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Non-verbal Reasoning · Pattern

Complete a visual analogy

Transfer the visual relationship from one figure pair to complete a second pair.

Practise it now

A becomes B. Watch how - then do the very same thing to C.

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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.

One move, applied twice

Track the foot and the dot separately as the first figure moves.

A
B
C
?

Analogy: foot right, dot top is to foot up, dot left as foot down, dot top is to what? The pictured terms are An L-shape with its foot pointing right and its dot on the top.; An L-shape with its foot pointing up and its dot on the left-hand side.; An L-shape with its foot pointing down and its dot on the top.. The pictured options are An L-shape with its foot pointing up and its dot on the bottom.; An L-shape with its foot pointing left and its dot on the right-hand side.; An L-shape with its foot pointing right and its dot on the left-hand side.; An L-shape with its foot pointing down and its dot on the top..

foot right, dot top is to foot up, dot left as foot down, dot top is to what?

  1. foot up, dot bottom
  2. foot left, dot right
  3. foot right, dot left
  4. foot down, dot top

Answer: foot right, dot left

How you get there

Going from the first figure to the second is a quarter turn anticlockwise, which means the same move takes foot down, dot top to foot right, dot left - the foot and the dot both travel together.

Why the other answers tempt

Moving the foot but leaving the dot where it was is the commonest slip - both parts turn together.

If they are stuck, say this

Follow the foot first to find the move, then check the dot has travelled the same way.

Now do it live in Analogy Bridge

What this exercise is doing

Analogy Bridge

A becomes B. Watch how - then do the very same thing to C.

The bridge from A to B says: take 1 away. A visual analogy asks you to carry the very same change across to C - so compare A and B attribute by attribute (shape, shading, how many, which way up), name the one that moved, and leave everything else alone.

What to say if they get stuck

  1. Press and hold WATCH to see A turn into B. What changed, and what stayed the same?
  2. Only one thing matters here: take 1 away. Everything else stays as it was.

Open Analogy Bridge on its own page to share it

How complete a visual analogy differs from the skills beside it

The same exercise practises one other skill, and telling them apart is often the difficulty rather than the exercise itself. On this page the skill is: transfer the visual relationship from one figure pair to complete a second pair, and it stops where uses an A to B as C to unknown structure. It excludes row or column matrix completion.

  • Compare visual attributes

    Compare shape, position, angle, number, size, or shading across figures. One named or inferable attribute change.

Related non-verbal reasoning skills

All non-verbal reasoning 11+ skills

Questions parents ask about complete a visual analogy

Answered from what the skill map records about this skill, not from a template. Every answer here is on the page, and the same questions are the page's FAQ structured data.

Transfer the visual relationship from one figure pair to complete a second pair. 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.

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.

Start the free 11+ diagnostic