Assembling ObjectsLesson 1 of 3
Connection Questions
Reading attachment points, and eliminating on a single mismatch.
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A connection question gives you two shapes with a point marked on each, and asks which of four boxes shows those shapes joined by a line running between those points. It sounds trivial, and it is, right up until you look at the four choices and they all look approximately right.
That is the design. The choices are built to be approximately right and precisely wrong, in exactly one place each.
What the question is made of
The question box shows each shape carrying a dot and a stub of the connecting line. The dot's position on the outline is the whole of the information.
The correct answer has the same two shapes, unmirrored, with one line running from dot to dot.
Everything else is a wrong answer, and the figure shows the two commonest kinds side by side.
The four ways an answer is wrong
Learn these as a checklist and a connection question becomes mechanical.
One: the line attaches at the wrong point
This is the most common and the easiest to miss. The dot was on a corner and the answer puts the line on an edge. The dot was at the midpoint of an edge and the answer has slid it toward one end. The dot was on the outside of a curve and the answer has it on the inside.
Fix the point in words before you look at the choices. "Apex of the triangle" and "middle of the rectangle's left edge" are things you can check against four boxes in seconds. "Somewhere up there" is not.
Two: a shape has been changed
Count the sides. A five-sided figure standing in for a four-sided one is the fourth panel in the figure, and it is common. So is a rectangle where a square was given, or a shape whose proportions have been stretched.
Changed shapes are easier to catch than moved dots, which is why they are usually the eliminations you make first.
Three: a shape has been mirrored
Pieces may be rotated to any angle. They may never be flipped over. An answer containing a mirror image of a shape you were given is wrong, full stop, and the rotation lesson is where that rule is worked through properly.
Four: a shape is missing or added
The answer must contain the shapes you were given and nothing else. An extra shape, or one of yours replaced by a stranger, is an elimination without any spatial reasoning at all.
Nothing on this subtest rewards care beyond the point where you have found the flaw. If the second answer choice contains a pentagon and you were given a rectangle, that choice is dead, and looking at where its line attaches is time you are taking from a question you might otherwise get. Find one fault, strike the choice, move to the next. That habit is worth more than any amount of spatial talent, because the clock is the real opponent here: on the computer version the subtest allows about seventy-two seconds a question, and on paper about thirty-six.
A working order
One: read the two attachment points and name them. Corner, midpoint of an edge, end of a line, outside of a curve. Say it to yourself in those words.
Two: scan the four choices for a changed or missing shape. This is the fastest scan because it uses peripheral vision rather than precision.
Three: check the surviving choices' attachment points against your words.
Four: if two survive, find the one difference between them. There is always exactly one, and that difference is what the question was about.
Five: choose and move on. A minute on any single question here is a minute taken from the rest.
What you can skip
- Measuring angles. Match where the labeled points sit and how the line runs between them; no question needs an angle measured.
- Spatial-reasoning drills from other tests. Cube folding and 3D block rotation never appear.
Where people lose points
Looking at the shapes before the dots. The dots carry the question.
Accepting "near the corner" as "on the corner". A point is a point.
Continuing to examine a choice after finding a fault. It is already dead.
Forgetting that the line ends are independent. One end can be right and the other wrong, and that choice is still wrong.
Treating a mirrored shape as a rotation. It never is.
Spending a minute constructing the right answer instead of twenty seconds eliminating three wrong ones.
Work one in under a minute
A question gives a triangle with a dot on its apex and a rectangle with a dot at the midpoint of its left edge. Choice A joins the apex to the rectangle's upper left corner. Choice B joins the triangle's base corner to the midpoint of the rectangle's left edge. Choice C joins the apex to the midpoint of the left edge of a pentagon. Choice D joins the apex to the midpoint of the rectangle's left edge. Which is correct, and what is wrong with each of the others?
D is correct. Both ends match the question, and both shapes are the ones given.
A is wrong at the rectangle end. The dot was at the midpoint of the left edge, and A has moved it to a corner. The triangle end is perfectly correct, which is exactly what makes this choice dangerous: half of it checks out.
B is wrong at the triangle end. The apex has become a base corner. Again, the other end is right.
C is wrong in the shape. The connection is faultless, and the second shape has five sides instead of four.
Notice the pattern. Each wrong answer is correct in every respect but one. That is not a coincidence, it is the construction, and it is why finding one fault is enough and why you must check every part before accepting a choice.
Where this leads
The mirror rule referred to here is the whole of the next-but-one lesson, and the elimination habit is what makes puzzle questions survivable.
Related lessonsReference
- Puzzle Questions - the other format
- Rotation, Reflection and Elimination - why a mirrored shape is always wrong
- Assembling Objects - where this subtest sits in an Air Force study plan
Practice this topic
Check that this lesson stuck. Answer questions on connection questions only, and see the right answer and why after each one.
Practice Connection Questions questions