply this first rule to filter the answer options and
eliminate the ones not showing this disposition, in this case, the option A.
A second issue that can also be quickly analysed is the position of the little
sun, and this analysis will be much more productive for our target, as we
will see soon.
In the diagram 1, the little sun is located above the diagonal formed by the
three shapes.
In the diagram 2, the sun is located below this diagonal.
In the next step, diagram 3, the little sun disappears .
Next, in the diagram 4, the sun is again located above the diagonal.
And finally, in the step 5, the sun goes again below the diagonal.
So, when we compare the diagrams in groups as we recommended in our
strategies, we can pair the following ones:
- 1 and 4;
- 2 and 5;
- And, consequently, 3 and the solution.
For this reason, the little sun must disappear in the solution, and, even if we
had not found the previous rule to discard the option A, this rule by itself
leaves us, suddenly (in a lucky script twist), with only one answer option
meeting this condition, option E, which is of course the right answer.
In any case, let us imagine that you did not see the sequence of the sun, or
you got lost (in the night, never better said) trying to find a type of
movement like this or a similar one:

In that situation, you can still solve the question in the time limit, because
there is another rule that allows us to filter out three options in one go: the
variation in colour.
Next, we show the number of black shapes in each diagram:
In consequence, to meet the logic of the series, the solution must contain 0
black shapes, so we can reject options B, C, and D. And, after applying our
first rule to dismiss option A too (or checking the position of the diagonal
now, if we did not do it before), we can reach the same conclusion and
select E as the right answer.
My advice:
In my opinion, this question, like other similar, has the main obstacle that, if
you find the key rule (the movement of the little sun) at the first try, you
may think that the exercise is too easy, as it probably is, compared to other
ones of your exam, so you could try and persist to double-check potential
pitfalls or hidden rules, losing valuable seconds that you could need for
more complicated exercises.
In spite of its apparent simplicity, I would like to mention that this question
is closely based on a question found in a real EPSO exam, later available in
the EPSO samples too, so you could perfectly find a similar one in your
test.
On the other hand, this question is also relevant to warn you about the
distractors in abstract reasoning tests.
The distractors are objects and shapes, or even movements, which are
disposed in the diagrams with the only purpose of confusing and dispersing
our attention, because they are pointless to solve the problem.
For example, in this exercise, you can see multiple distractors: the different
shapes (square, circle, cross), their diverse size, the rotation of the square in
some diagrams, the symmetry between the geometrical shapes in the steps 1
and 2…
So, if you were skilful (or lucky) and found the key rule in 10 or 15
seconds, it is better to mark the option E and go rapidly to the next question
than losing a precious time with distractors and non-existent pitfalls. Of
course, you can always go back to review this question if you have some
time left at the end of your test.
-Exercise 7 solved-
Solution:

We can easily identify that there is only one shape (a chevron) in this series,
without any variation in colour or size. The only change undergone here is
the rotation of the shape, which can point to four directions: up, down, left
or right.
Then we study the possible sequence in this variation.
If we focus on the first chevron, located at the top left corner in each
diagram, we can see that the sequence of its direction is:

Apparently there is not a clear sequence in this movement, so we go to see

the second chevron at the top right corner of each diagram:

Maybe you do not see a logic here, but please remember our strategy about
comparing groups of steps : 1-3-5 and 2-4, 1-4 and 2-5, etc.
By doing so, in particular when comparing diagrams 1 and 4, as well as 2
and 5, we detect something interesting: the directions are just the opposite
(right-left, down-up, left-right…).
So we have a look at the rest of the chevrons in diagrams 1 and 4 , and we
check that, in effect, both diagrams are symmetrical: all their chevrons point
to opposite directions.

Next, we can do the same for steps 2 and 5 (even a little faster, because our
eyes are more ‘trained’ in these shapes now), and we check that all of them
are symmetrical too:

Thus, we can conclude that the diagram 3 and the solution also have to be
symmetrical with each other, this way:

And this symmetry matches answer option D, the right answer in this
exercise.
My advice:
These diagrams require a keen eye for detail, because the candidate has to
analyse a lot of little shapes in a short time.
The only ‘shortcut’ is to remember and apply the strategy in time.
In these questions with a high level of detail, I do recommend always
double-checking your answers, considering that there could be very similar
answer options, as it happens here between options C and D (only one
chevron is differently oriented).
-Exercise 8 solved-
Solution:
This is a question with a very simple structure – only one arrow changing
its direction and position on the diagrams.
The arrow starts pointing down in the bottom left corner in the first item. It
goes to the middle of the left side, turning 90º anticlockwise, in the step 2.
And it goes up to the top left corner, turning 90º anticlockwise again, in the
third diagram.

Then, in the item 4, the arrow is in the middle of the upper side, repeating
the same turn as in the previous steps. Finally, in the diagram 5, it reaches
the top right corner and completes the full anticlockwise turn, pointing
again to the same direction as in the first item of the series.

So the sequence of the movement of the arrow can be described with two
brief rules:
- it moves around the centre of the diagram, close to the borders;
- it follows a 90º anticlockwise rotation in each step.
Therefore, we can deduce that the next step of the series, this is, the solution
diagram, should show the arrow in the middle of the right side and pointing
right, exactly as it happens in option E, the correct answer here.
Note that, with the rule on the rotation, you can filter out three options (A,
B, and D), and, with the rule on the position alone, you can discard the four
wrong options at a stroke.
My advice:
Even if you found this exercise much easier than the average in this book
and other materials, it is also closely based in a real EPSO question and you
could face a similar one in your exam – more likely in a Specialists’
competition or a CAST process than in the highly competitive Generalists’
competition.
The difficulty level also depends on your skill to perceive a slight
displacement of an object, in this case the arrow, in a relatively small space.
On the other hand, we brought this question in our selection because it may
be illustrative of a couple of shortcuts that we can apply in some exercises.
First, when you see in the diagram 5 that the arrow finished its rotation and
points down again, as in the first diagram, you can deduce that the cycle is
completed , so, the next step (the solution) has to match the diagram 2 –the
second step of the cycle–, with the arrow pointing right again (regardless its
position in the diagram):

The pairing of the items would be: 1-5, 2-solution – probably not one of the
most frequent associations in abstract reasoning tests, but very helpful when
you detect it.
This way, you do not even need to analyse if the rotation was clockwise or
anticlockwise, or review all the steps again to know in which direction the
arrow will point in the solution (and you can quickly filter out the three
options mentioned: A, B, and D).
Second, in some exercises you can ‘visually draw the solution ’ of the
series, as I call this shortcut.
This method consists of trying to draw the continuation of the series by
visualising (mentally or with the help of your note board) the bigger picture,
as we are going to explain.
Most of the abstract reasoning exercises containing periodical rotations,
translations, reflections or similar movements in a closed space tend to
create certain symmetry , this is, a pattern that we can identify and foresee.
Let us apply our method to the present exercise.
This is the original series (in a smaller size):

And in our first look at the diagrams, we realise that the arrow moves
around the centre of the diagram, going from the bottom left to the top left
side, and then to the top right corner.
So we can easily anticipate that now it has to go to the bottom right, and
finally again back to the bottom left, this way completing the cycle. It
clearly follows a circular path, a periodical path.
For this reason, the subsequent steps of the series should be symmetrical
with the previous ones, and we can visualise the bigger picture in the
following way:

As we can see, it is a symmetrical pattern with this form:

So, by using this method, we could have anticipated the exact position of
the arrow in the middle of the right side of the solution diagram (being
symmetrical with its position in the diagram 2), and directly selected the
answer option E, filtering out the other four options.
In this question, with only one object to study (a simple arrow), you do not
possibly save much time by using this method. Here it can be useful mostly
to double-check that your reasoning about the position of the arrow was
right. But, in more complicated exercises that contain more elements to
analyse, this method will prove more advantageous and show all its
potential, as we will see later.

