Figural Reasoning on the EEI POSS Test

Figural Reasoning is the POSS battery's pattern section: 20 questions in 10 minutes, thirty seconds each, in three item types EEI names as Picture Series, Picture Comparison and Picture Progression. It works entirely in shapes — no words, no numbers — and it is the EEI section with the least material available anywhere, which makes it the one where turning up unprepared costs the most.

The three item types

EEI publishes the names but not detailed descriptions, and the names are reasonably self-explanatory:

• Picture Series — a sequence of figures follows a rule; you supply the next one, or the missing one.
• Picture Comparison — several figures are shown and you identify the one that does not belong, or the pair that match on some property.
• Picture Progression — a figure changes step by step and you continue the change.

All three come down to the same underlying task: work out what dimension is varying, then apply it.

The dimensions that vary

Pattern items are built from a small vocabulary. Knowing the vocabulary is most of the speed, because it converts open-ended staring into a short checklist:

• Rotation — the same figure turning by a constant amount each step, clockwise or counterclockwise.
• Reflection — flipping across a vertical or horizontal axis. Easily confused with rotation; the tell is whether an asymmetric detail has swapped sides.
• Count — number of elements, sides, dots or lines increasing or decreasing.
• Shading — fill moving around a figure, alternating, or spreading.
• Size — growing or shrinking, sometimes of one element only.
• Position — an element traveling around the figure, or in and out of it.
• Addition and subtraction — elements appearing or disappearing on a schedule.
• Two rules at once — the harder items combine two of the above, each on its own cycle.

A thirty-second method

1. Scan for the obvious dimension first. Count and rotation account for a large share of items and are the quickest to check.
2. Compare adjacent figures, not the whole set. What changed between figure one and figure two? Then check the same change holds from two to three. One confirmed step beats a global theory.
3. Use the options. Once you have a rule, you rarely need to construct the answer — you need only test the candidates. Most will fail on your rule immediately.
4. If two rules are running, isolate one. Track a single element through the sequence and ignore everything else, then repeat for the second.
5. Guess and move at thirty seconds. With 20 questions in 10 minutes, one item you refuse to abandon costs you two others. There is no penalty for a wrong answer.

One habit is worth building deliberately: predict before you look. Work out what the next figure should be, then find it among the options. Reading the options first invites you to reverse-engineer a rule that fits one of them, and on a well-built item at least two distractors are designed to be reachable that way — the right transformation applied the wrong number of times, or the right idea applied to the wrong element.

Why fresh items matter more here than anywhere

Every section benefits from varied practice; this one depends on it. Pattern items are unusually memorable — after two or three passes through a fixed set you are recalling the answer rather than deriving it, and your practice scores rise while your actual ability does not move at all. It is the most self-deceiving section in the battery.

Our Figural Reasoning practice generates new items on every run from the underlying transformation rules, so the varying dimension is different each time and you cannot memorize your way through. Run it in full 20-question blocks against the real 10-minute clock; anything longer and slower trains a different skill. The POSS battery practice puts it in its proper place at the end of the battery, which is where it is genuinely hardest.

What it measures, and why it is on a plant test

Figural reasoning tests are a standard measure of inductive reasoning with novel material — inferring a rule from examples rather than applying a rule you were taught. For a control room role that is a defensible thing to measure: much of the job is recognizing that a pattern of readings means something, on material nobody has briefed you on.

Whether you find it fair or not, it is 20 of the 118 or 146 questions in the POSS battery, and it is the section most candidates have never attempted before. Thirty minutes of familiarization moves you further here than anywhere else on the paper. If you are also sitting MASS, note that MASS uses Assembling Objects in this slot instead — a related but distinct spatial task — so you may need both.

Frequently asked questions

How many Figural Reasoning questions are there?

20 questions in 10 minutes, per EEI's POSS brochure. It is the shortest test in the battery.

Does Figural Reasoning appear in CAST or MASS?

No. It is a POSS section. MASS has Assembling Objects in the equivalent slot, and the CAST family has neither.

Can you get better at pattern questions?

Yes, and quickly, up to a point. Most of the early improvement is simply learning the small set of dimensions that tend to vary, so that you check a list instead of staring. Beyond that the gains flatten.

Is it the same as an IQ test?

It uses a similar item format to the pattern sections of general reasoning tests, but it is one component of an occupational battery and is reported only as part of the combined aptitude index. See how the index works.