EPSO abstract reasoning
10 questions in 10 minutes. One minute each, the tightest clock in the exam.
Five figures in a series, the sixth missing. Five candidates to complete it. Nothing to read, nothing to know. Find what changes from one figure to the next, and carry it one step further.
This is the fastest test in the exam: one minute each. Knowing the formats matters more than raw brainpower. Spot "rotation plus count" in five seconds and you have fifty-five to solve it.
What changes between figures
Each series runs on one or more rules, each acting on one property:
- Shape. Steps through a fixed set of shapes, in order.
- Rotation. Turns by a fixed angle each step.
- Size. Grows or shrinks through fixed steps.
- Shading. Moves between unshaded, partial and solid.
- Number. How many elements there are rises or falls.
- Position. An element moves through fixed slots.
Every one of these is a cycle. At the end of the ladder it starts again at the beginning. Missing that is the most common reason for reading the rule right and still picking wrong.
A method that fits in a minute
- Compare figure 1 to figure 2 and name every difference. Do not solve yet.
- Check each difference against figures 2 to 3. A real rule repeats. A coincidence does not.
- Apply every surviving rule to figure 5 and picture figure 6 before looking at the options.
- Now look. If two options fit, you missed a rule. Go back to the one property you did not check.
Practice that never runs out
Items here are generated, not drawn from a fixed set. Each one is machine-checked: the right answer must be the only figure that fits every rule, and the five must look clearly different. Wrong options are built by bending the real rules, which is what makes them worth practicing against.
Once the format feels automatic, sit it under the clock with the other two in the full mock exam.
What costs candidates marks here
Stopping at the first rule
More than one thing usually changes at once. You find the rotation, answer, and never check the shading. The options are built so that lands you on a near-miss.
Missing the wrap-around
Changes cycle instead of running off the end. Biggest size starts again at smallest, solid starts again unshaded. An option that ignores the wrap is always there.
Reading the grid as a grid
The figures are one sequence, left to right, top row first. Not columns, not pairs. The missing sixth is simply the next one.
Spending three minutes on one item
Ten minutes for ten questions leaves no recovery time. Cannot see it in 90 seconds? Guess and leave. It is costing you two you could have had.