Sometimes number patterns occur in abstract reasoning. The numbers are usually represented by a visual symbol e.g. a dot or a line.

Number patterns appear in abstract reasoning because they are represented by imagery. However, in essence, you should treat them as numbers whenever you suspect it involves number patterns and quantity of images.

Such types of number patterns are:

• Increasing via addition, multiplication or other combination.
• Decreasing via subtraction, division or other combination.

Because abstract reasoning involves visual pattern detection, let’s apply this to the following question/s.

Example Question/s

Watch video for explanation of the following question/s:

Source: http://www.schools.nsw.edu.au/media/downloads/schoolsweb/learning/k_6assessments/ss/gatest4.pdf

Why is this abstract reasoning question really a number pattern?

• It has quantities of dots.
• There's no visually evident pattern e.g. no repetition that would hold true.
• Therefore, look at the pattern for numbers.

Key Rules to remember

• Identify that a number pattern is occurring when there are multiple quantities of a particular image.
• Increasing via addition, multiplication or other combination.
• Decreasing via subtraction, division or other combination.

Practice time!

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