A pattern is a secret rule 🔍. Once you find the rule, you can tell what comes next — every single time. This is the very first section of the IMO paper, and it is the one where a sharp eye beats hard calculation.
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Never guess. Follow these three steps and the answer appears by itself.
Find the gap
Write the jump between each pair of numbers underneath.
Check every gap
The rule must work for all the numbers, not just the first two.
Apply it once more
Use the rule on the last number to get your answer.
🧠 Patterns that come again and again
Learn to recognise these six families at a glance.
Try it yourself first. Then tap to check each step.
Pictures repeat in groups. Find where the group starts again and you have cracked it.
Trick: mark the repeating group with your finger — 🔴🔵 | 🔴🔵 | 🔴… Now count how many items are in one group. If the group has 2 items, then item number 1, 3, 5, 7 are all the same!
An analogy is a matching pair. It is written like this:
4 : 8 :: 7 : ?
: means "is to" • :: means "as"
Read it as: "4 is to 8 as 7 is to what?" First find what happened on the left (4 was doubled to make 8). Then do the same thing on the right → 7 × 2 = 14.
In a classification question, three things share one property and the fourth does not. Ask yourself: "What do most of them have in common?"
Useful properties: even / odd · multiples · perfect squares · prime numbers · number of sides · flat (2D) or solid (3D).
12 IMO-style questions. Use rough paper — write the gaps under the numbers before you choose! 🍀
