Teach your child to list what every figure shares, then cross out anything that changes.
Practice test 1 is free. No card needed.
Shape rules questions ask what a group of figures has in common, and are solved by crossing out everything that changes. Children in Year 5 now sit ASET Abstract Reasoning in Year 6, on 6 March 2027.
Checked by the SelectiveReady team on 12 October 2026 · Updated 27 October 2026 · How we check facts
Independent. Not affiliated with the WA Department of Education.
In our questions, four figures share a rule and your child picks the option that follows it too. Finding the figure that belongs is the same skill as finding the odd one out, just turned around.
This isn't a third question type. The handbook names 2 types, Next in Sequence and Complete the Pattern, and both begin by spotting a rule. In both, it says the right answer is the one that fits the rule most logically and simply.
These three are our own, from easier to harder, and drawn as pictures. Each shows the answer and the working. Read them with your child and talk through which rule each wrong option breaks.
The four figures in the top row all follow the same rule. Which figure follows the same rule?
Answer: A
Answer: A
Find what all four top figures share. Each is a big white shape with a smaller black copy of the same shape in its middle. Only A, a pentagon inside a pentagon, follows that rule. B and C each have a different shape inside, and D puts a triangle inside a square.
The four figures in the top row all follow the same rule. Which figure follows the same rule?
Answer: C
Answer: C
Look at where each arrow points. In every top figure the arrow points straight at the black circle, wherever it is. In C the arrow points down to the right, at the black circle in that corner. A points at the white circle, B points at an empty corner above the black circle, and D points away from it.
The four figures in the top row all follow the same rule. Which figure follows the same rule?
Answer: B
Answer: B
Count the corners of each shape. Every top figure has one black and one white shape, and the black shape always has more corners than the white one. In B the black pentagon has five corners and the white triangle three, so it fits. In A and D the white shape has more corners, and in C they have the same number.
Work by elimination: list what the four figures share, then cross out whatever changes between them. It works because the handbook asks children to recognise connections, make reasoned choices and decide if they make sense. Checking the rule against every figure is that last part.
Look at the figures together and name what is the same in every one: colour, size, what sits inside what, where things point, how many corners.
Anything that differs between the four figures can't be the rule.
A rule that fits three of the four is not the rule. Check every figure.
If your child can name the broken rule for every other option, the answer is safe.
Each wrong option in our questions is built around one slip. Once you have read all three together, ask which slip your child might make, and use its fix on later questions.
Play sorting games first, because they build the habit of hunting for a rule with no clock running. Add speed later: the real test is 35 questions in 20 minutes, and the handbook says to work even more quickly than the other tests.
Three worked explanations show the habit. Practice test 1, which is free, shows whether your child still finds the rule when every kind of shape question is mixed in. More worked questions: ASET abstract reasoning sample questions.
Practice test 1 marks every answer and shows results by skill: what your child already does well and the three skills to work on next.
Practise for the real test
Practice test 1 is free. Then packs from A$109 for 12 months, or A$9 a week, per exam.