How Matrixen works
Each question is a matrix of eight images in a 3x3 grid, with the bottom-right cell empty. The images change in a regular way "zowel horizontaal als verticaal", in PiCompany’s words: across the rows and down the columns at once. You complete the grid with a ninth figure that follows from both directions, choosing from four answers.
The figures are built from basic shapes, so no language or school knowledge is needed. GITP’s report describes what this part measures as the ease with which you analyse and complete complex relationships.
Like the other parts, Matrixen opens with an untimed explanation and sample questions, then adapts to your answers until your level is clear.
How to solve a matrix
Find both rules before you look at the options:
- Read along the top row and name everything that changes: shape, number of marks, fill or direction.
- Read down the first column and name what changes there. It may be a different feature from the rows.
- Test both rules on the middle row and middle column before you trust them.
- Work out the missing figure from the bottom row, then confirm it from the right-hand column.
- Only now read the four options, and rule out any that break either rule.
Worked example
Top row: a circle with one dot, a square with two dots, a triangle with three dots. Middle row: a square with one dot, a triangle with two dots, a circle with three dots. Bottom row: a triangle with one dot, a circle with two dots, and the empty cell.
Two rules run at once. Every row and every column holds one circle, one square and one triangle, so the bottom row and the right-hand column both still need a square. And the number of dots goes up by column: one on the left, two in the middle, three on the right. The answer is a square with three dots. A square with two dots fits the shapes but not the columns, and a circle with three dots fits the count but repeats a shape.
Tips for the real Matrixen
- Check your answer in both directions. An option that completes the bottom row but not the right-hand column is a wrong answer built to look right.
- Treat each feature on its own: count the marks, then check the shapes, then the fills.
- If time is running out, pick the option that breaks the fewest of your rules. A blank is marked wrong.
- Each question has its own clock, so a hard matrix cannot eat into the time for the next one.
- Sketch the grid on paper if it helps. Pen and paper are the only aids allowed.
Practise Matrixen on CogniPrep
Our Matrices game uses our own bank of 3x3 matrices with four options labelled A to D. It adapts over 10 to 15 questions, gives 90 seconds a question with no going back, and ends with a practice percentile converted to GITP’s T-score scale. Your feedback also says if you were caught by options that fit the rows but not the columns. There are no sample questions first.