Note : You could maybe think that, if we add two additional steps to ‘close’
the circular path, going back to the bottom left side, the symmetry would be
lost. However, we can always keep our pattern if we start and finish at a
middle point of one of the four sides:
-Exercise 9 solved-
Solution:
We can identify several objects in this series:
- there is a rounded rectangle filled with stripes in the centre of
each diagram;
- there are two shapes – a circle and a square, which can take two
colours (black or white).
When we observe the variations of the rounded rectangle, we note that its
filling alternates between vertical and horizontal stripes, repeating twice
each design.
By applying this first rule, we deduce that, in the solution diagram, the
rectangle should have vertical stripes , repeating the filling of the diagram
5.
This way, we can filter three options out: C, D, and E.
Next, we study the variations in the circle and the square. It is easy to detect
the sequence of the colour change: two diagrams with both shapes in black;
another two with both shapes in white.
So, if we use this second rule, we can assume that these two shapes will be
black again in the solution, as in the previous diagram.
Unfortunately, this new rule cannot help us now to filter out an additional
option, because both of the remaining ones (A and B) contain black shapes.
In consequence, we should analyse the movement of the shapes to find a
third rule.
On one hand, the circle starts at the bottom left side of the rectangle, then it
goes up to the middle in the second step, and again up to the top left side
(turning white) in the diagram 3 (we skip the square now for more clarity):
In the step 4, it jumps to the right side (top), and, in the final diagram, it
goes down to the middle of that side (turning black again):

So, in the solution, and following this sequence of a clockwise movement

around the rectangle, the circle should go down again and appear at the
bottom right side.

After applying this third rule, we can finally eliminate the option B and
select the answer option A as the right one.
Even though we do not need to analyse the movement of the square, we are
going to explain it and show the fourth rule of this exercise.
The square starts at the top right side of the rectangle, then it jumps to the
left side (diagram 2), goes down to the middle (diagram 3), and again down
to the bottom (diagram 4), to jump again to the right side in the final
diagram, all this while changing its colour every two turns as we said
before.
So, in the solution, and following this sequence of an anticlockwise
movement around the rectangle, the square should go up and appear at the
middle right side.
This matches (and can be used to confirm) the answer option that we had
selected.
My advice:
This question require to discover three rules to be solved, but this can be
done quite fast because two of them (stripes and colour) are relatively easy
to detect. Then you only need to study the movement of one of the shapes
(circle or square) to get to the solution.
The exercise is also relevant to show you again one of the strategies that we
proposed in our chapter 3: the strategy on looking for common elements in
the alternative answers .
While we were solving the exercise above and we found the first rule about
the stripes of the rectangle, maybe you thought why the test designer did
not set three answer options with the correct vertical stripes and only two
with the horizontal ones (instead of two and three, respectively, allowing
you to eliminate only two options with the first rule).
Let us see what could happen if the author did this, trying to add more right
elements to the options, and how you could take advantage on it.
Imagine that the five answer options in this exercise were the ones that you
have in the next page. They are the same as the original ones, with only one
little exception: I changed the filling of the rectangle in option C to put
vertical stripes, in order to have three options with the correct striped now.
This way, when the candidates apply the first rule, they can only reject two
options, D and E, so the exercise seems harder now.
But this accumulation of right elements in the options let the candidate
deduce the answer just by looking for common elements and selecting the
alternative with the most of them – the strategy that we proposed if you run
out of time and ideas.
With this strategy, without even analysing the diagrams of the series and the
sequence , you can just have a look at the answer options and check the
most repeated elements –those that are repeated three times (vertical stripes,
black shapes, and the circle at the bottom right side)–, to directly select the
option containing all of them: option A.

This strategy can help you solve some exercises amazingly fast, although,
as we said at the beginning of the book, it could also fail (as it would have
happened in the original exercise here) and should be used only as a last
resort.
Anyway, this example shows that the test designer often faces a hard
decision to try to camouflage this effect and avoid the use of the strategy,
e.g., here in the original exercise, leaving only two possible right answers
after the first and quite simple rule.
-Exercise 10 solved-
Solution:
This series is formed by two black shapes (square and circle) and two lines
that look like clock needles. Each shape seems to be attached to a ‘needle’.
From the diagram 1 to the diagram 2, the square and its needle (we will
refer to both by saying just ‘the square’ from now on), moved 90º
anticlockwise:

In the next step, diagram 3, the triangle and its needle (‘the triangle’ from
now on), moved 90º anticlockwise too:

Then, from item 3 to item 4, the square moved 90º anticlockwise again:

And finally, between steps 4 and 5, the triangle moved 90º anticlockwise
again:
So we could define two rules, one for the triangle – moving 90º
anticlockwise every odd turn (1-3-5), and another rule for the square –
moving the same way every even turn (2-4), or we could better define just
one rule in an easier way , in our opinion: both shapes move in the same
way, 90º anticlockwise, alternating this movement between them each turn.
Note : Sometimes the wording in a single rule could seem longer or a little
harder to express, but its interpretation and application are usually simpler
and faster.
Therefore, if the triangle moved in the last step (diagram 5), then the shape
that should be displaced 90º anticlockwise in the solution diagram is the
square .

This implies that the right answer here is option C.

My advice:
The reasoning behind this exercise is effortless.
You should pay attention to the sequence and avoid making a mistake on
the shape to move or the direction of its movement.
Note that most of the answer options look very similar and you could
accidentally confuse A and C (taking the wrong direction of the square) or
B and C (moving the triangle twice in a row).
I recommend reviewing the whole sequence a couple of times at least and
voicing the shapes to move each time: ‘square-triangle-square-triangle-
square ’.
-Exercise 11 solved-
Solution:
Three little objects compose this series: a black circle, a white circle, and a
star.
The diagrams are divided into eight sections, which have a triangular form.
Every two triangular sections compose a square area.
Let us analyse the variations (movements in this case) throughout the
diagrams, separately for each object.
Black circle
From the first to the second diagram, the black circle moves one step
clockwise, to the next section (we keep the other objects to help ‘train your
eye’ to mentally skip them):

In the third diagram, the black circle moves two steps (sections)
anticlockwise:

Then, it moves again clockwise, three sections this time, in the diagram 4:

