Give each change its own rule, then check every option against all of them.
Practice test 1 is free. No card needed.
A two-rule pattern changes more than one thing at once, so your child finds each rule separately and keeps the option that follows them all. Children in Year 5 now sit ASET Abstract Reasoning on 6 March 2027.
Checked by the SelectiveReady team on 12 October 2026 · Updated 27 October 2026 · How we check facts
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Before your child looks at the options, ask how many things are changing. The handbook's own sequence example has two rules running at once: the inner black triangle moves clockwise one space while the spotted shape moves anticlockwise two spaces.
Its grid example is built another way: the shape at the right of each row is made by combining the shapes in the first two boxes.
Abstract Reasoning is the last of the four tests. It has 35 questions in 20 minutes, so spotting the second rule quickly is the skill to build.
Our three get harder: two rules in a sequence, two again with a turn, then three rules in a grid. They're our own, drawn as pictures. Each shows the answer and the working, so count the changes together and find the rule each wrong option forgot.
Which figure comes next in the sequence?
Answer: D
Answer: D
Two things change at once. The triangle moves down one place each step and goes back to the top after the bottom, and it swaps between black and white every step. After a white triangle at the top comes a black triangle in the middle, so the answer is D. A puts the triangle in the right place but forgets to change its colour.
Which figure comes next in the sequence?
Answer: A
Answer: A
Follow the two parts separately. The L-shape turns a quarter turn clockwise each step, and the black dot moves one place clockwise round the edge of the box. After four quarter turns the L is back the right way up, and the dot reaches the bottom-right corner, so the answer is A. B turns the L correctly but leaves the dot where it was.
Which figure completes the pattern?
Answer: C
Answer: C
Three rules work together. Each arrow sits in the same part of its box as that box sits in the grid; the arrow turns a quarter turn clockwise with every step across or down; and each column has its own colour. The bottom-right box needs a black arrow in its bottom-right corner, pointing up, so the answer is C. B has not been turned.
Split the figure into features and give each one its own rule. This works because each option can then be tested a rule at a time, and a single broken rule is enough to cross it out. Rough working is fine in the question booklet, but markers never see it, so jot each rule beside the question.
Position, colour, size, which way a shape points. Write a word for each.
Work out one rule at a time, for example: moves down one row, and swaps colour every step.
Say where the shape will be, then what colour, then which way it faces.
An option with the right position but the wrong colour is still wrong.
Some rules run along the rows, some down the columns, and some across both.
Every wrong option in these three gets one rule right and misses another. As you read them together, ask which rule each wrong option forgot, then add that feature to your child's checklist.
Make two-rule puzzles from paper and playing cards. The handbook says to work even more quickly than the other tests, so at home, get every rule right before you add a timer.
Practice test 1 is free, with a full Abstract Reasoning test timed like the real one, so you'll see if your child still checks every rule at that pace. More worked shape 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.