How the DAT Next Generation Abstract Reasoning test works
DAT Next Generation is a set of five separate ability tests, and the employer chooses which ones you sit. Abstract Reasoning is the one with no language in it. TalentLens describes it as measuring the ability to see sequences in shapes and patterns, and it is the test Pearson recommends to employers for roles below management level, where it suggests Raven’s for managers.
The exact layout and the number of options are not published. A sequence question typically shows a row of figures that change step by step, and you choose the figure that comes next.
There are 15 questions and no time limit, and most people take 10 to 12 minutes. The test is adaptive: a right answer brings a harder sequence, a wrong one an easier sequence. You must answer all 15 to receive a score.
How to solve a shape sequence
A figure is a bundle of features, and each feature follows its own rule. Separate them.
- List the features in the first figure: the outline, its shading, any arrow or line and where it points, any small mark and where it sits.
- Follow one feature across the whole row and ignore the rest. Say its rule: “the arrow turns a quarter turn clockwise each step.”
- Do the same for the next feature. Features move at different speeds: one may change every step, another every second step, another may cycle through three states.
- Build the next figure from your rules, feature by feature, before you look at the options.
- Strike out options one feature at a time. Each wrong option usually has a single feature that did not move, moved twice or moved the wrong way.
Worked example
Four figures in a row. First: a circle with an arrow pointing up and a black dot. Second: a square with an arrow pointing right and a white dot. Third: a triangle with an arrow pointing down and a black dot. Fourth: a circle with an arrow pointing left and a white dot. What is the fifth?
- Outline: circle, square, triangle, circle. It cycles through three shapes, so the fifth is a square.
- Arrow: up, right, down, left. A quarter turn clockwise each step, so the fifth points up again.
- Dot: black, white, black, white. It alternates, so the fifth is black.
- Answer: a square with an arrow pointing up and a black dot.
- A tempting wrong option is a circle with an arrow pointing up and a black dot, which is simply the first figure again. The arrow and dot have returned to their starting state, but the outline, on its cycle of three, has not.
How the test is scored
Everyone answers 15 questions, but not the same 15, so the number you get right says little. The test weighs each answer by the difficulty of its question and produces an ability score, which is reported as a percentile against a norm group the employer chooses. No pass mark is published.
Tips for the real test
- Never judge a figure as a whole. Two options can look alike at a glance and differ in the one feature that matters.
- Check the feature you find hardest last, on the two or three options still standing.
- Watch for features that repeat on different cycles. A pattern that seems to return to the start often has one part out of step.
- Use the time. The test is untimed, and a careful feature-by-feature check beats a quick impression.
- Finish all 15 in one sitting. An unfinished test gives no score.
Practise Abstract Reasoning on CogniPrep
Our Abstract Reasoning game gives you 15 generated figure series: four figures that change step by step and five options for the fifth. One feature moves at the easiest level, two at the middle level and two or three at different speeds at the hardest. It adapts from a middle start, has no time limit and does not let you go back. Your result is an ability estimate with a percentile against other CogniPrep users. The series layout, the five options and the difficulty levels are our reading of a format TalentLens does not publish.