Finally, the little black circle moves four sections anticlockwise, as you can
see in the diagram 5:
The sequence of the movement of the black circle is the following:
- one section clockwise
- two sections anticlockwise
- three sections clockwise
- four sections anticlockwise
So we can deduce as a first rule of this series that the black circle moves
one additional step (section) each turn, and always alternating between
clockwise and anticlockwise direction.
In consequence, the next movement should be five sections clockwise (we
use grey colour as usual to anticipate our solution):

By applying this rule, we can already reject three options (A, C, and E), and
keep only two as potential answers: B and D.
White circle
As you can see more easily, after our previous explanation on the other
circle, the white circle follows a sequence very similar to the black circle’s
one.
The only difference is that the white circle starts moving two sections
anticlockwise from the first to the second diagram (we could say that it is
one diagram ahead of the other circle), so its full sequence is:
- two sections anticlockwise
- three sections clockwise
- four sections anticlockwise
- five sections clockwise
Thus, its next movement has to be six sections anticlockwise :

Therefore, we can deduce that the white circle follows the same first rule
about the black circle (this is, moving one additional section each turn, and
always alternating clockwise and anticlockwise). We do not need to state a
second rule for the white circle, as you can check.
According to this conclusion, only the answer option D matches the
position of the white circle that we have anticipated (because we already
discarded option A), so it is the right answer.
We have solved the exercise and we do not need to analyse the movement
of the star, but we are going to do it, as usual, to provide the candidate with
the full explanation of the question.
Star
If we try to apply the same reasoning of the circles’ movement to the star’s
one, we cannot find a clear sequence, because the star seems to first move
three sections clockwise, then two anticlockwise, then one clockwise, but
finally four sections anticlockwise, so its position in the solution diagram
would be difficult to foresee with this reasoning.
However, having a more attentive look at the five diagrams, and focusing
on the position of the little star, we can detect that all of them have
something in common: the star is always adjacent to the black circle, like
‘mirroring’ this shape in the triangular section that completes the respective
square area of the diagram.

Consequently, in the solution, the star should occupy the triangular section
adjacent to the black circle that the option D shows.
This rule about the star is not enough to deduce the right answer,
considering that also options B and C have the star in the correct ‘mirrored’
position. So, if you started this exercise by analysing this shape, you would
still be forced to study the circles too.
My advice:
An interesting point to ponder when you start this exercise, as well as any
other containing several objects, is in which order you should analyse them
to save time and filter more options out.
With this goal, we always recommend having an initial look at the answer
options , to compare them and find which positions or elements would
allow you to tell them apart.
In this exercise, when you observe the five options, you can notice that the
position of the black circle is repeated in A-C and in B-D; the position of
the white circle is repeated in A-D and B-C; and the star mirrored appears
in B, C, and D.
Only option E contains independent positions for both circles (you would
only need to analyse one of them to check if this option is right, but you
would quickly find that it does not meet the rule). You can also foresee that
the test designer was not so naïve and wanted to force you to choose
between some of the paired options.
This means that, even if you detect at the beginning the mirroring of the
star, you must analyse both circles, no matter their order, to be able to select
among the three options B-C-D.
-Exercise 12 solved-
Solution:
In this exercise you can find several geometrical shapes: circle, triangle,
square, rotated square, and pentagon (in one of the answer options). They
can adopt two colours: black or white.
To analyse their variations, our first idea is, as usual, to compare them step
by step.
By doing so, we observe that the rotated black square moved from the top
left position in the diagram 1 to the top right position in the diagram 2; we
can also see that, in the same step, the white circle at the bottom of the
diagram moved to the top left position; and it seems that the circle at the
bottom changed its colour too:

Then, we study the changes between the diagrams 2 and 3. We can note that
the variations undergone in the positions from one to another diagram were
the same as in the previous step – the element located at the top left position
(white circle) moved to the top right position, and the element situated at
the bottom (black circle) moved to the top left position:

However, the new shape at the bottom (a white triangle) does not seem to
be related to the previous diagram.
Next, we see that the variation in the positions between the items 3 and 4
matches our previous findings: the object placed at the top left position
moved to the top right position, and the object sited at the bottom moved to
the top left position. The new shape at the bottom (a white square) is again
different from the previous ones.
And in the last step of the series, from the diagram 4 to the diagram 5, we
can check the same variations as in the previous steps (the element at the
top left goes to the top right; the element at the bottom moves to the top
left; a new element appears at the bottom):

So we can easily define three rules in this exercise:

1) The element placed at the top left position moves to the top right
position in the following diagram.
2) The element located at the bottom goes to the top left position in
the following diagram.
3) A new element, different from all the previous ones, appears at the
bottom each time.
Finally, we only need to apply the rules to select the option that meets all of
them.
If you apply the first rule, you will conclude that the white square has to go
from the top left position in the diagram 5 to the top right position in the
solution diagram. This implies that only the answer option B is right. That
is the most effective rule indeed, because it allows you to filter four options
out in a row.
Anyway, if you found or deduced the rules in a different order, the exercise
is still very quick to solve.
By applying first the rule 3, you find that three options contain a new
element at the bottom: A, B, and E (so you can discard options C and D).
And when you later apply the rule 2, you deduce that the black square must
go from the bottom in the diagram 5 to the top left position in the solution
diagram. This happens only in options B and C, and you already rejected
the latter, so the answer option B has to be the right one.
My advice:
In this exercise, it is not difficult to visually detect that the white square at
the top right position only appears in one of the answer options (B), being
this the key rule that shows you the fastest way to solve the question .
Still, if you first found the other main rule of this exercise, our rule 2, and
you got to the conclusion that only B or C could be the correct answers,
there is another reason to ‘prefer’ option B rather than C, without needing
to find and apply the third rule. Note that option C contain two black
squares, and none of the five diagrams in the series had a repeated element,
so, even not knowing for sure whether this was another formal rule in the
mind of the test designer or not, it is a plus point indeed for option B.
This aspect brings us the opportunity to comment that, when you analyse in
great detail an abstract reasoning exercise, sometimes you can even find (or
think that you found) more rules that the ones required to solve the exercise
or the ones planned by the test designer, and in fact you cannot be sure if
they were planned or casual.
For example, in the present question, we could have defined a fourth rule
(‘no element is repeated in the same diagram’), or even took this as the rule
3, instead of the one we stated, and considered that ‘having a new element
at the bottom’ just happened by chance, because one of these rules alone is
enough to resolve the exercise.
In any case, of course you do not need to found all the combinations that
could be considered a ‘rule’, but the most logical variations that, if you
were the test designer, you would use in the exercise. In this sense, our book
and also your practices with other materials will help you to know better
what kind of rules to expect.
-Exercise 13 solved-
Solution:
In this case, the series consists of several forms of arrow connectors (up-
right, up-left, down-right, down-left), whose location varies among three
different places in each diagram – the top, the middle, and the bottom.
When you start studying the variations in the position of the arrow
connectors along the diagrams, step by step (1-2, 2-3, 3-4, 4-5), as we
usually do at the beginning of the exercises, you cannot see a clear pattern
of movement, rotation or repetition of the connectors.
Then, if you compare the odd steps (1-3-5), you may think that you found a
promising model:

The top side includes three of the four forms, maybe following a sequence:
up-left, down-left, up-right (and consequently down-right in the potential
diagram 7, after the solution diagram). The down side also contains three of
the four possible forms, matching this reasoning. But, unfortunately, the
middle side ruins our idea: the up-left arrow connector is repeated.
In addition, when you compare the even steps (2-4), you can notice that the
previous reasoning would be useless here, even if it were followed by the
middle side too: the problem is that we only have two forms now, without a
particular order, so it would be impossible to deduce which of the other two
forms should appear in the solution diagram (diagram 6).

