How the Raven’s Adaptive test works
Every question is a three-by-three grid of geometric designs with one piece missing. Below or beside it are eight candidate pieces, and exactly one completes the pattern. Nothing on the screen needs reading, so your first language matters less than on most tests.
The test is adaptive. Your first question is of average difficulty. Get it right and the next one is harder; get it wrong and the next one is easier. After 15 questions the test stops. The questions are drawn from a large bank, so the 15 you see are not the 15 anyone else sees.
There is no clock. Pearson’s own studies put the average at 12 minutes, but nothing happens if you take longer. You do have to finish: a candidate who does not answer all 15 gets no score.
TalentLens’s current list of cognitive tests names only Raven’s Adaptive, so an invitation from TalentLens that just says “Raven’s” most likely means this test. Raven’s APM-III, with 23 questions in 40 minutes, is still sent by some employers. Raven’s 2 is a different product: a clinical edition sold through Pearson’s clinical catalogue, not a recruitment test.
How to solve a Raven’s matrix
Work in this order on every grid. It is slower on the easy ones and far safer on the hard ones.
- Read along the top row and say what changes from one cell to the next: the shape, how many there are, the shading, the size, the direction it points or where it sits.
- Check the same change on the second row. If it holds, you have a rule. If it does not, read down the columns instead.
- Look for a second rule. Harder grids run two or three at once, often one along the rows and another down the columns.
- Apply every rule to the third row and describe the missing piece in words before you look at the options, for example “three grey squares”.
- Find that piece. If two options seem to fit, they will differ in one feature. Test only that feature against the grid.
Worked example
Picture this grid. Top row: one black circle, two black squares, three black triangles. Middle row: one white square, two white triangles, three white circles. Bottom row: one grey triangle, two grey circles, and the missing piece.
- Number: every row counts one, two, three from left to right, so the missing piece holds three shapes.
- Shading: each row keeps one shading throughout, and the bottom row is grey.
- Shape: each row uses a circle, a square and a triangle once each. The bottom row already has a triangle and a circle, so the missing shape is a square. The columns agree: the third column has triangles and circles and lacks a square.
- Answer: three grey squares.
- The wrong options are built to be one step away: three grey circles (wrong shape), two grey squares (wrong number) and three white squares (wrong shading). Naming the piece before you look is what keeps you off them.
How Raven’s Adaptive is scored
Your score is not the number you got right. Each question carries its own difficulty, and the test turns your answers into an ability estimate on a scale from -4 to +4. Solving hard questions earns more than solving easy ones.
That estimate is then compared with a norm group the employer chooses, such as graduates or managers, and reported as a percentile. The highest possible result is the 99th percentile. Pearson publishes no pass mark; each employer decides what percentile it wants.
Because the test settles on questions you get right about half the time, most people finish feeling they did badly. That feeling tells you nothing about your result.
Tips for the real Raven’s test
- Use the time. There is no limit and speed earns nothing, so check every answer before you move on.
- Treat harder questions as good news. They only arrive after right answers.
- Do not guess to get out of a hard grid. A wrong answer costs you the harder question that would have followed.
- Finish in one sitting. An unfinished test produces no score at all.
- Sit it on a computer with a large screen. The differences between options can be small.
Practise Raven’s Adaptive on CogniPrep
Our Raven’s Adaptive game follows the published format: 15 three-by-three grids with eight options each, no time limit, no going back, and a first question of middling difficulty. The game moves you between five difficulty levels as your answers come in, harder after right answers and easier after wrong ones. The screen shows time taken, not a countdown.
Your result is an ability estimate on the same kind of scale as the real test, plus a percentile against other CogniPrep users. The grids are generated fresh for every run and their difficulty levels are ours, so read the result as a guide, not as your TalentLens percentile. It is free to play with a free account.