Reviewed 14 September 2026 by the Cognivy editorial team
This page covers what Assessio publishes about Matrigma, what the six-option answer tray changes about how you should practise, and the rule families that fill the grid. It is a format guide, not a claim about your score.
- Publisher
- Assessio
- Answer options
- Six. Assessio's Adaptive Matrigma manual states an item is a matrix with six response alternatives
- Time limit
- Adaptive Matrigma: one minute per question inside a twelve-minute total. Classic Matrigma: 40 minutes
- Delivery
- Adaptive in the current version; a fixed sequence in the classic version
- Scoring
- A nought-to-ten C-score for General Mental Ability, read against a norm group. No pass mark is published
The skill
What is Matrigma?
A Matrigma item is a matrix of figures with one cell left empty. Something changes across each row and something changes down each column, and the answer is the figure that satisfies both at once.
The part that separates Matrigma from every other matrix test is the answer tray. Assessio's own Adaptive Matrigma manual states that an item is comprised of problem-solving tasks in the form of a matrix with six response alternatives, so the guess rate is one in six rather than the one in eight a Raven-style test gives you.
Nothing in the grid is verbal or numerical. Assessio notes that the non-verbal format helps reduce the disadvantage for candidates with dyslexia or dyscalculia, which is much of why employers reach for it.
If your invitation names Matrigma or Adaptive Matrigma, this is the page. If it names something else grid-shaped, or names nothing at all, start from the general matrix reasoning guide, which is linked at the end of this page.
Try it before anything else
Free matrigma 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.
A short matrigma set at the real per-question pace, scored server-side like the full product, with a worked solution after every answer.
Start the timed free setDraws on your 20 free practice questions. No account needed.
What employers are looking at
What Matrigma measures
Assessio reports Matrigma as a General Mental Ability score on a nought-to-ten C-scale, grounded in Spearman's g-factor and Cattell's notion of fluid intelligence, and interpreted against a norm group.
In practice the test separates three things: whether you notice a change at all, whether you check it against every row and column rather than one, and whether you can hold two rules in mind at once under a per-question clock.
Question formats
The rule families that fill the grid
The grid is constant and the rule families are a short list. Knowing the list is most of what preparation can do for you.
- Combining two cells. A third cell is built from two others, keeping what they share, what only one of them has, or what neither has.
- One of each. Every row and column carries each value exactly once, in a different order. Easy to miss, because nothing appears to move.
- Rotation and movement. A figure turns by a fixed angle, or an element travels a fixed number of positions at each step.
- Progression. A count, size or angle steps up or down by the same amount in each successive cell.
- Conditional and hidden rules. A rule that applies only when something else is true, or a feature that one cell covers up.
Each row holds one circle, one square and one triangle in some order, and the shaded figure sits one position further right in each successive row. The missing cell is fixed by two independent facts: which shape its row has not yet used, and where the shading has reached. An option satisfying only one of them is always on the list.
Launch coverage
Who publishes Matrigma
Matrigma is one publisher's test, which is unusual for a reasoning format and makes the facts unusually checkable.
- Adaptive Matrigma. Assessio's help material describes Matrigma as consisting of matrices requiring logical and spatial ability, delivered adaptively, with a one-minute limit per question inside a twelve-minute total. The manual states six response alternatives per item. Results are reported as a nought-to-ten C-score for General Mental Ability.
- Matrigma Classic (40-minute version). A less frequently used version running 40 minutes with progressively harder items and no adaptive selection. Your invitation should say which version you have been sent.
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, adaptive delivery and scoring
Two details about delivery change how you should pace yourself, and both are published.
- The clock is per question. Assessio gives Adaptive Matrigma a one-minute limit for each question inside a twelve-minute total. A matrix you have not started within the first fifteen seconds is a matrix to leave.
- The current version is adaptive. Matrigma selects the next item from your last answer, so a harder grid often follows a correct one. You cannot read your score from how hard the items feel.
- The classic long form still exists. Classic Matrigma runs 40 minutes with progressively harder items and no adaptive selection.
- Scores are norm-referenced. Assessio reports a nought-to-ten C-score for General Mental Ability against a norm group. No pass mark is published, and any threshold belongs to the employer.
On the adaptive version the number of items answered is not the score by itself, because item difficulty changes with your responses. The provider's score report is the right way to read the result.
Assessio publishes no passing score. The C-score is interpreted against a norm group, and how an employer weighs it is their decision rather than the test's.
A repeatable approach
A method for six-option matrices
Six options and a one-minute clock reward a fixed procedure, because what goes wrong is a check that was skipped rather than a rule that was too hard.
- 1
Scan attributes in the same order every time. Shape, count, size, position, rotation, shading, line style. A fixed order is what stops you missing the attribute that moved.
- 2
State the row rule and the column rule as sentences. If only one direction has a rule you have not finished the grid, whatever the options look like.
- 3
Predict before you look at the six. Describe the missing cell in words. Reading the tray first anchors you to whichever option is most attractive.
