What does a child have to do to complete a visual matrix in the 11+?

Combine row or column rules to select one missing figure. It is one of 22 named non-verbal reasoning skills in the 11+, in the pattern strand, and this page carries 1 interactive exercise that practises it.

What is the trap in an 11+ complete a visual matrix question?

Copying the figure next to the empty corner is the commonest slip. The corner has to keep moving, not stay put. The wrong answers on this skill are built out of that, not out of random numbers, so it is worth naming out loud before your child meets it under time pressure.

What can I say if my child is stuck on complete a visual matrix?

Point at the next move rather than explaining the whole rule. Work out what one step to the right does, then what one step down does. The empty corner needs both of them.

What is not part of complete a visual matrix in the 11+?

The skill map draws the line here: At most two independently stated visual rules. A question past that line is testing a different named non-verbal reasoning skill, which is worth knowing before you spend a week practising the wrong one.

Which other 11+ skills should we practise alongside complete a visual matrix?

The skill map connects it to track order and position. A matrix may compose a positional exchange rule. That skill has its own page here.

How can my child practise complete a visual matrix for free?

Use Matrix Machine, embedded on this page. It is the exercise the skill map attaches to complete a visual matrix, it runs in the browser with no account to make, these exercises are not scored and do not save learner records. The separate quiz sends answers for marking and shows a score, without saving an assessment record. It also has its own link, so you can send it to a child without sending them anywhere else first.

Non-verbal Reasoning · Pattern

Complete a visual matrix

Combine row or column rules to select one missing figure.

Watch the worked example

Crack the Missing Matrix

This video shows how to find the row and column rules in a grid and choose the missing figure. Watch an 11+ non-verbal reasoning question solved step by step.

Open video page and transcript

Keep practising with Smart Cub Learning. Find topics to practise next

Quick quiz: Complete a visual matrix

10 questions, with feedback after each one. No sign-up needed.

Read the questions in this quiz

Question 1
The rows and the columns each follow a rule. Which figure belongs in the empty corner?
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- D.
Question 2
The rows and the columns each follow a rule. Which figure belongs in the empty corner?
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Question 3
The rows and the columns each follow a rule. Which figure belongs in the empty corner?
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- D.
Question 4
The rows and the columns each follow a rule. Which figure belongs in the empty corner?
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Question 5
The rows and the columns each follow a rule. Which figure belongs in the empty corner?
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Question 6
The rows and the columns each follow a rule. Which figure belongs in the empty corner?
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Question 7
The rows and the columns each follow a rule. Which figure belongs in the empty corner?
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Question 8
The rows and the columns each follow a rule. Which figure belongs in the empty corner?
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Question 9
The rows and the columns each follow a rule. Which figure belongs in the empty corner?
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Question 10
The rows and the columns each follow a rule. Which figure belongs in the empty corner?
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- A.
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Practise it now

Build the missing piece. Two rules are hiding in this grid: one runs across, one runs down.

Loading the interactive exercise. Nothing you do here is saved or scored.

A worked example

One question of the kind this skill is tested with, worked all the way through: the reasoning, and what the wrong answers are there to catch.

Reading a grid two ways

Read this grid along its rows, then read it again down its columns.

Across each row of this grid, every step means two places anticlockwise round the circle. Down each column, nothing changes at all.

a dot at the lower right of the circle
a dot at the lower left of the circle
a dot at the upper left of the circle
a dot at the upper right of the circle

Answer: a dot at the upper left of the circle

How you get there

Across each row, every step means two places anticlockwise round the circle. Down each column, nothing changes at all. The empty corner has to obey both of those at once, so it must be a dot at the upper left of the circle.

Why the other answers tempt

Copying the figure next to the empty corner is the commonest slip. The corner has to keep moving, not stay put.

If they are stuck, say this

Work out what one step to the right does, then what one step down does. The empty corner needs both of them.

Now do it live in Matrix Machine

Kitchen-table script for parents

Try this together

A friendly mini script for the breakfast table, school run or a quiet two minutes. Read it aloud as written, or make it your own.

