Copying the change

The change that links them, in words

提示Put a name to what happened — turned, flipped, moved.

为什么A move you can say — it has spun a quarter-turn clockwise — is a move you can then apply. A vague feeling that the figure looks different is not something you can use.

Do exactly that same thing to it

提示Repeat the move on the new picture.

为什么Your answer is the third figure after the change, not a figure that happens to resemble the second one. Copy the move, never the figure.

Just one

提示A single move, not a chain of them.

为什么One clean move — a turn, or a flip — is what these questions are built on. If you think you can see two, you have most likely read a flip as a turn.

A lopsided part, which a flip sends the other way

提示Find something that sticks out on one side only.

为什么Turning carries every part round together; flipping swaps left for right. Watch one distinctive corner and see whether it ends up on the far side of the shape.

No — the rule has not been carried out

提示Something must happen to it.

为什么An untouched copy is printed on purpose, because it looks reassuringly familiar. Ask whether your choice actually differs from the third figure at all.

Reject it — every part must survive

提示Turning and flipping lose nothing at all.

为什么These moves shift a figure about; they never add or take away anything. A near-perfect choice with one piece altered is a deliberate trap, and a common one.

Which way round it went

提示Clockwise, or the other one?

为什么Both directions are usually printed as options and they look equally plausible. Trace one part of the first figure through to the place it lands in the second.

No — only the move carries across

提示The two pictures need not match; the change must.

为什么These questions test the rule, not the drawing. Expect the third figure to be new, and expect your answer to look nothing like the second one.

Undo the change and see if the third figure comes back

提示Run the move backwards from your choice.

为什么Working the rule in reverse catches a wrong direction straight away: if going back does not land on the figure you started from, the option you picked is not the one.

3

提示A worked pair, then the one you must change.

为什么Two make the example and the third is yours to work on. Counting them is a quick way to tell this layout apart from a row that simply carries on.

1

提示Exactly one, never two.

为什么If two of the choices seem to work, the rule you named is not the one the pair actually shows. Go back to the first two figures and look again.

third and matches

提示The one left over, and the shape that pairs with it.

为什么Two steps, in that order. Naming the move first stops the printed options from talking you into a rule that was never there.