- 4
Reject on a broken rule, not on appearance. Name the rule each option violates. One that fits the row and breaks the column is the standard trap.
- 5
Commit at the minute. The limit is a real one. Choose the best fit you have and move rather than losing the next question too.
Original examples
Worked examples
These are Cognivy's own questions, written to teach the method. They are not reproduced from any provider's assessment.
A three-by-three grid. Read the rows left to right and the columns top to bottom.
Row 1: shaded circle, plain square, plain triangle. Row 2: plain circle, shaded square, plain triangle. Row 3: plain circle, plain square, ?
Question. Which option completes the grid?
A. Plain triangle · B. Shaded triangle · C. Shaded circle · D. Plain square · E. Shaded square · F. Plain circle
Answer: B — shaded triangle.
- 1
Shape first: every row runs circle, square, triangle in that order, so the missing cell is a triangle. That removes four of the six options at a stroke.
- 2
Shading second: the shaded figure sits first in row 1 and second in row 2, so in row 3 it sits third.
- 3
The missing cell is therefore both a triangle and the shaded figure of its row.
- 4
Only one option satisfies both rules at once.
Why the other options are there. The plain triangle satisfies the shape rule and ignores the shading rule entirely. With six options rather than four there are simply more ways to be right about one rule and silent about the other, which is why the shape scan alone is not an answer.
A three-by-three grid. Each cell contains up to three marks drawn together: a horizontal line, a vertical line and a circle.
Row 1: horizontal line and circle, horizontal line and vertical line, vertical line and circle. Row 2: vertical line and circle, circle, vertical line. Row 3: horizontal line and vertical line, all three marks, ?
Question. Which option completes the grid?
A. A circle only · B. A horizontal line and a vertical line · C. A vertical line and a circle · D. All three marks · E. A horizontal line only · F. A vertical line only
Answer: A — a circle only.
- 1
Compare the complete rows first. In row 1 the horizontal line appears in both of the first two cells and is missing from the third; the circle and the vertical line each appear once and both survive.
- 2
Row 2 behaves the same way, so the rule is: the third cell keeps the marks that appear in exactly one of the first two, and shared marks cancel.
- 3
Row 3 shares the horizontal and the vertical line between its first two cells, so both cancel. Only the circle appears once.
- 4
The third column confirms it: the vertical line is shared between its first two cells and cancels, leaving the circle either way.
Why the other options are there. Keeping everything the two cells contain is the rule with the cancelling forgotten, and row 1 already disproves it. Keeping only the shared marks is the same error inverted: those are precisely the marks the rule removes.
What slows progress
Common mistakes, and the fix for each
- Practising at the wrong option count. Fix: practise at six. A tray of eight trains a different elimination habit and a different guess rate.
- Reading difficulty as feedback. Fix: expect the adaptive version to get harder when you are doing well, and ignore the feeling entirely.
- Solving only across the rows. Fix: state the column rule out loud before opening the tray. If you cannot state it, you have not solved the grid.
- Overrunning the minute. Fix: rehearse abandoning. Under a per-question limit, a grid you lose is one grid; a habit of overrunning costs several.
You have seen the method. Employers set the full battery.Every provider, every track, a worked solution on every question.
Get full accessA clear route
How to prepare in the days you have
Matrigma preparation is short and specific. Learning the rule families is most of it.
- 1
First, learn the rule families one at a time. Work untimed on grids that use only one rule, until you can name it in a few seconds.
- 2
Next, move to two-rule grids. Almost every real item stacks two. Treat a single-rule answer as an incomplete answer.
- 3
Fix the attribute scan. Run the same checklist on every grid until it is automatic. Consistency is what prevents the missed-change error.
- 4
Add the one-minute ceiling. Practise with the clock Assessio publishes, so abandoning becomes a decision rather than a panic.
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 inside a one-minute limit
Under a per-question limit, speed is about when to stop rather than about scanning faster.
- Predict before you read the six. It is faster overall and it removes the pull of an option that satisfies one of the two rules.
- Use the tray to test, not to browse. One pass through six options is enough once you have a prediction. Needing a second pass means the prediction was vague.
- Abandon at fifteen seconds if nothing has moved. A grid you have not started in fifteen seconds rarely resolves in the remaining forty-five.
Direct answers
Matrigma FAQs
Six. Assessio's Adaptive Matrigma manual states that an item is comprised of problem-solving tasks in the form of a matrix with six response alternatives.
Adaptive Matrigma allows one minute per question inside a twelve-minute total. A less frequently used classic version runs 40 minutes.
Assessio reports Matrigma as a General Mental Ability score on a nought-to-ten C-scale, grounded in the g-factor and fluid intelligence and read against a norm group. It uses one non-verbal format rather than the multi-domain battery a consumer IQ test uses.
There is no published figure. The C-score is interpreted against a norm group and any threshold is set by the employer for the role.
No. Cognivy is independent and is not affiliated with or endorsed by Assessio. Every practice matrix here is original material built to teach the rule families and the checking discipline at the published option count.