Every card in Spotting the question types

The figure that cannot belong to the group the others make

HintFirst ask what four of them have in common.

WhyIn these papers the others are often the same figure at different turns — and the odd one is its mirror image, which no amount of turning can produce.

They are the same figure at different turns

HintSpin one in your head and it becomes the others.

WhyThe answer is that figure turned again. A flipped option can look tantalisingly close, but a mirror image is not a turn, so it can never belong.

A mirror image is not a turn, so it cannot join the group

HintThe family is built by spinning, and flipping is a different move.

WhyTwo or three figures may be shown in the group — more figures simply give you more views of the same shape to compare against.

Find the change repeated from panel to panel and apply it once more

HintRead the row like a story — what happens at each step?

WhyCompare neighbouring panels one pair at a time. More than one thing can be changing at once — count sides, watch shading, track position.

Anywhere in the row, not just at the end

HintThe question mark may fall in the middle — read the rule from both sides of it.

WhyThe rule still runs the whole row. Work forwards from the panels before the gap and check backwards from the ones after it.

No — it is the same rule-finding as an ordinary series

HintThe frames hold the panels; the pattern still marches along.

WhyDo not let an unusual layout rattle you: find what repeats from frame to frame and carry it on, exactly as in a row of squares.

The one rule that turns the first figure into the second

HintThey are a worked example — the change they demonstrate is what you copy.

WhyApply exactly the same change to the third figure. If the first grew and turned, the answer must grow and turn in the same way.

Across the rows and down the columns

HintRead it like a table — sideways and top to bottom.

WhyAlong a row one feature stays the same; down a column another does. The missing cell must satisfy its row and its column at once.

Every other point going round — two sets that alternate

HintSkip one as you travel the circle and a family appears.

WhyThe six points hide two interleaved triangles, each repeating one design. Read the missing point from the two it alternates with.

Matching corners differ by one uniform change

HintTop goes with top, left with left — then spot the single tweak applied to all of them.

WhyFind the change by comparing a complete pair of corners, then apply it to the corner whose partner is missing.

One feature of the shape, such as its outline or its shading

HintThe first letter tracks one thing, the second another — the examples teach you which.

WhyMatch the test shape’s features to the worked examples and reuse the letters they were given. The letters themselves mean nothing until the examples define them.

No — the examples define what every letter means

HintA and B are just labels here; the worked shapes hand you the dictionary.

WhyHorizontal and vertical layouts are the same puzzle read in different directions. Decode the mapping first, then code the test shape.