Non Verbal Reasoning – Find the Figure Most Like (Type 7)

The find the figure most like question type requires you to look at 2 to 3 shapes or figures and, after identifying the most consistent qualities and characteristics, match the answer option which is closest and shares the same qualities or characteristics.

Usually you will be presented with 2 or 3 shapes on the left hand side of a vertical line. These shapes are the ones which share a common trait, quality or characteristic. On the right hand side you will have up to 5 potential answers which you choose from.

Remember, when we say quality, characteristic or trait – this means something you can build a rule from which all shapes must follow for example a rule can be all shapes must be square, so a quality or characteristic must be that the shape is square. There are a few common qualities and characteristics that shapes have, these are:

• Size
• Sides
• Colours or patterns
• Inversion of colours
• Order

On a simple level this question is straightforward. As with anything, if there are more things to consider, the more detailed you have to be and more clearer rules you have to set.

These question types not only test your analysis skills but also your questioning skills because they start very wide open – what this means is that you are given a certain amount of information which you need to review, and from that determine whether a shape is the most similar or not.

Now, how you analyse and ask questions is up to you completely, there will be no indication or direction given by the question. So what this means is that it is all about thought process and approach. Having a standard process will give you the ability to quickly filter, sort, change and gather bits of information very quickly. As you can tell, the ability to apply a process to refine and simplify information is important, but this question type also tests a few other skills such as:

• Ability to review information on a top level
• Ability to break down information into individual elements and parts
• Ability to clearly define individual parts and characteristics
• Being able to tell what is similar and what is different
• Being able to create rules off the back of the information you have understood

To summarise, the key thing this question type is focusing on is how you process visual information. In order to do this you need to start by asking a set of standard questions, and with enough practise you will know which questions to ask and when. Now, if you just look at those two parts, information and questions, you can see how every skill is tested.

By asking questions you can review information, break it down, understand what things make up that information and finally make a set of rules based on the information. From there you can then apply that rule to future shapes and information and be confident that it will be the same.

If you do not get the analysis of your information correct, you wont get your rules right, which means your answer will not be right.

What does the Find the Figure Most Like Question Type Look Like?

As you can tell from the CGP example below, the find the figure most like question type is in the following format:

• General instructions with an example
• 2 shapes that are similar on the left side of a vertical line
• 4 or 5 shapes answer options on the right side of the vertical line
• 1 mark per question

How do I answer the Find the Figure Most Like question?

With question types like this which focus on information analysis and questioning you can really begin anywhere because of how much is down to you interpreting what is in front. This is why its vital to start improving your analysis and evaluation skills. By practising these skills in your day to day it will help you understand the things you need to watch out for such as:

• Changes and differences in size
• Changes and differences / similarities in shape
• Changes and differences / similarities in colour and texture
• Changes and differences / similarities in order

What you need to be doing here is really focusing in on the details, in order for you to be able to do that you should:

• Look at different objects and identify their individual parts
• Pick out individual parts and start grouping them together based on whats similar
• Compare parts across a different objects to understand what links them together or what separates them
• Finally take what you see and build your own rules from it and then communicate it

As you can see, even with a wide open question type like this, you can take a systematic approach to help you get to your answer. By studying and asking specific things you can begin to recognise similarities and differences and ultimately create rules that have to be consistent in all figures. As with any question type, there is a process that you can apply to help you get to an answer efficiently. Lets look at that process:

1. Review the question and any instructions
2. Study the shapes on the left of the vertical line, as they are the ones which you have to find the figure most like
   1. What shapes are they?
   2. What colours are there?
   3. Are they in any specific order?
   4. Are they in any specific direction?
   5. Are there any other similarities or differences you recognise?
3. Take the common simlarity or similarities found across both figures and write out a rule or set of rules
4. Look on the right hand side of the vertical line – which of the answer options follows the rules you have identified

Working Example

Now that we have a process in place with a set of standard questions to get us analysing, lets go straight into applying it to the working example above.

