steps to success:
- Ignore the tests shapes (the ones at the bottom, Situational judgement and abstract reasoning are the only times you look at the data first and questions last)
- find the pattern, use the simplest boxes(find one pattern and test against the others, also “distractor” shapes that appear in the simplest box can also be part of the pattern so just check they don’t play any significance in the other box, e.g. I once had a pattern where there was rectangles/squares and a triangle, and I didn’t notice the triangle so got a test shape wrong) if possible (30 seconds- if can’t within time guess A for all and move one to next set after flagging)
- Check the test shapes, get this bit right you hav done the hard part of finding the pattern,
- Eliminate and select, think of option “c. neither” as both as well
What to look for when finding a pattern:
Use the acronym SCANS but leave number checking to last as is the most time consuming you want to avoid counting:
SHAPE- look for the type of shapes (UKCAT is stupid so squares are rectangles), if theres right angles, obtuse angles (e.g. obtuse and acute clock angles), curve shapes or straight sided shapes,
COLOUR- the test is monochrome so your looking at shades of grey here or patterns like striped
ARRANGEMENT- position , corner of square, within a corner of a shape (very sneaky stuff), whats on top of what or to the right of
NUMBER- How many shapes, How many intersections, how many sides, Are theses numbers odd or even or always 4 (sometimes in the other set it might be tempting to say not 4 of whatever but its more likely to be at least 5 or less than 4 , check for that)
SIZE- Big or small (can be hard to determine just think what is taking up the most area in the box)
NONE of theses - has it been rotated , or lines of symmetry, these are fairly obvious as the same shapes appear in each box with a slight difference
Trickier cases
- Shapes aren’t used so letters or clocks or numbers or arrows, look at the shape of these, not all letters have straight sides, look at position of hands of clocks, look at shape of numbers as well (personally I hav never seen a number one so you never know), what direction are the arrows pointing
- it uses 2 SCANS e.g. size AND arrangement
- it uses numbers with At least
- use a comparison between the sets to find the pattern
- the more you practice the more you will find
Timings
Give your self 30 seconds to find a pattern if you don’t flag and guess all A, remember never leave anything blank, if you hav 30 seconds left click through the rest of the paper pressing A,
