Mensa IQ Test Mensa IQ Visual Pattern Analysis 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A sequence of shapes: circle, circle with 1 line through center, circle with 2 lines through center (cross), circle with 3 lines through center. What pattern emerges?
- The circle is progressively divided into more equal sectors (Correct answer)
- The circle changes color
- The circle shrinks
- Lines appear outside the circle
Correct answer: The circle is progressively divided into more equal sectors
Each step adds one diameter line, dividing the circle into more sectors: 0 lines = 1 region, 1 line = 2 sectors, 2 lines = 4 sectors, 3 lines = 6 sectors. The circle becomes progressively more segmented.
Question 2: A visual pattern shows: a single dot, then 4 dots in a square, then 9 dots in a 3×3 grid, then 16 dots in a 4×4 grid. How many dots are in the 6th figure?
- 36 (Correct answer)
- 25
- 49
- 30
Correct answer: 36
Each figure has n² dots arranged in an n×n grid: 1², 2², 3², 4². The 6th figure has 6² = 36 dots in a 6×6 grid. The pattern is simply perfect squares.
Question 3: A pattern shows shapes being progressively filled: Step 1 is 25% filled, Step 2 is 50% filled, Step 3 is 75% filled. What is Step 4?
- 100% filled (completely solid) (Correct answer)
- 0% filled (empty, cycle resets)
- 75% filled (stays the same)
- 87.5% filled
Correct answer: 100% filled (completely solid)
The filling increases by 25% each step: 25%, 50%, 75%, 100%. Step 4 completes the fill at 100%. The progression is linear with a constant increment of 25%.
Question 4: In a visual pattern, black squares on a grid expand outward from the center. Frame 1: 1 black cell. Frame 2: 5 cells (center + 4 orthogonal). Frame 3: 13 cells. How many cells are black in Frame 4?
- 25 (Correct answer)
- 21
- 29
- 17
Correct answer: 25
Frame 1: 1, Frame 2: 1+4=5, Frame 3: 5+8=13, Frame 4: 13+12=25. The additions are 4, 8, 12 (increasing by 4). This is a diamond/rhombus shape growing outward. The formula is 2n²-2n+1 where n is the frame number.
Question 5: A visual pattern shows: right-pointing arrow, up-pointing arrow, left-pointing arrow. What direction is the next arrow?
- Down-pointing (Correct answer)
- Right-pointing
- Diagonal
- No arrow
Correct answer: Down-pointing
The arrows rotate 90° counterclockwise each step: right→up→left→down. The sequence follows a consistent counterclockwise rotation pattern.
Question 6: A pattern has nested shapes: a circle inside a square inside a triangle inside a circle inside a square. What comes next?
- Triangle (Correct answer)
- Circle
- Square
- Pentagon
Correct answer: Triangle
The nesting follows a repeating cycle of three shapes: circle, square, triangle, circle, square, triangle. The next shape in the cycle after square is a triangle.
Mensa IQ Test Mensa IQ Visual Pattern Analysis 2
A sequence of shapes: circle, circle with 1 line through center, circle with 2 lines through center (cross), circle with 3 lines through center.
What pattern emerges?