CAT4-style Figure Matrices Practice Guide

Reviewed 14 September 2026 by the Cognivy editorial team

This page covers what GL Assessment publishes about Figure Matrices, the fourteen reasoning families the questions draw on, and a method that works on all of them. It is a format guide, not a claim about anyone's score.

Publisher: GL Assessment
Where it sits: One of two tests in CAT4's Non-Verbal Reasoning battery, alongside Figure Classification
Answer options: Five. GL states students select from five answer options
The task: A figural analogy: how the first pair relates, applied to complete the second pair
Timing: Set by the administration guidance for the CAT4 level being sat. GL's public pages state the task rather than a per-test time

The skill

What is the Figure Matrices test?

GL Assessment describes CAT4 as an assessment of the main types of reasoning ability known to make a difference to learning and achievement: verbal, non-verbal, quantitative and spatial reasoning. Figure Matrices is one of the two tests in the Non-Verbal Reasoning battery, the other being Figure Classification.

GL states the task precisely: each question presents a figural analogy in the form A-B, C-blank, and students have to work out how the first pair of figures is related to each other and then select from five answer options the one that completes the second pair.

GL also notes that the tests in the Non-Verbal Reasoning battery do not make use of words or numbers, and that the geometric and figural elements bear little direct relationship to formal educational instruction.

Figure Matrices, or matrix reasoning more generally?

Figure Matrices is CAT4's name for its figural analogy test, and CAT4 is a schools assessment. If you are preparing for an employer's assessment rather than a school's, the general matrix reasoning guide is the better starting point. It is linked at the end of this page.

Try it before anything else

Free figure matrices practice questions

These are Cognivy's own questions, written to teach the method — not reproduced from any provider's assessment. Commit to an answer before opening the solution.

Sit a timed free set

A short figure matrices set at the real per-question pace, scored server-side like the full product, with a worked solution after every answer.

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What employers are looking at

What Figure Matrices measures

GL describes non-verbal reasoning as problem-solving using pictures and diagrams, and as a skill that matters across a wide range of school subjects including maths and science-based subjects.

What the questions separate in practice is whether a student can state a relationship rather than recognise a resemblance, and whether they notice a second change running alongside the first.

Question formats

The fourteen reasoning families

The task is always the same and the relationship is not. Fourteen reasoning families account for the questions, and naming the family is most of the work.

What stays the same, and what moves. Invariance, rotation, size changes, counting and position moves: the single-attribute relationships.
Shading and shape. Shading patterns and shape swaps, where the figure is replaced or refilled under a fixed rule.
Adding and removing. An element is added between the first pair, or removed, and the same happens to the second.
One of each, reflections and containment. Distribution across rows and columns, mirroring across an axis, and objects moving inside or out of others.
Transfers and combined relationships. A feature moving from one object to another, and two linked changes applied in the right order.

A typical task

The first pair takes a shape and turns it a quarter-turn clockwise. The second pair starts from a different shape entirely, so the answer is that shape turned the same way. Among the five options will be the original shape turned the wrong way, the right turn applied to the wrong shape, and the shape left untouched.

Launch coverage

Who publishes CAT4

CAT4 is published by GL Assessment for schools, which is why there is no provider preparation page for it here: Cognivy's provider pages cover the employer-assessment families, and GL is not one of them.

Provider names identify the assessment format. Cognivy is independent and is not affiliated with or endorsed by these providers.

What varies, and what does not

Timing, administration and scoring

GL publishes the structure of the batteries on its public pages and leaves the per-test timings to the administration guidance a school receives.

Two tests per battery. CAT4 has four batteries — verbal, non-verbal, quantitative and spatial — and each has two tests. Figure Matrices is the second of the Non-Verbal Reasoning pair.
Five answer options. GL states that students select from five answer options the one that completes the second pair.
Timings come from the administration guidance. GL's public support pages state the task rather than a time limit, and point to the Teacher Guidance for examples and practice questions. The school administering the test has the timings for the level being sat.
Scores are age-standardised, not marks. CAT4 results are reported as standardised scores compared with a national sample of the same age, so a raw count is not the result.

How these results are scored

CAT4 reports standardised scores against a national age sample rather than a mark out of the number of questions, so a raw count is not the result and there is no pass mark to aim at.

The useful preparation is familiarity with the task and the relationships, not rehearsal of specific questions.

A repeatable approach

A method for figural analogies

A figural analogy fails in one of two ways: the relationship is described wrongly, or it is applied to the wrong figure. A fixed procedure closes both.

