- What Raven's Progressive Matrices Actually Is
- Format Facts You Must Know Cold
- The Five Sets: A Through E at a Glance
- Scoring, Percentiles, and What "Passing" Means
- Who Administers It and Who Gets Tested
- Raven's Family Versions Compared
- A Compressed Review Plan Before Test Day
- Common Traps on the Cheat Sheet Itself
- Frequently Asked Questions
- The SPM has 60 items in five 12-item sets (A-E), each worth 20% of the total.
- Early 2x2 items offer six answer choices; later 3x3 items offer eight.
- Untimed SPM administration runs roughly 20 to 45 minutes with no reading or math.
- Set E demands decomposition and addition-subtraction reasoning and eats the most time.
What Raven's Progressive Matrices Actually Is
Raven's Progressive Matrices is a nonverbal assessment of general cognitive ability, originally developed by British psychologist John C. Raven in 1938 and now published by Pearson Clinical Assessment. It measures what psychologists call Spearman's g, along with eductive ability and fluid intelligence - the capacity to make sense of new visual information without relying on prior knowledge, vocabulary, or math skills. If you're still getting oriented to the basics, the overview at What Is Raven's? and the terminology breakdown in Raven's Meaning are good starting points before you dive into this cheat sheet.
This is not a certification exam with a syllabus you memorize; it's a standardized test of reasoning presented as visual matrices with one missing piece. That distinction matters for how you prepare, and it's covered in depth in What Is Raven's Certification? and Raven's Certification.
Format Facts You Must Know Cold
The flagship Standard Progressive Matrices (SPM) is the version most candidates encounter, and its structure is the backbone of this entire cheat sheet:
- 60 total items split into five sets (A, B, C, D, E) of 12 items each
- No reading, writing, or math is required - every item is a visual pattern with one piece missing
- Answer choices vary: early 2x2 items offer six options, later 3x3 items offer eight options
- Administration is untimed in most cases, typically 20 to 45 minutes, though timed administration is sometimes used specifically to measure intellectual efficiency
- Every item counts - there are no experimental or unscored questions mixed in
- Delivery formats include individual or group administration on paper, or digitally through Pearson's Q-global platform for the newer Raven's 2 edition
For a deeper walk-through of registration mechanics, eligibility, and who can legally purchase materials, see Raven's Requirements.
Key Takeaway
Memorize the shape of the test before you memorize any content: 60 items, five 12-item sets, six-choice early items becoming eight-choice later items, and no penalty for reading speed since it's untimed in most settings.
The Five Sets: A Through E at a Glance
Each of the five sets is weighted equally at 20% of the total item count, but they are not equally difficult. Difficulty escalates steadily from Set A to Set E, and understanding what each set actually tests is the single most Raven's-specific thing you can study. The full breakdown of reasoning strategies for each set lives in Raven's Exam Domains Guide, but here's the condensed version.
Set A: Continuous Pattern Completion (20%)
Tests recognition of a single continuous visual pattern that flows across a matrix. Candidates must identify how a design changes smoothly in one direction and select the piece that continues that flow.
- Focus on pattern continuity rather than transformation rules
- Typically the most approachable set - build confidence here
Set B: Figural Analogies (20%)
Requires spotting a relationship between two figures and applying that same relationship to a third figure to find the missing fourth.
- Practice "this is to that as this is to ___" visual reasoning
- Shapes often repeat with subtle attribute changes (size, shading, orientation)
Set C: Progressive Pattern Change (20%)
Introduces figures that change progressively across rows and columns simultaneously, requiring you to track two directions of change at once.
- Watch for compounding changes (e.g., a shape both rotating and shrinking)
- Slower, more deliberate scanning pays off here
Set D: Figure Permutation and Regrouping (20%)
Presents figures whose elements are rearranged or regrouped according to a rule, testing your ability to track discrete components rather than continuous change.
- Break complex figures into individual elements before comparing
- Look for rotation and repositioning rules, not just shading
Set E: Decomposition into Constituent Parts (20%)
The hardest set. It requires you to mentally decompose figures into their constituent parts and apply addition-subtraction logic across the matrix - essentially visual arithmetic with shapes instead of numbers.
- Practice breaking overlapping figures into layers
- Budget extra time here; it's where untimed test-takers linger longest and timed test-takers lose the most points
For a full difficulty analysis across all five sets, including where most candidates stumble, read How Hard Is the Raven's Exam?
Scoring, Percentiles, and What "Passing" Means
Raven's Progressive Matrices does not use a pass/fail cutoff. Raw scores are converted into age-based percentile ranks, which show how a candidate performed relative to others in the same age group. The newer Raven's 2 edition goes further, adding standard scores with a mean of 100 and a standard deviation of 15 - the same familiar scale used in many cognitive assessments.