So we continue our analysis by comparing the following group, another

common possibility in these exercises: 1-4, 2-5, 3-solution.
At that moment, all the darkness of the exercise is cleared, and your worries
about the time previously wasted fade: you hardly need five seconds more
to solve this question.
You can quickly see that the diagrams 1 and 4 are identical (you do not even
have to study any variation or change between them):

And exactly the same happens between the steps 2 and 5 – they are
identical:

Therefore, we must conclude, without the slightest doubt, that the solution
diagram has to be identical to the diagram 3 :

So the answer option A is the right answer.

My advice:
Many candidates would probably tear their hair out if, after finding an
exercise like this at their exam and not being able to see the solution in
time, they discovered later how simple it was.
To try to avoid this lack of time (and to keep the hair on the heads of my
dear readers for as long as possible), I recommend not spending too much
time in your first analysis of one of your ideas, including the usual step by
step analysis (1-2, 2-3, 3-4, 4-5), because you could waste the whole minute
–or more– while doing only that, especially if the appearance of the
diagrams is particularly tricky, as in this case.
It is better to see the big picture as soon as possible, by using our strategy of
comparing the diagrams in groups, and making sure that you associate the
first diagram with each of the others (1-3, 1-4, 1-5) at least once , to check
their similarities and relationships.
-Exercise 14 solved-
Solution:
This exercise contains several shapes. The first three diagrams include two
identical shapes in white each (with one of the shapes rotated), and the
diagrams 4 and 5 have one shape in black each.
We can see that the shapes in the first three diagrams seem independent or
unrelated. But the object in the diagram 4 looks like a combination of the
two shapes from the diagram 1, and turning black :

So, if there is an association between diagrams 1 and 4, we can also expect

a relationship between steps 2 and 5, as we know. In this case, the
combination of the two white shapes from the second diagram in the middle
of the fifth diagram and taking black colour is even more evident:

This way, and after associating the steps 1-4, 2-5, and 3-6, we can deduce
that the solution (diagram 6) must be formed by a combination of the two
triangles from the diagram 3 and turning black.
Then, we analyse the answer options and we see that the option D should be
immediately rejected, because the type of triangles (equilateral triangles) is
different from the ones of the third diagram (right-angled triangles).
Of course, you do not need to remember the names of the geometrical
shapes because they are easy to distinguish visually:

Anyway, we will seize this opportunity for a quick review on these two
shapes in our recommendations later.
We still have four answer options composed of the two correct triangles (A-
B-C-E). Probably the most difficult to perceive as a combination of the
correct triangles, if you are not trained with geometrical shapes, is the
option E, but note that if you put together two right-angled triangles, you
can always obtain a rectangle – a shape with four right angles (which of
course include squares):

To decide which answer option is appropriate here, let us check the

displacement of the shapes in the previous steps.
In both cases, from 1 to 4 and from 2 to 5, the shapes at the top went down
and the shapes at the bottom went up, only moving along the same vertical
axis (never horizontally), to cross with the other one in the middle of the
picture:

So we should discard the options A and B, because there the triangles were
displaced horizontally too.
And we also have to reject option C, because their triangles were not
crossed or combined, they just got closer to their edge.
We must select the diagram that shows a vertical movement to combine the
two shapes in the centre .

In consequence, according to the previous steps of the series, the alternative

that shows the most coherent combination of the two triangles is option E,
which is the right answer here.
My advice:
On one hand, we present a brief review on the two categories of triangles
that appear in this exercise:

The white triangle is a right-angled triangle , this means, a triangle that

contains a 90º angle:

The black triangle is an equilateral triangle : a triangle in which all its sides
have the same length. This implies, in the common (Euclidean) geometry
that we all studied at primary school, that all its angles are 60º each:
This could help you to visually perceive a little faster the combination of
the two right-angled triangles in the solution:

On the other hand, you could follow the more orthodox approach of
defining several rules for the series, e.g.:
- rule 1: the shapes of the diagrams 4-5-6 are a combination of the
1-2-3 ones
- rule 2: all the shapes turn black in 4-5-6
- rule 3: the displacement is only vertical
- rule 4: the shapes have to cross in the middle of the picture
And later to apply each rule to the answer options to filter them out, step by
step:
- rule 1: we reject D; keep A-B-C-E
- rule 2: no effect (all options in black)
- rule 3: we reject A-B; keep C-E
- rule 4: we reject C; we mark E as the solution
Nevertheless, to save time and simplify your task, I recommend not creating
all the separate rules that you could define in this exercise, whose
appearance is quite simple – having few shapes, and better applying directly
to the third diagram the particular movement that you saw in the previous
steps.
To this end, you can use one specific rule that comprises the description of
the movement, as we did before: the two shapes move along the same
vertical axis to cross each other in the middle of the picture.
 -Exercise 15 solved-
Exercise 15
Which diagram would be the next in the series?
Solution:
As usual, we first identify the objects of the series, which are three circles
overlapping in the centre of the diagrams and divided in four sectors each.
The sectors can take black or white colour.
Second, we have a quick look at the answer options, to try to anticipate
what we should analyse to solve the exercise. In this case, we see that the
pictures have different rotations and the sectors of each circle take different
patterns of black and white colour.
So we can presume that we need to study the variations of each circle along
the series. Let us analyse them in detail.
Outer circle
The outer circle keeps the colour of their sectors (two in black and two in
white) along the whole series, so we only need to analyse its rotation. It is
the fastest variation to visualise indeed.

This circle rotates 45º anticlockwise each turn. You can detect this by
focusing on one colour, for example, the black sectors, and seeing how they
spin at every step (exactly a half of 90º).
Note : If you need a little help with rotation angles, you can review the
exercise 1 of this book.
This way, we can deduce that, in the solution, the outer circle must rotate
again 45º anticlockwise , precisely in the position shown in the answer
options A and E: we can take only these two for the rest of our analysis and
filter the others out.
At this point, we should take a few seconds to decide which of the other
two circles to evaluate now (note that we started by the outer circle because
its variation seemed simpler just visually).
Now we have valuable information provided by the answer options that we
have preselected . Considering that one of these options, A or E, has to be
the right answer, we should check their differences as soon as possible, to
know the fastest way to choose between them.
By doing so, we find that the central circle (the smallest one) has exactly
the same rotation and colour allocation in both options, so, if we analysed
this circle now, we would not progress in our objective .
For this reason, we are going to assess the variation of the intermediate
circle.
Intermediate circle
This circle rotates 135º clockwise each turn (this is, 90º + 45º), and, as you
can see, it varies its number of black sectors each step (we will focus on the
black colour again, but the reasoning and the conclusions are the same for
the white sectors).

