Turns and reflections

Turned round, without being flipped over

HintImagine spinning the page — a mirror image is the trap.

The whyCheck each option by turning the original in your head. Anything that only matches in a mirror is not a turn, so it cannot be the answer.

Flipped left to right, like a mirror image

HintHold it up to an imaginary looking-glass standing on the page.

The whyFlipped is not turned: in a sideways flip, whatever stuck out on the left now sticks out on the right, and the top stays the top.

Only which way it faces

HintSize and outline both survive a spin.

The whyA rotation turns the shape about a point. Its size and its parts stay exactly the same — if a piece seems to have grown or shrunk, you are not looking at a turn.

Flips it over, so left and right swap

HintThink of a mirror standing beside the shape.

The whyA reflection makes the mirror image. Something pointing one way now points the other — which no amount of turning can undo for most shapes.

If you can spin one onto the other it is a turn; if not, it is a flip

HintTrace it in the air with a finger and rotate your wrist — does it ever match?

The whyThis single check is what most non-verbal questions hang on. A mirror image never matches under spinning alone — except for shapes that are symmetrical to begin with.

90

HintA full circle is 360 — share it into four.

The whyA quarter turn swings a shape through a right angle. Two quarter turns make a half turn.

180

HintTwice a quarter turn.

The whyAfter a half turn a shape is upside down. Doing it twice brings the shape exactly back to where it started.

The way the hands of a clock go

HintTwelve at the top, then rightwards and down.

The whyThe other direction is anticlockwise. Questions often say "a quarter turn clockwise", so the two words are worth knowing cold.

Upside down

HintPicture standing on your head to look at it.

The whyA half turn is the same whichever way you spin — clockwise or anticlockwise both land in the same place.

The line a shape is flipped across in a reflection

HintWhere the glass would stand.

The whyEach point of the image sits exactly as far beyond it as the original sits in front. In most questions it runs straight up and down, giving a left-to-right flip.

Its mirror image looks the same as the original

HintA plain circle betrays nothing when flipped.

The whyA shape with a line of symmetry matches its own reflection, so flipping it changes nothing you can see. Watch the lopsided parts of a figure — they are the ones that give the game away.

turns and flips

HintOne is a spin, the other a mirror.

The whyKeeping the two verbs straight keeps the two question types straight — this is the single distinction non-verbal papers test most.