1
Say what the first pair DOES. Not what the two figures look like. "It turns a quarter-turn clockwise" is a rule; "they are both triangles" is not.
2
Check for a second change. Size, shading, count and position can move alongside the obvious one. Run the same scan every time.
3
Apply the rule to the third figure. The third figure is the starting point, not the first. Applying the rule to the wrong figure is the single most common error here.
4
Predict before you read the five. Describe the answer in words, then look. Reading the options first anchors you to whichever looks closest.
5
Reject on a named fault. Say what each discarded option gets wrong. An option you cannot fault is one you have not checked.

Original examples

Worked examples

These are Cognivy's own questions, written to teach the method. They are not reproduced from any provider's assessment.

Worked example 1 — one change, applied to the right figure

A figural analogy in the form A-B, C-blank.

First pair: an upward-pointing arrow becomes a rightward-pointing arrow. Second pair: an upward-pointing flag becomes ?

Question. Which option completes the second pair?

A. A rightward-pointing flag · B. A rightward-pointing arrow · C. A downward-pointing flag · D. An upward-pointing flag · E. A leftward-pointing flag

Answer: A — a rightward-pointing flag.

1
State what the first pair does: the figure keeps its identity and turns a quarter-turn clockwise.
2
Note what does not change: it is still an arrow, the same size and the same fill.
3
Apply the turn to the third figure. It is a flag, and it stays a flag.
4
A quarter-turn clockwise from pointing up is pointing right.

Why the other options are there. The rightward-pointing arrow applies the rule to the first figure instead of the third, which is the classic analogy error and survives a glance because the orientation is correct. The downward flag turns twice; the leftward flag turns the wrong way; the untouched flag does not turn at all.

Worked example 2 — two changes at once

A figural analogy in the form A-B, C-blank.

First pair: a small unshaded circle becomes a large shaded circle. Second pair: a small unshaded square becomes ?

Question. Which option completes the second pair?

A. A large shaded square · B. A large unshaded square · C. A small shaded square · D. A large shaded circle · E. A small unshaded square

Answer: A — a large shaded square.

1
State what the first pair does, and keep going after the first thing you notice: the figure grows AND it becomes shaded.
2
Note what does not change: the shape itself.
3
Apply both changes to the third figure. It is a square, it grows, and it becomes shaded.
4
Check the five options against both changes rather than one.

Why the other options are there. The large unshaded square and the small shaded square are each half the rule, and either looks right if you stopped at the first change you saw. The large shaded circle applies both changes and swaps the shape, which nothing in the first pair licenses.

What slows progress

Common mistakes, and the fix for each

Describing the figures instead of the relationship. Fix: force the rule into a verb. If your sentence has no verb in it, you have described a picture rather than a rule.
Applying the rule to the first figure. Fix: point at the third figure before you start applying anything. The option built for this error is always on the list.
Stopping at the first change. Fix: run the same scan every time — shape, size, shading, count, position, rotation — even after you have found one change.
Choosing what looks closest. Fix: name the fault in every option you reject. Recognition is not reasoning and the options are drawn to exploit it.

You have seen the method. Employers set the full battery.Every provider, every track, a worked solution on every question.

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A clear route

How to prepare

Preparation is about the fourteen relationships and the habit of stating them.

1
Learn the families one at a time. Rotation, size, counting, shading, shape swaps and the rest. Work untimed until you can name one in a few seconds.
2
Practise saying the rule aloud. The rule has to be a sentence with a verb in it before the options are opened.
3
Move to two-change questions. Two linked changes are a family of their own, and they are where a one-change habit fails.
4
Work across all fourteen. A student who is fluent in eight families and has never met the other six will meet them in the test.

Cognivy uses your assessment date to choose the route rather than asking you to predict a study schedule. When you sit down to practise, you choose the session length that fits that day.

Pace

Working at a steady pace

The task is short, so pace comes from not re-reading rather than from reading faster.

State the rule once, properly. A vague rule costs a second pass through five options, which is slower than getting it right first time.
Use the options to test. With a prediction in words, one pass through five is enough.
Do not linger on a question you cannot state. If the relationship will not turn into a sentence, choose the best fit and come back if there is time.

Direct answers

Figure Matrices FAQs

What is the Figure Matrices test?

One of the two tests in CAT4's Non-Verbal Reasoning battery. GL Assessment states that each question presents a figural analogy in the form A-B, C-blank, and students work out how the first pair is related and select from five answer options the one that completes the second pair.

How many answer options does a Figure Matrices question have?

Five. That is GL Assessment's own description of the task.

What else is in the Non-Verbal Reasoning battery?

Figure Classification, the other of the two tests in that battery.

How long is the Figure Matrices test?

GL's public pages state the task rather than a per-test time, and point to the Teacher Guidance for examples and practice questions. The timings depend on the CAT4 level being sat and are held by the school administering it.

Are these official CAT4 questions?

No. Cognivy is independent and is not affiliated with or endorsed by GL Assessment. Every practice question here is original material built to teach the fourteen reasoning families.

CAT4-style Figure Matrices practice