So it starts by ‘adding’ one black sector at each step: it has one black sector
in the diagram 1, two black sectors in the diagram 2, three in the diagram 3,
four in the diagram 4, and then (being full black), it ‘loses’ one black sector
in the diagram 5, to show again three black sectors.
Following this sequence, we can conclude that the solution diagram must
present the intermediate circle rotated 135º clockwise, and with two black
sectors (losing one from the diagram 5).
However, our task becomes more complicated than we expected, because
both options, A and E, show this circle with two black sectors and we may
have certain doubts about their position, considering the difficulty of this
135º rotation.
This implies that we have to find out the specific order in which this circle
is adding and losing the black sectors.
With this purpose, we study in detail how this circle, after being full black
in the diagram 4, lost one black sector in the diagram 5: the first sector that
turned white is the one adjacent to the little black sector of the central
circle, and it was the last one in turning black.
This way, the look of this circle in the diagram 5 matches its look in the
diagram 3 (three black sectors; one white sector – the adjacent one to the
little black sector in the centre):

So we can deduce that the black sectors are removed in reverse order to
which they were added .
Consequently, the appearance of this circle in the solution diagram should
match its appearance in the diagram 2 (the diagram with two black sectors
and two white sectors). And in the diagram 2, as you can see, the two black
sectors are counted clockwise from the white sector adjacent to the little
black sector in the middle:

For this reason, we can reject the option A (because it has a black sector
adjacent to the little black sector in the middle, instead of the correct white
one), and finally select the option E as the right answer of this exercise,
after double-checking that it matches the appearance in the diagram 2
(considering the subsequent rotations):
To complete our explanation, we are going to study the variation of the
central circle too, even though it is not necessary to resolve the exercise, as
we have seen, but taking into account that in can help you to better
understand the rotation above described.
Central circle
This circle rotates 135º clockwise each turn (90º + 45º), in the same way
that the intermediate circle, and without changing the colour of its sectors,
so it can be used as an excellent point of reference or guide mark to solve
the exercise, if you did not fully follow the previous reasoning.

Note that the rotation of the central circle is clearer to follow.

The black sector appears in the first quarter of the circle in the diagram 1,
this is, between 0º and 90º.
Then, it rotates (always clockwise) not only 90º, which would match the
position of the second quarter in the diagram 1, but half of a quarter (45º)
more, reaching 135º in the diagram 2 – so it is located between 135º and
225º there.
You can review this picture from our exercise 1 to improve your mental
calculation of angles:
You can obtain the angle of rotation by comparing the beginning of the
black sector in the first diagram (0º) and its beginning in the second
diagram (135º). This implies a rotation of: 135º – 0º = 135º.
From the diagram 2 to the diagram 3, the (beginning) of the black sector
rotates from 135º to 270º, again the same angular distance:
270º – 135º = 135º.
But it is easier to visualise the rotation again, in my opinion, as ‘a quarter
plus half of a quarter ’: the black sector would first move half of a quarter to
the position of the third quarter in the diagram 3, and then a whole quarter,
to its final position in that diagram.
This way, you can better follow the positions of the black quarter in the
diagrams 4 and 5 too, always rotating a quarter plus half of a quarter (this
is, 135º) clockwise, and matching the third quarter of the central circle in
the last diagram:

In the solution, according to its previous movements, the black sector

should rotate again a quarter plus half of a quarter, so it has to go first to the
position of the fourth quarter and then continuing half of a quarter more, to
be eventually situated in the position shown in the answer options A and E
(in our graph, between 315º and 45º).
In conclusion, by analysing the movement of the central circle, we would
have preselected the same two options as we did with the outer circle.
My advice:
This kind of exercise about rotations and translations on circles superposed
is quite frequent in the highly competitive Administrators generalists’ test.
Even though it is more complicated than the average in this book and most
of the materials that you can find, it can also be simplified with the tips
provided in our solution (‘a quarter plus half of a quarter rotation’ and
taking the central circle as a reference), and another shortcut that we will
show our readers now.
When we have a first look at the series, we can realise that the black sector
in the central circle can play a helpful role to make us visualise better the
rotation and variation in the intermediate circle. And, if we combine the
analysis of both circles to find out their final position, we will not need to
analyse the outer circle to solve the exercise, because none of the answer
options contain the same position for both, the central and the intermediate
circle, forcing us to study the three circles.
So let us try to visualise how the central and the intermediate circles ‘move’
together.

Looking at the first diagram, I could say that, for me, the black sector in the
central circle could be like a small guy with only one big arm – the left arm,
which is the black sector in the intermediate circle.
Then, in the second diagram, the guy rotates (we omit the type of rotation
for now) and his arm is extended twice its initial length.
Let us see what happens with this strange guy (maybe a superhero!) in the
following diagrams:
In the third diagram, his arm is extended again, three times its initial length
(and always clockwise).

And, following this logical sequence, his arm is extended once again in the
fourth diagram, up to four times its original length, and surrounding his
own ‘body’.
After impressing us with his skills, this small superhero decides, in the
diagram 5, to start ‘reducing’ his arm, going back to its previous length
(three times the original) – the same as in the diagram 3:

So we can assume that he is going to continue ‘reducing’ his arm in the

following steps, and the next diagram (the solution) should correspond to a
left arm, twice the original length, with the same appearance as in the
diagram 2 :
Now we only need to compare this ‘look’ of the small guy with his
appearance in the answer options, to check which fits better, as we do in the
following page.
Note that, with this visual shortcut to solve the exercise, you do not even
need to measure and apply the 135º or ‘a quarter plus half of a quarter’
rotations, because only one of the answer options shows a correct rotation
of the diagram 2 – our target here.
Of course, you can use your own imagination with other examples to better
visualise this movement.
Finally, we are going to show you again how, when the answer options
accumulate or repeat several elements of the right answer (which is difficult
to avoid for the test designer even in a hard question like this one), you can
use our ‘last resort’ strategy of selecting the option with the most repeated
elements , without even analysing the diagrams of the series:
About our suggestion of using this last resort strategy, as we call this, some
of our readers might feel that, by skipping the normal procedure of
analysing and applying the logical rules of the exercise, we are ‘cheating’
the test designer somehow.
In opposition to this view, I would like to counter-argue that, in abstract
reasoning tests, all the elements, and even the ‘pitfalls’, have been placed
there for a reason. They can reveal valuable information too, as we have
proved in many of our explanations, and you are free to use this information
in the way you want, as it cannot be understood otherwise, in order to solve
the exercise.
You should remember that this strategy can fail and can also be
camouflaged, as we already saw (you can check it with other of our
exercises in this book).
We could say that this is like a chess game, in which all the pieces are
shown, and all the candidates have the same opportunities to analyse,
meditate about, and choose their safest and fastest way to respond to the
questions.
Meanwhile, the test designers try to add more obstacles to make the task of
the candidates harder, and leaving some hints along the way (some times
intentionally, other times inevitably).
In this sense, I really think that this is another skill to be assessed by EPSO
in its reasoning tests: the candidates’ ability to turn difficulties into
advantages, being creative to exploit all the information provided.
-Exercise 16 solved-
Solution:
This exercise contains only two geometrical shapes: a circle and a triangle.
Both can take black or white colour.
It seems that they can be situated in one of the four sides of the diagram:
top left, top right, bottom left, or bottom right.
After a first quick look, we do not see a very clear connection between
some pairs of diagrams (odd and even, 1-4 and 2-5…), so we start analysing
the variation step by step.

