SHL online test

The answer should be fourth from the left (white square, black circle, black triangle, white hexagon).

One thing that’s easy to see is that the 3rd and 6th rows duplicate each other, so you know you want a black triangle in the 3rd position.

After that, I kindof imagine the symbols as a vertical ribbon that’s repeating endlessly, but you can only see snippets of it. However, it’s consistent between the snippets. Between the black hexagon and the white circle in the 6th row, there’s a white square, so that should also appear between the black hexagon and the white circle in the 1st row. You can also derive the other symbols by this method.

When looking at each column individually, it can be noted that they each have five shapes, consisting of 2 squares, a triangle, hexagon and circle. 

In the 1st column a square is missing, 2nd a circle, 3rd a triangle and 4th a hexagon. That eliminates B,C and E. 

In each row it should be noted that the both triangles and circles are either light or dark. In the row with the missing shapes the hint is the dark triangle, thus validating D. 

Hi there,

This is indeed an interesting question which is probably relevant for quite a lot of users, so I am happy to provide my perspective on it:

• First of all, I would advise you to have a second look at the SHL test set since normally, there always is the solution displayed.
• Secondly, from my perspective, there might be solely one correct option which is option D. First, in each row, there is eather just black or white triangles and circles, so you can cross out options A and E. Secondly, there never are two square next to each other surrounded by circles/ triangles, so you can cross out options B and C.

In case you want a more detailed discussion on how to best prepare abstract reasoning tests, please feel free to contact me directly.

I hope this helps,

Hagen