Reviewed 14 September 2026 by the Cognivy editorial team
This page covers what Pearson publishes about the APM, the difference between the paper edition and the adaptive employment version, and a method for grids that carry several rules at once. It is a format guide, not a claim about your score.
- Publisher
- Pearson
- Answer options
- Eight on Pearson's Raven's Adaptive, which describes choosing the correct piece from a set of eight
- Administration time
- Paper edition: untimed, individual or group, 40 to 60 minutes. Raven's Adaptive: 15 items in approximately 12 minutes
- Age range
- 12:0 to 16:0, and 17:0 and older
- Scoring
- Norm-referenced. No provider reviewed here publishes a pass mark
The skill
What is Raven's APM?
Pearson describes the APM as measuring high-level observation skills, clear thinking ability, and intellectual capacity as a non-verbal estimate of abstract reasoning or fluid intelligence, with a published range of 12:0 to 16:0 and 17:0 and older.
Unlike the Coloured and Standard editions, the APM has almost no pattern completion in it. Every item is a grid, and what makes it advanced is that two or three rules run at once: a distribution, a transformation and sometimes a rule about the grid itself rather than about any row.
Two products carry the name and they are not the same to sit. The paper edition is untimed and long; Pearson's TalentLens arm sells Raven's Adaptive, a computer-adaptive employment version listed at 15 items in approximately 12 minutes, where the FAQ describes three-by-three geometric designs with a piece missing and the candidate choosing the correct piece from a set of eight.
The three Raven's editions differ in difficulty and in what the items ask. CPM is the easiest and is mostly pattern completion; SPM is the general-population form; APM is the hardest and is almost entirely rules held several at a time. Both are linked at the end of this page.
Try it before anything else
Free raven's apm 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 raven's apm 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 the APM measures
Pearson's description is exact: high-level observation skills, clear thinking ability, and intellectual capacity as a non-verbal estimate of abstract reasoning or fluid intelligence.
What the items separate in practice is whether you can hold two rules at once, and whether you check the option you like against the rule you have not yet stated.
Question formats
The rule families that fill the grid
The grid is constant. What changes between items is how many rules are running, and the list of families is short.
- Progression across the grid. A quantity stepping up or down along a row, along a column, or along both at once.
- One of each. Every row and column carries each value exactly once, in an order that is not the same twice.
- One of each, with a change. The same distribution, where the element also turns or transforms as it moves between cells.
- Combining two cells. A third cell built from two others, keeping everything either has or only what both have.
- Whole-grid rules. A rule that governs the grid itself rather than any one row or column.
A three-by-three grid where each row carries three different elements in a rotating order, and each element also gains a mark as it moves to the right. The missing cell is fixed by two facts at once: which element its row has not yet used, and how many marks that element has reached. The tray always contains the element that is right and the mark count that is wrong.
Launch coverage
Who publishes Raven's APM
One publisher owns the test, and one employment product is built on it. A second provider sells a matrix subtest at the same option count.
- Raven's Advanced Progressive Matrices (APM). Pearson states that the APM measures high-level observation skills, clear thinking ability, and intellectual capacity as a non-verbal estimate of abstract reasoning or fluid intelligence, is administered untimed individually or in a group in 40 to 60 minutes on paper, and has a published range of 12:0 to 16:0 and 17:0 and older.
- Raven's Adaptive matrix reasoning. Pearson TalentLens lists Raven's Adaptive as three-by-three geometric designs with a piece missing, chosen from a set of eight, delivered by computer-adaptive testing at 15 items in approximately 12 minutes. This is the version most candidates meet in hiring.
- Talent Q Elements Logical. Korn Ferry's Elements Logical is matrix-form and uses large option sets. Korn Ferry publishes the format rather than a fixed option count, and its own practice player shows a three-by-three grid with one cell blanked.
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
Which product you have been sent decides everything about pacing, and the two differ sharply.
- The paper edition is untimed. Pearson lists the APM as untimed, individual or group, taking 40 to 60 minutes. That range is how long it takes, not a limit you are held to.
- The employment version is short and adaptive. Pearson TalentLens lists Raven's Adaptive at 15 items in approximately 12 minutes, which works out under a minute per grid.
- Difficulty is not feedback. An adaptive test selects the next item from your last answer, so a harder grid often follows a correct one. Treat rising difficulty as normal behaviour rather than as a verdict.
- Scores are norm-referenced. No provider reviewed here publishes a pass mark. Any threshold is set by the employer for the role.
On an 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.
No provider reviewed here publishes a passing score, and how an employer weighs the result against the rest of your application is their decision rather than the test's.
A repeatable approach
A method for multi-rule grids
Advanced grids reward a fixed procedure, because what goes wrong is a second rule that was never looked for.
- 1
Scan attributes in the same order every time. Shape, count, size, position, rotation, shading, line style. A fixed order stops you missing the attribute that moved.
- 2
Assume two rules. On this edition one rule is rarely the whole answer. If your rule leaves two options alive, a second rule is running.