When we compare the diagrams 1 and 2, we observe that the two shapes
scrolled anticlockwise: the triangle went from top right to top left, and the
circle moved from bottom right to top right. At the same time, the triangle
changed its colour.
Then, from the diagram 2 to the diagram 3, the shapes swapped positions.
Moreover, the circle changed its colour.
In the following step, between diagrams 3 and 4, the shapes scrolled
anticlockwise and the triangle changed its colour again.
Finally, in the last diagram, the shapes swapped positions and the circle
changed its colour again.
This way, we can define two rules in this sequence:
- from odd to even diagrams, the shapes scroll anticlockwise, and
the triangle changes its colour;
- from even to odd diagrams, the shapes swap positions, and the
circle changes its colour.
Therefore, we should apply the first rule to pass from the diagram 5 to the
diagram 6 – the solution: the shapes will scroll anticlockwise and the
triangle changes its colour, turning white in this case:
This is exactly the situation shown in the option D, which is the right
answer.
My advice:
This question is relatively easy to solve in less than one minute, as long as
you practise a little these variations (rotations, alternations, changes in
colour, etc.). With this purpose, you can use different materials and you can
also create your own exercises that you should try to solve one or two
weeks later – this is an excellent training that I always recommend to my
students, no matter the competition: putting themselves ‘on the other side of
the table’.
However, in case that you find any trouble to see the scrolling of the shapes
or the colour switching, probably due to the nerves and the rush at the
exam, I will offer a shortcut for this and other similar exercises that you
could face in your test.
First, note that this kind of series usually forms a ‘pattern’, with a certain
appearance and design, which we can use to foresee the next stages.
For example, in this exercise, there is something that catches our attention
right away: the colour allocation.
We can see some diagrams with two colours (black and white) and others
with only one colour (black or white):
Thereby, to keep this logical sequence of colours, our first conclusion
should be that the following diagram, this is, the solution, has to contain
again only one colour , and it must be white .
Note : If you want to describe a rule for this, it could be: alternation
between one and two colours, and, after two colours, it comes the opposite
colour to the previous single colour.

Let us analyse now the positions of the shapes, considering in which side of
the diagram they are located:

They are clearly following a sequence of twice each side , starting from the
right, then appearing at the top and the left sides, and therefore, in the
solution, it is the turn of the ‘bottom ’ side, this is, the only side that does
not appear before.
For this reason, with only these two simple conditions (white shapes at the
bottom side) that we have deduced after a quick look at the diagrams, we
can already select the option D as the correct answer in this exercise,
because it is the only one meeting both conditions.
As you can check, by using this method, you could solve the exercise even
faster than with the more orthodox procedure –this means, applying two
logical rules for odd and even steps– that we explained in our solution.
-Exercise 17 solved-
Solution:
In this exercise, we can see that the pictures consist of several (concentric)
circles in different sizes and small squares in some of the diagrams.
We proceed to study the variations along the series:

- From item 1 to 2, the number of circles is reduced from three to two, so

one circle is removed.
- From item 2 to 3, the number of circles remains, and two squares are
added.
- From item 3 to 4, one circle is removed again, and the number of squares
remains.
- From item 4 to 5, the number of circles remains, and two squares are
added again.
Consequently, we can deduce that:
- from odd to even diagrams, one circle is removed ;
- from even to odd diagrams, two squares are added .
By applying this double rule (or two rules, if you prefer), we can anticipate
that, in the solution diagram, one circle has to be removed, so there will be
none left, while the number of squares should remain, so there will be four
again.
This description matches the answer option C of our exercise, the right one
in this case.

My advice:
This exercise is not complicated to solve in 30 seconds or less, provided
that you do not get confused with odd and even steps.
In any case, there is a visual shortcut (with the help of numbers again) to
find the answer even faster.
Note that the number of squares and circles is relatively small in all the
diagrams, so it is easy to visually count and check that it changes every two
diagrams .
For this reason, we can mentally group the diagrams in pairs:

This way, we can resolve the exercise in just a few seconds.

-Exercise 18 solved-
Solution:
Three shapes form this series: a small black square, a white triangle, and a
white square.
They change their position along the series and they are always located in
one of the four ‘basic’ sides of the diagram: top left, top right, bottom left,
or bottom right.
Let us see their variations.

From the first to the second diagram, the small black square and the white
square exchanged their positions.

From the second to the third diagram, the white square and the triangle
swapped their places.

From the third to the fourth diagram, something a bit unexpected happened:
instead of two shapes swapping their positions, apparently only the white
square moved, in this case from the top right to the bottom right side. But
this can be considered a ‘pitfall’ in the exercise to make you think that the
logical sequence of the previous steps was broken, when in fact it was not:
we can follow the same reasoning and affirm that the white square and the
‘blank space’ interchanged their places too. So we should deduce here that
the blank space is participating in the exchanges . The four sides of the
diagram (top left, top right, bottom left, and bottom right) participate in
these movements.

Finally, from the fourth to the fifth diagram, the side containing the small
black square and the side with the white square swapped their positions,
exactly the same as in the first step of the exercise. We could say that the
cycle has been completed.
The rule that we can define for this exercise is the following: in each turn,
two sides of the diagram swap their positions, in a consecutive clockwise
order .
In consequence, we should apply this rule and deduce that, after the
swapping of the two sides at the bottom (with the two squares) in the last
step of the series, it is the turn of the sides at the left in the diagram 5, the
ones containing the triangle and the white square, which should interchange
positions to lead us to the solution.

This implies that the correct answer is option B.

My advice:
We consider that this exercise is very relevant (it is also directly based on a
real EPSO question), because it shows us that not only the objects can scroll
or rotate along the series, but also the rule can be ‘moved’ , in this case
rotating clockwise to be applied to different parts of the diagram.
This type of movement may be hard to identify if the candidate is a little
inexperienced in abstract reasoning, so I recommend to practise by
designing your own exercises and even using some cards for the different
shapes to better visualise the swaps, if you need it.
On the other hand, there is a shortcut that we could apply to solve the
exercise in a different way, by using another visual reasoning. We can only
do it if, in our first look at the series, we detected a curious connection
between two pairs of diagrams:
- the diagram 4 is just a ‘rotation’ of the diagram 1 – all the shapes (sides)
rotated one position anticlockwise:

- the diagram 5 is also a ‘rotation’ of the diagram 2 (again one position

anticlockwise):
Therefore, the solution diagram must also share this kind of connection
with the diagram 3, and can be obtained by rotating this diagram one
position anticlockwise:
-Exercise 19 solved-
Solution:
The diagrams of this exercise are composed of a horizontal line with three
shorter vertical lines on its left, in the middle, and on its right.
Each of the short lines can point up or down. It seems that we should find
the sequence of these directions, because the horizontal line in the centre is
always the same.
There are several ways to solve this exercise in time.
One of the first ideas of the candidate could be to analyse the directions of
the small lines step by step, which is a reasonable choice.
This way, if we focus on the short line on the left in each diagram, we
observe that its direction follows this sequence:

