EPSO abstract reasoning: the seven pattern families, and the scan order that finds them
The first time you meet an EPSO abstract reasoning series it looks like the rule could be anything. It cannot. Every series on the paper is built from a short catalogue of transformations, and once you can name them you stop searching and start checking.
Short answer
The EPSO abstract reasoning test shows a series of geometric figures that change according to one or more hidden rules, and asks you to pick the figure that continues the series. It contains no words and no numbers. In recent competitions it has typically been 10 questions in about 10 minutes — around one minute each, the tightest of the three reasoning tests.
Every series is built from a short catalogue of transformations: movement, rotation, counting, shading, superposition, size and reflection. Most items run two of them at the same time, which is what makes the wrong options look plausible.
The method that works is a fixed scan order — count, position, rotation, shading, size — applied to figures 1 and 2, confirmed on figure 3, then used to picture the next figure before looking at the options. Scores improve substantially with practice, because what improves is recognition speed rather than reasoning ability.
| Test | Abstract reasoning, part of the EPSO computer-based reasoning battery |
|---|---|
| Format | Multiple choice — a series of geometric figures, pick the one that continues it |
| Typical length | About 10 questions in about 10 minutes |
| Time per question | Roughly 60 seconds |
| Language | None — no words and no numbers appear in the items |
| Pattern families | Movement, rotation, counting, shading, superposition, size, reflection |
| Rules per item | Usually two running at once, on different cycle lengths |
| Wrong answers | No penalty — eliminate, guess, and move on rather than leaving a blank |
| Marking | Often combined with numerical reasoning against a single threshold |
| Can you train for it? | Yes — recognition speed improves markedly with practice |
| Binding source | The Notice of Competition for your own profile |
What the EPSO abstract reasoning test is
Abstract reasoning is the non-verbal test in the EPSO computer-based battery, sat alongside verbal reasoning and numerical reasoning. Each question shows a series of geometric figures that change according to one or more hidden rules; you pick the figure that comes next. There are no words and no numbers in the items themselves, which is precisely the point — it is meant to measure reasoning without measuring vocabulary.
In recent competitions it has typically been 10 questions in about 10 minutes. That makes it, per question, the most time-pressured of the three tests: roughly sixty seconds to spot a rule that may be two rules wearing a trench coat. As always, the binding figures are in your Notice of Competition, and they differ between AD, AST and AST-SC profiles and between competition years.
In many recent notices abstract and numerical reasoning are marked against a single combined threshold. That cuts both ways: a strong abstract score can rescue a shaky numerical one, and a neglected abstract score can sink a good numerical one. It is not the test to leave until the final fortnight.
The seven pattern families
Practically every series you will meet is built from these seven transformations, alone or — more often — two at a time. Learning the list is what converts the test from "guess the rule" into "check seven things in order".
Movement
An element travels a fixed step each figure: around the corners, along an edge, one cell at a time, sometimes bouncing back when it hits the frame.
Rotation
A shape or a pointer turns by a fixed angle — 45°, 90°, 120°. Watch two things: the direction, since alternating clockwise and anticlockwise is a favourite, and whether the step is really constant — some series accelerate, turning 90° then 180° then 270°.
Counting
The number of elements rises or falls: +1 each step, doubling, or following the count of something else in the figure.
Shading & colour
Filled becomes open becomes filled. Often on a cycle of two or three, and often running independently of everything else in the figure.
Superposition
Two figures combine into a third — union, or the elements they do not share. Common in matrix-style items.
Size & scale
An element grows or shrinks by a constant step, sometimes while another element does the opposite.
Reflection
The figure flips across a vertical or horizontal axis. Easily confused with a 180° rotation — they differ for any shape that is not symmetric.
Other guides count these transformations differently — you will see lists of ten or twelve. The disagreement is about grouping, not about the content. Lists that reach ten usually split reflection from symmetry, treat addition and subtraction of elements as two families rather than as the two directions of superposition, and add analogy (A is to B as C is to ?) which is a question format rather than a transformation.
Seven is the shortest list that still covers everything, which matters because you have to run through it in about ten seconds. Whichever taxonomy you learn, the test is the same: can you name what changed between two figures without hesitating?
One item belongs on every list and is not a transformation at all — combination. Most EPSO series run two of the seven at once, on cycles of different lengths. That is not an eighth family; it is the default state of the paper.
The scan order: count, position, rotation, shading, size
The mistake almost everyone makes at the start is to stare at the whole series waiting for the rule to announce itself. It will not. Instead, run a fixed checklist, in this order, comparing only figure 1 with figure 2:
- Count. How many elements are there? Has the number changed? This is the fastest thing to check and the most common single rule.
- Position. Has anything moved? Where to, and by how much? Track one element, not all of them.
- Rotation. Has anything turned? By what angle, in which direction?
- Shading. Has anything changed from filled to open, or changed colour?
