Is this the real Raven's test?
No, and that is on purpose. Raven's Progressive Matrices, first published by John C. Raven in 1938, is now sold by Pearson only to psychologists and schools, and its puzzles are protected. What you take here is a Raven-style test: the same idea of a grid with a missing piece, the same five kinds of set, but every figure was generated for this site from a simple rule, so each one has exactly one right answer.
Matrix puzzles are popular because they need no reading, no maths and no general knowledge. They test how quickly you spot a rule you have never seen and apply it, which psychologists call fluid reasoning.
How your score is worked out
We count your right answers out of 30 and place them on the usual IQ scale, with an average of 100 and a standard deviation of 15. Because the test is short and not normed on a large group, you get a likely range of about 7 points either side, plus the share of people you scored higher than. In the timed mode, puzzles left blank when the 20 minutes run out count as wrong; the untimed mode tends to read a few points higher.
| IQ score | Usual label | Share of people |
|---|---|---|
| 130 and above | Very superior | about 2% |
| 120–129 | Superior | about 7% |
| 110–119 | High average | about 16% |
| 90–109 | Average | about 50% |
| 80–89 | Low average | about 16% |
| Below 80 | Below average | about 9% |
An entertainment estimate, not a psychological or medical assessment. It cannot be used for school, job or society applications.
How to solve matrix puzzles
- Read the rows first, then the columns. Most grids change one thing across a row and another thing down a column.
- Count everything that can change: shape, number, size, shading, direction, and what sits inside what. Harder puzzles run two or three rules at once.
- Look for "one of each". If every row has a circle, a square and a triangle, the gap is whichever is missing.
- In set E, think in layers. The third figure is often the first two laid on top of each other, with shared lines kept, removed or cancelled.
- Rule out, then choose. Wrong options usually get one rule right and one wrong. Check each rule against the options in turn.