Ready? Let's have a go at Complete a visual matrix together. Take a look at the picture. Here is what matters: Across each row of this grid, every step means two places anticlockwise round the circle. Here comes the question: Read this grid along its rows, then read it again down its columns. Before we race ahead, let us choose one good first step. Here is a helpful clue: Work out what one step to the right does, then what one step down does. The empty corner needs both of them. Nice work. Now let us follow the thinking: The empty corner has to obey both of those at once, so it must be a dot at the upper left of the circle. So our answer is: a dot at the upper left of the circle. There is one sneaky trap to watch for: Copying the figure next to the empty corner is the commonest slip. The corner has to keep moving, not stay put. Can you show me that first move again in your own words? Brilliant. No rush; we are practising a method you can reuse, not trying to win a speed contest.

What this exercise is doing

Matrix Machine

Build the missing piece. Two rules are hiding in this grid: one runs across, one runs down.

A matrix hides one rule per direction. In each row the shape stays the same, and down the rows it goes star, moon, diamond. Across each row the count climbs 1, 2, 3 and the fill goes outline, striped, solid. Down each column the count and the fill stay the same. The missing cell sits where row 3 meets column 3, so it must obey both at once: three solid diamonds.

What to say if they get stuck

Read one row at a time, left to right. What never changes along a row?
Now read one column at a time, top to bottom. Two things change as you move across the columns.
Row 3 is the diamond row. Column 3 always holds three shapes, filled in solid.

Open Matrix Machine on its own page to share it

Where complete a visual matrix sits in the 11+

The 11+ does not test these skills in isolation, and practising one in the wrong order wastes the practice. These are the skills the curriculum map connects this one to.

This is built out of: Track order and position
A matrix may compose a positional exchange rule.

How complete a visual matrix differs from the skills beside it

The same exercise practises several skills, and telling them apart is often the difficulty rather than the exercise itself. On this page the skill is: combine row or column rules to select one missing figure, and it stops where at most two independently stated visual rules.

Track object count
Track how the number of visual elements changes across figures. Count is the target attribute; shape identity is secondary.
Track fill and line style
Track shading, fill, or boundary-line changes while holding geometry apart. Do not infer a rotation from fill alone.
Compare visual attributes
Compare shape, position, angle, number, size, or shading across figures. One named or inferable attribute change.

Related non-verbal reasoning skills

Complete a visual seriesApply a repeated visual change to select the next figure.
Complete a visual analogyTransfer the visual relationship from one figure pair to complete a second pair.
Identify a visual odd one outSelect the figure that violates the shared visual rule.

All non-verbal reasoning 11+ skills

Questions parents ask about complete a visual matrix

What this skill involves, common mistakes and ways to practise it at home.

: Combine row or column rules to select one missing figure. It is one of 22 named non-verbal reasoning skills in the 11+, in the pattern strand, and this page carries 1 interactive exercise that practises it.
: Copying the figure next to the empty corner is the commonest slip. The corner has to keep moving, not stay put. The wrong answers on this skill are built out of that, not out of random numbers, so it is worth naming out loud before your child meets it under time pressure.
: Point at the next move rather than explaining the whole rule. Work out what one step to the right does, then what one step down does. The empty corner needs both of them.
: The skill map draws the line here: At most two independently stated visual rules. A question past that line is testing a different named non-verbal reasoning skill, which is worth knowing before you spend a week practising the wrong one.
: The skill map connects it to track order and position. A matrix may compose a positional exchange rule. That skill has its own page here.
: Use Matrix Machine, embedded on this page. It is the exercise the skill map attaches to complete a visual matrix, it runs in the browser with no account to make, these exercises are not scored and do not save learner records. The separate quiz sends answers for marking and shows a score, without saving an assessment record. It also has its own link, so you can send it to a child without sending them anywhere else first.

Non-verbal reasoning is the paper families most often leave until last

A free diagnostic covers matrices, series, odd one out, rotation, reflection and the 3D questions, and shows where the time is worth spending.