- Size and shape. Has anything grown, shrunk, or become a different shape?
Then — and this is the step that separates a 6/10 from a 9/10 — confirm your hypothesis on figures 2 → 3 before you look at the answer options. A rule that explains one transition is a coincidence. A rule that explains two is a rule.
Most EPSO series run two independent rules at the same time — typically one about position or rotation and one about counting or shading. Candidates who stop at the first rule they find pick an option that satisfies it and fails the other. The answer options are built precisely to punish that.
Free practice series 1 — two rules at once
The series
Which figure comes next?
Show the worked solution
Answer: B
Running the scan order:
- Count — the dots go 1, 2, 3, 4. Next is 5. That already eliminates A.
- Position — nothing travels; the pointer stays anchored at the centre.
- Rotation — the pointer turns 90° clockwise each figure: up, right, down, left. After left comes up again. That eliminates C and D.
- Shading, size — unchanged throughout. Nothing more to find.
Pointer up, five dots: B. Note how the two rules run on different cycles — the rotation repeats every four figures, the count never repeats — and how each wrong option satisfies exactly one of them. That is the standard construction of an EPSO item.
Check the count first, always. It is the cheapest of the five checks and here it removes a quarter of the options before you have looked at the pointer at all.
Free practice series 2 — a cycle of four
The series
Which figure comes next?
Show the worked solution
Answer: A
- Count — always one circle. No information.
- Position — the circle moves clockwise around the corners: top-left, top-right, bottom-right, bottom-left. Four corners, so figure 5 returns to top-left. That eliminates C and D.
- Shading — filled, open, filled, open. Figure 5 is odd-numbered, so filled. That eliminates B.
Two rules again, on two different cycles: the position repeats every four figures, the shading every two. Where the cycles have different lengths, the whole series only truly repeats after the lowest common multiple — here, four.
It matters. If the circle were a triangle pointing outwards, a rotation of the whole figure would also turn the triangle, while a movement around the corners would leave it pointing the same way. Symmetric elements like circles hide the difference; asymmetric ones expose it, and the test uses them deliberately.
Free practice series 3 — a rule that depends on another rule
The series
Which figure comes next?
Show the worked solution
Answer: B — six circles, three of them filled
- Count — 2, 3, 4, 5. Next is 6. That eliminates C (five) and D (seven).
- Shading — filled circles go 1, 1, 2, 2. The tempting reading is "it increases every two figures", which would give 3 next. The safer reading is that the filled count is half the total, rounded down: 2→1, 3→1, 4→2, 5→2, and so 6→3. Both readings agree here, which is what makes the answer secure.
A — six circles, two filled is the distractor for candidates who found the counting rule, stopped, and assumed the shading was static. It is the most-chosen wrong answer in items of this shape.
This is the family that catches experienced candidates. The second rule is not independent — it is computed from the first. If a quantity in the figure changes in a way you cannot explain on its own, check whether it tracks another quantity: half of it, double it, one less than it.
Free practice series 4 — two figures that combine
This one is not a sequence but a set of rows. In each row, the first two figures combine into the third. Work out how, then complete the last row.
Row 1
Row 2
Row 3 — complete it
Which figure completes row 3?
Show the worked solution
Answer: A
The rule is the simplest of the superposition family: the third figure contains everything from the first two, laid on top of each other. Nothing is dropped, nothing is added.
Row 3 gives a vertical line and a forward diagonal, so the answer holds exactly those two. That is A.
B and C are the completed figures from rows 1 and 2 — recycled results, which look familiar precisely because you have just seen them. D uses the correct number of lines and the wrong diagonal, which is the one that catches people working fast.
Superposition has a second, harder form: the result keeps only the elements the two figures do not share, so anything appearing in both cancels out. Test which rule is running by looking for an element present in both inputs. If it survives into the result, the rule is union; if it vanishes, the rule is difference. One row is enough to tell them apart — and getting this backwards is the most common way to lose a superposition item.
Free practice series 5 — counting the sides
The series
Which figure comes next?
Show the worked solution
Answer: A — a filled seven-sided figure
Here the thing being counted is not a number of separate elements but the number of sides of a single shape: 3, 4, 5, 6. Next is 7. That eliminates C (six) and D (eight).
The shading alternates filled, open, filled, open. Figure 5 is odd-numbered, so filled — which eliminates B.
The scan order says "count" first, and most people count objects: there is one shape in every figure, so the check returns nothing and they move on to position and rotation, which also return nothing. When counting objects gives you nothing, count the shape's own features — sides, corners, internal lines, holes. That is where a single-element series hides its rule.
Free practice series 6 — read the angle, not the movement
The series
Which figure comes next?
Show the worked solution
Answer: B — the pointer aims straight down
The pointer turns clockwise, and the whole question is by how much. Up to up-right is a quarter of a quarter turn: 45 degrees, not 90. Four steps of 45° from vertical lands on down-right, which is figure 4 — so figure 5 is one more step: straight down.