Next, we study the direction of the second short line – the one in the middle
of each horizontal line:

And thirdly, we proceed to mark the position of the short line on the right
side:

After a quick look at the three sequences, we can easily see that in all of
them each direction is repeated three times .
So we can conclude that, in the solution:
- the short line on the left should point up ;
- the short line in the middle should point down ;
- the short line on the right should point down .
This matches only the answer option A, the correct response in this
exercise.
Even though you can follow the procedure above to find the right answer in
less than one minute indeed, there is also another way to solve the question
faster, as it frequently happens in these abstract reasoning tests.
When we compare the diagrams in groups, we can notice that the diagrams
1, 2, and 3 are quite related: they are symmetrical, taking as axis of
symmetry the short line in the middle of their central diagram (the diagram
2). We mark this axis with a dashed line:

Note : If you had only seen the symmetry between the diagrams 1 and 3,
and tried the common association of odd and even diagrams, you would
have quickly found that the diagram 5 has nothing to do with the previous 1
and 3, driving you to try other combinations.
Therefore, we can deduce that the diagrams 4, 5, and 6 (the solution) must
be symmetrical too, taking as axis of symmetry the short line in the middle
of their central diagram (in this case, the diagram 5):

This method leads us to the same conclusion about the right answer much
faster.
My advice:
Some of the abstract reasoning exercises are true masterpieces: they have
not only a ‘traditional’ procedure to be solved in time and a nice shortcut
that skilful candidates can detect, but also a ‘third level’ of abstraction or
visualisation that may allow us to find the solution in a really simple way, in
just a few seconds, as we saw in several of our examples (these lines serve
in recognition of the excellent work of the EPSO test designers that we tried
to ‘imitate’ here for our students).
The present exercise is one of these masterpieces indeed.
As we proposed in a previous question, when we perceive some kind of
symmetry in the series, we can try to visualise the bigger picture and create
a pattern that we can identify and foresee, in order to draw the solution .
We already did it, partly, in the shortcut of our solution, by mentally
drawing the continuation of the series while respecting the symmetry from
the diagrams 4 and 5.
But the ‘bigger picture’ is not complete yet.
If we look at the diagrams more in detail, we can identify a pattern.
Let us mark with a grey circle what I will call the ‘doors’ of this series – the
doors are every two short lines pointing together in the same direction, no
matter if they belong to the same diagram or to different ones:

Then we notice that this pattern is very close to a letter. We only need to
add another mark to the single lines in the middle of the diagrams 2 and 5,
and we can draw our letter:

This way, we can visualise this pattern as a ‘W’ along the diagrams 1-2-3,
which, as we can foresee, is going to be inverted (or becoming an ‘M’) in
the diagrams 4-5-solution:

This method shows us quickly where will be situated the ‘door’ in the
solution diagram (i.e., a door ‘pointing’ down and placed at the right side of
the diagram).
So we have found the ‘third level’ of abstraction of this exercise, this is, the
secret of the masterpiece: the diagrams are not only symmetrical separately
in groups of three, respect to the middle point of the second and the fifth
diagrams, but also the whole series is symmetrical , respect to the horizontal
axis.
With this visual reasoning, we clearly see that the solution has to be
symmetrical to the diagram 4 (respect to the central axis of the diagram 5)
and also symmetrical to the diagram 3, mirroring this picture in the
horizontal plane. As we said, a little work of art:
-Exercise 20 solved-
Solution:
There is only one sort of object here, a circle, which can take two colours:
black or white.
The arrangement of the five circles in each diagram is always the same, so
the key of the series has to be the variation in colour.
After comparing the diagrams in groups, and if we do not find a clear
pattern between them at the first sight (we will deal with this later), we can
start studying the individual variation of each circle.

We present the sequence followed by each circle below (counting the

circles from left to right).
By voicing the colours (you do not need to write them down in you exam,
but just repeat them ‘sotto voce’), you can realise that, in every circle,
except with the third circle, the colours in the diagrams 4 and 5 are a
repetition of the colours in the diagrams 1 and 2, respectively . We can
visualise this effect more clearly if we temporarily skip the third circle and
the diagram 3:

This means that, for the first, second, fourth, and fifth circles, the sequence
‘restarts’ in the diagram 4, so the three colours in steps 4-5-6 must follow
the same pattern as the ones in steps 1-2-3, and, therefore, the colours in the
solution diagram should match the colours in the diagram 3 for these four
circles :
An alternative way to see this, and probably easier, is to deduce that each
circle is repeating twice one colour :
So we reach the same conclusion about the appearance of these four circles
in the solution diagram:
Let us see what happens with the third circle .
Unlike all the others, the third circle follows a simple routine, as you can
check, of alternating white and black in every turn , so, in the solution, it
should take black colour again.
This way, we can finally complete our solution diagram:

The answer option that matches this combination is option C, which is the
right answer in this exercise.
My advice:
As most of our readers probably anticipated, and maybe some of them
found by themselves, this exercise also has an excellent shortcut that can
avoid us the arduous and slow step-by-step analysis of each circle.
Before going to it, I would like to mention other possible ideas that the
candidate could have in mind when studying this series.

Firstly, considering that the diagrams 1 and 2 could be somehow linked –

because they present exactly the opposite colours–, and the diagrams 4 and
5 could be grouped too, for the same reason, one might think that the
diagram 3 is the only one associated with the solution and also could
represent the opposite colours to the solution’s ones.
So, according to that reasoning, the solution should adopt this look:
Two important objections can be raised here:
- the main one: none of the answer options matches it!
- another quite relevant too: the lack of sufficient logical evidence
to prove your answer. I think it is worth explaining this a little more
in detail.
Imagine that you had the diagram above as an answer option in your exam,
and you were doubtful about pairing the diagrams in that way (1-2; 4-5; 3-
solution), all of them in a ‘perfect match’. Should you?
In my opinion, no, you should not.
Note that all the groups of diagrams , like the ones we studied through the
different exercises of our book, must follow some kind of logical sequence
in their association too . For example: 1-3-5, 2-4-solution; 1-4, 2-5, 3-
solution; 1-2-3, 4-5-solution; etc. It is also possible to group 1-2, 3-4, 5-
solution (an easy one to detect: you can review, in our exercise 9, how the
direction of the stripes and the colour of the shapes is repeated in 1-2 and 3-
4).
But, to verify the logical sequence of your groups, you need to find at least
one repetition in the series or in some of their elements. Otherwise, it is
impossible to build a model to foresee the next steps.
In this sense, you can find some questions, like our exercise 8, in which the
pairing is 1-5 and 2-solution, but you will not find a question forcing you to
link directly the diagram 1 alone and the solution (1-solution), without
having other elements along the series to anticipate its composition, because
you could never know for sure if other intermediate steps (between 5 and
the solution) could be applicable or not.
For this reason, you cannot logically associate the diagram 3 alone and the
solution (no matter how good may be their fit), assuming a perfect match
every three steps, if you do not have access to check the subsequent
diagram in this routine (diagram 9) or the previous one (diagram 0 – to give
it an illustrative name, despite its non-existence).
Secondly, another idea crossing our mind could be to try to find a visual
symmetry in the series, i.e., a pattern to draw the continuation, as we did in
other of our exercises.
This way, we can observe that, taking as axis of symmetry the central circle
of the third diagram, the whole series is symmetrical, showing a clear
correspondence between the diagrams 1-5, and 2-4, and being symmetrical
too the diagram 3 alone.