- 3
State both directions as sentences. Rows first because they are cheapest to read, then columns. A grid is not solved until the columns confirm the rows.
- 4
Predict before you read the eight. Describe the missing cell in words. A tray of eight is built to contain something for every partial answer.
- 5
Reject on a named fault. Say which rule each discarded option breaks. 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.
A three-by-three grid. Each cell holds one of three shapes, and each shape carries a number of tick marks.
Row 1: circle with 1 tick, square with 2 ticks, triangle with 3 ticks. Row 2: square with 1 tick, triangle with 2 ticks, circle with 3 ticks. Row 3: triangle with 1 tick, circle with 2 ticks, ?
Question. Which option completes the grid?
A. Square with 3 ticks · B. Square with 2 ticks · C. Triangle with 3 ticks · D. Circle with 3 ticks · E. Square with 1 tick · F. Triangle with 2 ticks · G. Circle with 1 tick · H. Square with 4 ticks
Answer: A — square with 3 ticks.
- 1
First rule: every row holds each of the three shapes once, and the order rotates from row to row. Row 3 has used triangle and circle, so the missing cell is a square.
- 2
Second rule: the tick count rises by one along each row, one then two then three, and it does so independently of the shape.
- 3
The missing cell sits third in its row, so it carries three ticks.
- 4
Check the column: the third column runs triangle, circle, square, which is the same rotation read downwards, and every cell in it carries three ticks.
Why the other options are there. The square with two ticks gets the distribution right and drops the tick rule; the triangle with three ticks does the reverse. A tray of eight is large enough to carry both half-answers plus a shape the row has already used, which is why stating both rules before looking is worth the seconds it costs.
A three-by-three grid. Each cell contains some combination of a square outline, a diagonal stroke and a dot.
Row 1: square and stroke, stroke and dot, stroke. Row 2: square and dot, square and stroke, square. Row 3: stroke and dot, square and dot, ?
Question. Which option completes the grid?
A. A dot only · B. A stroke only · C. A square only · D. A square and a dot · E. A stroke and a dot · F. A square and a stroke · G. All three marks · H. No marks at all
Answer: A — a dot only.
- 1
Read the complete rows. Row 1's third cell holds the stroke, which is the only mark its first two cells have in common.
- 2
Row 2 behaves the same way: the square is shared by its first two cells and is what the third holds.
- 3
So the rule is intersection, not union: the third cell keeps only the marks that appear in both.
- 4
Row 3's first two cells share the dot and nothing else, so the missing cell is a dot alone.
Why the other options are there. The union options — a stroke and a dot, or a square and a dot — are what the rule looks like if you read only one row and guess. Both are disproved by row 1, which is why a complete row is read before anything is chosen.
What slows progress
Common mistakes, and the fix for each
- Stopping at the first rule. Fix: assume two rules until one has eliminated all but one option. On this edition it rarely has.
- Choosing the option that looks right. Fix: name the violated rule for every option you reject. If you cannot name one, you are recognising rather than reasoning.
- Reading difficulty as feedback. Fix: expect an adaptive version to get harder when you are doing well, and ignore the feeling entirely.
- Practising at the wrong option count. Fix: practise at eight. A smaller tray trains a different elimination habit.
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
APM preparation is about holding two rules, not about learning new ones.
- 1
First, name the rule families on sight. Progression, distribution, distribution with a change, combination, whole-grid. Work untimed until naming is automatic.
- 2
Next, practise two-rule grids only. The single-rule item is the exception here. Treat a single-rule answer as an incomplete answer.
- 3
Then add the tray. Work at eight options so that elimination is trained at the real guess rate.
- 4
Last, add the clock if yours is adaptive. Raven's Adaptive is 15 items in about 12 minutes, so rehearse deciding inside a minute.
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
Getting faster without losing accuracy
On the adaptive version speed is about deciding when to stop; on the paper edition there is nothing to beat.
- Predict before you read the eight. 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. Eight alternatives take a long time to browse and almost no time to test against a stated prediction.
- Abandon at your ceiling. Under about a minute per grid, one you have not started in fifteen seconds is unlikely to resolve. Choose the best fit and move.
- Practise the checklist, not the puzzles. Grids you have memorised transfer nothing to an adaptive item bank.
Direct answers
Raven's APM FAQs
Pearson describes it as measuring high-level observation skills, clear thinking ability, and intellectual capacity as a non-verbal estimate of abstract reasoning or fluid intelligence.
The paper edition is listed by Pearson as untimed, individual or group, taking 40 to 60 minutes. Pearson TalentLens lists the Raven's Adaptive employment version at 15 items in approximately 12 minutes.
Pearson TalentLens describes Raven's Adaptive as three-by-three geometric designs with a piece missing, chosen from a set of eight.
Because the employment version is adaptive: it selects the next item from your last answer, so difficulty can rise as you answer correctly. You cannot read your score from how hard the grids feel.
No. Cognivy is independent and is not affiliated with or endorsed by Pearson or Korn Ferry. Every practice grid here is original material built to teach the rule families and the checking discipline.