A — down-left is the answer for someone who read the step as 90°: it is where you land after two more steps rather than one. It is the most-chosen wrong option in items of this kind, because 90° is the rotation the eye expects.
C repeats figure 3 and D rotates anticlockwise.
Compare the first figure with the third, not the first with the second. Two steps are twice as easy to judge as one: from straight up to straight right is unambiguously a quarter turn, so a single step must be half of that. Doubling the interval to measure it is the reliable way to tell 45° from 90°, and 30° from 60° in a six-position series.
And check that the step is constant at all. Some series accelerate — 90°, then 180°, then 270° — so the figure turns further each time. Measuring 1→2 and 2→3 separately catches that; measuring 1→2 alone and assuming it repeats does not.
Six series is a warm-up. The test is ten in ten minutes.
EPSO Turbo covers abstract reasoning in weeks 3 and 4 — pattern families first, then daily practice on that specific family, then mixed and timed from week 5. 186 corrected questions across numerical and abstract, one payment, no subscription.
Get access — €20The paid programme is currently delivered in French; an English edition is in preparation.
Answering by elimination when you cannot see the rule
Some items will not yield in sixty seconds. Do not leave them blank — there is no penalty for a wrong answer, and elimination usually gets you to a one-in-two guess in fifteen seconds:
- Count the elements in each option. If the series count is going up by one, every option with the wrong count is gone. This alone often removes half the options.
- Find the odd one out among the options. Test writers build distractors by taking the correct figure and breaking exactly one property. An option that differs from all the others in several ways at once is rarely the answer.
- Check the property you are sure about. You may not see the whole rule, but if you are certain the shading alternates, apply that and discard whatever fails it.
- Mark and move. Take the best survivor and go. A one-in-two guess on question 4 is worth far more than a perfect answer you never reach on question 10.
One minute per question — what that actually means
Ten items in roughly ten minutes leaves no room for a second reading. A workable split:
- 0–15 seconds — run the scan order on figures 1 → 2 only.
- 15–30 seconds — confirm the hypothesis on figures 2 → 3. If it fails, go back to the scan order; do not improvise.
- 30–45 seconds — project the next figure in your head, before looking at the options. This is the single highest-value habit on this test: options are designed to make wrong rules look plausible, and you are immune to that if you already know what you are looking for.
- 45–60 seconds — find your projected figure among the options, confirm it satisfies both rules, click.
- Past 60 seconds — switch to elimination, guess, move on.
How to prepare for abstract reasoning
The evidence from candidates is consistent: abstract reasoning scores improve a lot with practice, more than people expect from a test that is often described as measuring innate ability. What improves is not raw reasoning — it is recognition. After a few hundred items you stop deriving "the pointer turns 90° clockwise" from first principles and start recognising it from the catalogue in two seconds. The sixty-second limit rewards exactly that.
- Learn the families before doing volume. Practising blind, without names for the transformations, builds speed slowly and plateaus early.
- One family at a time, then mixed. Blocked practice teaches you the family; mixed practice teaches you to identify which family you are in, which is the skill the test actually measures.
- Always project before looking at the options. Train it from day one, untimed, or it will not be there under pressure.
- Add the clock late. Timing yourself from week one builds panic, not speed. Accuracy first, then pace — around four weeks before the test.
- Review the ones you got right by luck as carefully as the ones you got wrong. A guessed correct answer is a gap that the score does not show you.
Frequently asked questions
What is the EPSO abstract reasoning test?
A non-verbal reasoning test made of sequences of geometric figures. Each item shows a series of figures changing according to one or more hidden rules, and you choose the figure that continues it. It contains no words and no numbers, which is why it is used as a language-neutral measure across EU competitions.
How many questions, and how long?
Typically 10 questions in about 10 minutes in recent competitions — roughly one minute per item, the tightest of the three reasoning tests per question. The exact figures are set in each Notice of Competition and differ between AD, AST and AST-SC profiles.
How do you solve the questions?
Run a fixed scan order instead of staring at the figure: count, position, rotation, shading, size. Compare figure 1 with figure 2, form a hypothesis, confirm it on figure 3, then project the next figure before looking at the options. Keep scanning after the first rule — most series run two at once.
Is the EPSO abstract reasoning test hard?
It feels arbitrary at first and stops feeling that way after a few weeks, because the rules come from a small repeating catalogue. The real difficulty is the clock, and the fact that two rules usually run at the same time.
Can you actually prepare, or is it pure IQ?
You can prepare, and scores improve substantially. What improves is recognition speed rather than reasoning ability — and recognition speed is precisely what a sixty-second limit rewards.
Does it count towards the same pass mark as numerical reasoning?
In many recent notices abstract and numerical reasoning are marked together against a single combined threshold, so a strong score in one can compensate a weaker score in the other. This is not universal — check the Notice of Competition for your profile.