Last updated 27 August 2026
Abstract Reasoning on the AAS Test: The Five Question Types
A note from the parent who built this: I’m prepping my own son for the 2028 Year 7 round across three different boards, and everything on this site gets tested on him before it goes live.
The AAS Scholarship Test’s Reasoning component mixes verbal, numerical, and abstract reasoning— and abstract reasoning is the part that surprises families most, because it has nothing to do with words or numbers at all. Every question is a picture puzzle: shapes, patterns, and transformations. This guide breaks down the five kinds of abstract reasoning questions that actually appear, in plain English, with no jargon borrowed from anyone else’s practice materials.
The five question types
| Question type | What you’re actually looking at |
|---|---|
| Shape analogy | One shape changes into another in some way — rotated, mirrored, or flipped. A second shape starts the same kind of change. Which picture finishes it? |
| Shape sequence | A short run of shapes turning step by step, alternating between two orientations. Which picture keeps the pattern going? |
| Growth pattern | A shape gains (or loses) pieces at a steady rate across a few steps — more dots, more marks, always by the same amount each time. Which picture is the next step? |
| Overlay | Two figures are placed on top of each other and every line from both survives. Which picture shows the result? |
| Cube views | Three different views of the same cube, each showing three faces. Work out which faces sit opposite each other, then answer a question about a face that isn’t shown. |
Cube views is the odd one out on this list — it’s less about spotting a repeating pattern and more like a small logic puzzle: three faces can never include two that are opposite each other, so three overlapping views are usually enough to pin down the whole cube. It rewards working it out on paper rather than eyeballing it.
A few things that trip people up
- Every answer option is a picture, never a word.There’s nothing to read in the options — the whole question lives in what you can see.
- “None of the above” can turn up here too, drawn the same way as the other options rather than written out. The same habit that helps on the rest of the AAS test applies: don’t assume one of the pictures shown has to be right.
- Options come in fours and fives, mixed through a paper rather than fixed at one count. Don’t let a child assume a set number of options every time.
- The trap answers are deliberate, not random— a shape rotated the wrong way, an overlay missing a line, a dot count one step short. They’re built to catch a specific, common misreading of the pattern, which is exactly why working the change out explicitly (not just eyeballing it) matters more here than almost anywhere else on the test.
Live practice for this section
These five question types come from practice-generation code that’s now live inside AAS General Reasoning — free to sit today, alongside AAS Mathematics and Reading Comprehension. Question counts and the mix within the section are estimates, not AAS’s own published figures, for the reason laid out in the main AAS format guide. Written Expression is the one AAS section we haven’t built yet; this page will get a genuine update, not a quiet edit, the moment that changes too.
What’s next
For the verbal side of this same section, see the Verbal Reasoning guide— it turns out to be the bigger half. For the rest of what’s on the AAS test — Reading, Mathematics, Written Expression — go back to the AAS format guide. If your child is also being considered for a school that uses ACER, the ACER format guide covers a test with no abstract reasoning section at all.
Ready to try it? AAS scholarship test practice has Abstract Reasoning free to sit today, inside the General Reasoning paper.
Frequently asked questions
- Is Abstract Reasoning the same as the AAS Reasoning section overall?
- No — Reasoning on the AAS test mixes verbal, numerical, and abstract (figural) questions. This guide covers only the abstract/figural slice: the questions made of shapes and patterns, not words or numbers.
- Do the answer options ever include words or numbers?
- No. Every option is a picture. You're picking the shape that completes the pattern, not describing it.
- Can 'none of the above' be correct on these questions too?
- Yes — the same rule the wider AAS test uses applies here: some questions carry a picture-based 'none of the above' option, and it can genuinely be the answer rather than a decoy.
- How many answer options do these questions have?
- Four or five, mixed throughout — not a fixed count you can rely on question to question.
- Is Abstract Reasoning practice live on this site yet?
- Yes — it's part of AAS General Reasoning, which is live and free to sit today. See the note below for exactly what's live and what isn't yet.