First of all I can see that these shapes are the figures i need to find the most like:

What i want to do now is ignore anything else and focus on asking questions about these shapes.

Firstly, there are a set of 3 squares all grouped together and then a set of 2 circles all grouped together – straightaway I can understand that a similarity or a consistent rule cannot be the number of shapes because the 2 sets have 2 different amounts.

Now I want to look at the next most obvious thing which is the colours. The group of squares all have black, white and grey colours.

The group of circles only have black and white, so I can understand 2 things –

1. The set of shapes must have black and white
2. It may have grey but that is additional

Alright so I have covered colours and have some idea. Next I will look at order. So what I want to do now is to think of order based on how the shapes in the set are grouped. The only way I can tell the difference between the shapes are the colours.

So lets look at that:

Looking at the first set of squares there is no obvious order like 1, 2 or 3 or left to right. But one thing that does stick out is :

1. The black square overlaps both grey and white squares
2. Grey and white squares do not overlap
3. They are all the same size

Now what I want to do here is see what happens in the second set of shapes to give me an idea of what needs to be consistent:

Straightaway I can see that the black square overlaps or sits slightly on top of the white square.

So I have identified 3 consistent rules around size, order and colours.

Before I write my rules, I will double check to see if there are any more similarities betweent the 2 groups of shapes and there are none that I can see, so now I am ready to write my rules which are:

1. All the shapes in the group must be the same and must be the same size
2. The black shape must overlap the white shape, and grey shape where it is added
3. A black and white shape is necessary, a grey shape is optional
4. Where there is a grey shape, the white and grey shape must not overlap

Now I have my 3 rules, let me check the answers to see which answers are consistent with those rules:

When we look at the answer options we can see that they all fulfill Rule 1, but only one answer option ( Option D ) fulfills Rule 2 which is the black shape must overlap the white shape.

However Option D does not have a grey shape, but looking at rule 2, a grey shape is optional so we do not need it.

Based on our rules we can say that Option D is the Figure Most Like the shapes on the left side of the vertical line.

ANSWER : D

To summarise we have taken a systematic, step by step approach to understand what things make up one group of shapes on the left hand side of the vertical line. We then did the same for the second group of shapes on the left hand side of the vertical line.

Then we compared to see what things are consistent / the same across both sets of shapes. We did this by asking key questions about the things / qualities / characteristics that link the 2 groups of shapes together.

From there we created a set of rules, because if we are going to find a similar set of shapes we need to know what qualities / characteristics and things that the answer must follow.

We applied our rules across the answer options and saw only 1 option, Option D, fulfill the rules.

What if I can’t find the answer?

In the situation where you are struggling to get to an answer it is important to take a step back, review where you are at and also think through the process that you are applying to get to your answer.

Remember, it is easy to get confused, but if you only focus on asking questions on what is in front of you, knowing that all you have to do is understand the visual information presented, you can better prepare yourself. Now as a way of resetting your approach do the following:

• Look at each shape or group of shapes on the left hand side of the vertical line and identify the things that make that set of shape up. Ask questions about the type of shape, are they the same or different shapes, the colours and sizes
• Look to identify one rule at a time
• Remember a rule must be something that both shapes, or set of shapes on the left hand side of the vertical line do e.g. they all have the same colour
• Leave the differences

Now where you are struggling to get to an answer try to guess at least one thing that all the shapes share for example, they all have black shapes. Use that as starting point to cut down your potential answers one by one.

After you have identified that, you may see instead of 5 potential answers you now have 3, so now you want to go back and look for another rule for example the white shape is always at the bottom, this will then help reduce your potential answers even more, from 3 to 2.

You then can look to find one more rule or take a guess, but remember, there has to always be a reason behind why you selected a specific answer, so make sure to try and make sense of it in your head by asking yourself:

• Do the shapes on the left hand side of the vertical line share the same qualities or characteristics
• If I put them next to each other would i be able to tell they are linked
• Is this answer the closest in similarity compared to the other potential answers