However, after this impeccably beautiful finding that could make us feel
proud of our sharp eye, the problem is that the ‘big picture’ is now complete
and perfect, no more diagrams are required (after or before the five ones
presented), so we have no clue about what should be the next step.
On one hand, the same possible ‘pattern’ could start again in the next
diagram (the solution), and the option D would be right in that case,
because it is a copy of the first diagram. On the other hand, a new design
could start too, so any of the other answer options could be the following
one as well. We have no logical evidence to visually decide here.
Note that, even accepting that the series has to present some kind of
symmetry in the long term (and these five diagrams will be repeated sooner
or later), we do not know how many steps are necessary to see the full
picture here, this is, a complete symmetrical cycle that contains all the
possible combinations. It could take 20, or 50, or even 100 diagrams. Please
take this into account in your analysis of other similar questions too.
This implies that the criterion of symmetry and our method to ‘draw the
solution’ (that made us wonderfully solve some previous exercises in a few
seconds) is not helpful here.
Well, having ruled out the above mentioned ideas, let us see the real
shortcut of this exercise.

One of the best ideas to test, when we analyse only variations of colour in
the series, is to count the objects of a specific colour and check the
numerical series to try to identify its sequence. We did this, for example, in
our exercise 2.
An advantage of the binary colour combinations –only two colours: black
and white–, typical of the EPSO tests, is that you can choose any of these
colours to count and solve the question (the fewer elements to count, the
better, of course).
In this exercise, there are really few circles to count, so no matter the ones
you select. We will choose the black circles this time.
Number of black circles

The mystery of the series has been unveiled. This is a super simple
sequence, just alternating between two and three black circles.
So we can quickly deduce that the solution diagram should contain three
black circles .
And, fortunately for us, there is only one answer option that meets this
condition: option C. We do not even care about the position of the circles!
We have solved this exercise in less than 10 seconds.
This brilliant shortcut is also supported by logical evidence : there is at least
one repetition of the number 3 (in the even diagrams), which is our target
for the solution, and two repetitions of the number 2 (in the odd diagrams),
showing clearly that both numbers are ‘chained’ in the series.
Finally, solving an exercise by using numbers will always give us more
certainty and assurance than applying just views and theories, so we can
conclude our exposition with this kind reminder to our readers: numbers are
your allies in abstract reasoning too.
6. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
In this last chapter, we are going to summarise our method and strategies to
solve abstract reasoning questions, and briefly recall some pieces of advice
that we have presented throughout this book.
As we have seen in our exercises, you should follow this systematic method
to deal with this type of tests:
1) Identify the objects in the five items of the series and their properties.
2) Study the visual changes or variations in these objects through the
different steps of the series.
3) Deduce the logical rule(s) followed by the five diagrams shown.
4) Apply the rule(s) to the last step of the series, in order to eliminate the
incorrect answer options.
5) Select the right option and double-check that it follows the rule(s).
We have also recommended some strategies and techniques that could be
helpful to improve your performance in these tests:
- At your first glance at the diagrams, follow your intuition to
analyse possible variations and rules.
- Compare the diagrams in groups to check their similarities and
relationships, and associate the first diagram with each of the others
at least once .

- Be aware of time management : if you must solve 10 questions in

10 minutes, you have 1 minute per question. Do not get stuck in a
complicated question, and learn to mentally distribute your time per
question.
- Study each rule separately to discard options. You may not need to
verify all the rules. Sometimes you can simplify the exercise by
defining only one rule .
- Mark clearly the options that pass your filters : if you need so, and
to speed the process up, use your fingers to point out the remaining
 options on the screen.
- Always answer all questions , even if you were forced to do it
randomly for your last responses, trying to choose the most likely
ones.
- Practise a lot , by using different materials and sources, sticking to
the time, and simulating exam conditions as far as possible.
- Write down your ideas and ‘shortcuts’ to find the solution to each
exercise, especially to the ones you found more difficult or you
could not solve by yourself.
We do not want to conclude without pointing out again our core
recommendations , listing them all together to ease your reviews:
Pay attention to the answer options and identify the objects to
differentiate them, to decide in which order you should analyse
these objects in the series.

Use the power of ‘visual arithmetic’: check if numbers can

help you somehow to solve the exercise faster.

Keep it simple and avoid unnecessary rules .

Do not spend too much time in your analysis of your first idea.

Be ready to take a fresh look at every step of the series.

Do not lose your valuable time with distractors .

In exercises that contain periodical rotations, translations,

reflections or similar movements, study the symmetry or
pattern to try to ‘visually draw the solution’ .

Use your imagination to better visualise movements and

rotations .

Put yourself in place of the test designer .

If you run out of time and ideas (last resort), try to find
common elements in the alternative answers : they have a
higher probability of appearing in the solution.
APPRECIATION TO THE READER
I would like to thank you for the confidence in acquiring this book, and
transmit again my best wishes for all the selective procedures that you may
try in the future.
It is important to remember that a candidate for open competitions is similar
to a long-distance runner: you have to maintain the effort and concentration
to train and practise for several months, or even years, while waiting for the
publication of the call you are interested in, the date of your tests or the
invitation for your interview. It is not convenient to give up if you do not
pass on the first try, since the know-how gained is of great help in the next
attempt or in other similar competitions, as my own experience shows.
I recommend the acquisition of the books that I have published in this same
collection, aimed to improve numerical reasoning skills, if you feel that you
can progress in that field, as well as my books for several CAST profiles
and for different tests of other competitions.
I would ask you to please make all the comments and suggestions that you
wish through the Amazon website, and I would appreciate that you
evaluated my work there too, which will help me to continue publishing
future editions and updates of these manuals, in addition to new guides to
other competitions and calls.
Finally, please do not hesitate to contact me on social networks (I use my
full name on Facebook and LinkedIn), if you ever need additional advice.

[1]
How to succeed in EPSO numerical reasoning tests: https://www.amazon.es/succeed-EPSO-
numerical-reasoning-tests/ dp/1096623943 .
How to succeed in EPSO numerical reasoning tests, volume 2 : ( https://www.amazon.es/succeed-
EPSO-numerical-reasoning-tests/dp/1679061488 ).
[2]
Cattell, R. B. (1963). "Theory of fluid and crystallized intelligence: A critical experiment".
Journal of Educational Psychology.
[3]
My advice is to start practising through websites like EU training ( https://eutraining.eu/ ), which
has a wide variety of exercises and a really well-designed online platform to simulate the exam
conditions, and ORSEU ( www.orseu-concours.com ), which contains the closest type of questions to
those of the real EPSO tests, in my opinion.
[4]
In this sense, I recommend our books on the numerical reasoning test already mentioned, in which
I show how numbers can ‘speak’ to you in some way, if you know how to listen to them.