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The single most important thing you can do to improve your Abstract Reasoning score is to learn the pattern categories. Every AR question is built around one or more of these categories. If you have a systematic checklist of what to look for, you can work through it rapidly and identify patterns that would otherwise take minutes of unfocused staring.
This lesson introduces the SCANS framework — a mnemonic that covers the five main categories of patterns you will encounter.
Shape — Colour — Arrangement — Number — Size
Each letter represents a category of features that test designers use to construct rules. When you look at a set of shapes and cannot immediately see the pattern, work through SCANS systematically.
Shape-based rules focus on the type of shapes present in each box.
| Feature | Examples |
|---|---|
| Shape type | All boxes contain at least one triangle; all boxes contain a curved shape |
| Number of sides | All shapes have 4+ sides; total sides in each box is always 10 |
| Straight vs curved | Set A has only straight-sided shapes; Set B has at least one curved shape |
| Regular vs irregular | All shapes are regular polygons (equal sides and angles) |
| Specific shapes | Every box contains exactly one arrow; every box has a star |
| Open vs closed | Some shapes are open (like an angle bracket < ) vs closed (like a triangle) |
Set A boxes contain: a triangle and two circles; a pentagon and a square; three triangles; a hexagon; a triangle and a rectangle; a pentagon and a circle.
What is the rule? Look at the total number of straight-sided shapes in each box:
This illustrates an important principle: the rule is often not about individual shapes but about a numerical property of the shapes combined.
Colour-based rules focus on the fill or shading of shapes.
| Feature | Examples |
|---|---|
| Fill types | Black (solid), white (empty/outline), grey, striped/hatched, dotted |
| Number of each fill | Each box has exactly 2 black shapes and 1 white shape |
| Proportion | More black shapes than white in every box |
| Consistent fills | All shapes in a box are the same colour |
| Conditional fills | Large shapes are always black; small shapes are always white |
| Alternating fills | Shapes alternate black-white-black around the box |
Set A boxes contain shapes with these fills: (black, white, grey); (grey, black, white); (white, grey, black); (black, grey, white)
What is the rule? Every box contains exactly three shapes: one black, one white, and one grey. The rule is about having one of each fill type.
These are trickier rules where the colour depends on another property:
Arrangement-based rules focus on where shapes are placed and how they are oriented.
| Feature | Examples |
|---|---|
| Position | A specific shape is always in the top-right corner; shapes are always along the diagonal |
| Orientation | Arrows always point clockwise; triangles always point upward |
| Symmetry | The arrangement has a line of symmetry (vertical, horizontal, or diagonal) |
| Relative position | The circle is always above the square; small shapes are always inside large shapes |
| Overlap | Shapes do or do not overlap |
| Touching | Shapes do or do not touch each other |
| Containment | One shape is always inside another |
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