These questions have no words to read, which makes them some of the fastest marks in the whole paper — once you know exactly what to look for.
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Ask three questions of the row, always in this order.
➡️ The three questions
Is it turning? Track one corner or point across the row — a quarter turn is 90°, a half turn 180°.
Is something being added or removed? Count the dots, lines or sides at each step.
Is something swapping? Look for shading flipping, or two parts trading places.
Deal with one change at a time. If a figure both turns and gains a dot, first eliminate every option facing the wrong way, then count dots only among what is left.
A mirror image flips a figure left and right — nothing else.
🪞 Checking a mirror image
A mirror on the right or left swaps left with right; up and down stay exactly where they were.
A rotation is not a mirror image — turning a figure round can never produce its true reflection.
A figure that is symmetrical about a vertical line looks exactly the same in its own mirror image.
Olympiad trap: the wrong options in a mirror-image question are almost always the figure rotated by 90° or 180° — not a true reflection at all. Check specifically for the left-right flip, not just "looks different".
Unfold the paper in your head, one fold at a time, working backwards from the last fold made.
📄 Unfolding a punched sheet
Every fold acts as a mirror line. Each hole reappears on the other side of it, the same distance away.
Undo the folds in the reverse order to the one they were made in.
One fold doubles the hole count; two folds make four; three folds make eight.
12 NSO-pattern questions on figures, mirrors and folding, including two Achievers-level questions.