- Gifted-and-talented programs typically look for scores at or above the 95th percentile
- Clinicians use results to estimate nonverbal ability for ESL, deaf, and motor-impaired examinees
- Employers compare candidate scores against occupational norm groups rather than a universal cutoff
Reliability metrics support this scoring approach: split-half reliability exceeds .85 and test-retest stability sits around .81, meaning scores are consistent across repeated administrations. Raven's 2 also correlates above .70 with the KBIT-2 and NNAT3, reinforcing that it measures the same underlying construct as other established cognitive measures.
Because there's no single numeric target to hit, many candidates ask what score actually counts as strong performance - that question is answered in detail in Raven's Passing Score and in the data-driven look at Raven's Pass Rate.
Who Administers It and Who Gets Tested
Raven's materials are sold only to Qualification Level B professionals - psychologists, schools, and employers - not directly to the public. There is no candidate registration fee or public sign-up window because the administering professional or organization purchases the materials directly from Pearson, with complete kits typically running roughly $375 to $482. Employers who want to use the workplace version license it through Pearson TalentLens.
Because there's no public exam calendar, testing happens whenever a school, clinician, or employer schedules it, not on a fixed annual cycle. If you're trying to understand what "test dates" even mean in this context, Raven's Exam Dates clarifies the scheduling reality. For a breakdown of who actually pays for what, see Raven's Certification Cost.
Common use cases include:
- School psychologists screening students for gifted programs
- Clinicians assessing nonverbal reasoning independent of language ability
- Employers screening candidates for executive, managerial, and technical roles using the online APM-III
If you're evaluating career angles tied to this test - whether as a test-taker preparing for a screening or a professional pursuing administration credentials - Raven's Jobs and Raven's Training cover both paths, and Raven's Salary Guide and Is the Raven's Certification Worth It? address the ROI question for practitioners.
Raven's Family Versions Compared
"Raven's" is actually a family of related instruments calibrated to different ages and ability levels. Knowing which version applies to your situation prevents wasted prep time.
| Version | Items | Typical Ages | Timing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Coloured Progressive Matrices (CPM) | 36 (Sets A, Ab, B) | ~5 to 11, and older adults | Untimed |
| Standard Progressive Matrices (SPM) | 60 (Sets A-E) | 6 to 16 | ~20 to 45 minutes, untimed |
| SPM Plus | 60 (harder items) | 17+ | ~20 to 45 minutes, untimed |
| Advanced Progressive Matrices (APM) | 48 (Set I: 12, Set II: 36) | Above-average adolescents/adults | 40 to 60 minutes, untimed |
| APM-III (online) | 23, item-banked | Adults (hiring context) | 40 minutes |
| Raven's 2 (2018) | Up to 45-item long form from a 329-item bank | 4 to 90 | Short form ~24 items; long form up to 45 minutes |
Raven's 2 uses an algorithm to assemble each administration from its large item bank, limiting overlap between repeated testing sessions, and applies a six-consecutive-error discontinue rule so examinees aren't forced through items far beyond their ability level.
A Compressed Review Plan Before Test Day
Because Raven's is untimed in most administrations and has no content syllabus to memorize, review time is best spent building pattern-recognition fluency across the five sets rather than cramming facts. A short structured review - even spaced over a few sessions rather than one long cram - helps candidates internalize the reasoning shifts between sets.
Sets A and B
- Practice continuous pattern flows (Set A style)
- Drill figural analogy relationships (Set B style)
Sets C and D
- Work progressive, multi-directional changes (Set C style)
- Practice decomposing and regrouping figure elements (Set D style)
Set E and Timed Practice
- Focus heavily on decomposition and addition-subtraction visual logic
- Simulate the 20-to-45-minute window to build pacing awareness
For a complete week-by-week strategy with more detail on pacing and error review, see Raven's Study Guide. You can also run full-length practice sessions on our practice test platform to simulate the actual item flow before test day.
Common Traps on the Cheat Sheet Itself
Even a one-page summary can mislead candidates if they misread the nuances. Watch for these mix-ups:
- Confusing sets with sections of a different exam. Raven's five sets (A-E) are visual reasoning categories, not knowledge domains you study from a textbook.
- Assuming a fixed pass score exists. There isn't one - only percentile ranks and, for Raven's 2, standard scores.
- Overlooking answer-choice count changes. Early 2x2 items have six choices; later 3x3 items expand to eight, which changes guessing odds late in each set.
- Ignoring Set E prep. Because it requires decomposition and arithmetic-style visual logic, it's disproportionately where scores are won or lost, timed or untimed.
Run through the full domain guide once more if any of these points feel unfamiliar - see Raven's Exam Domains Guide - and use our practice platform to test yourself against realistic item styles before relying on this cheat sheet alone.
Frequently Asked Questions
The SPM contains 60 items total, organized into five sets (A through E) of 12 items each, with each set weighted equally at 20%.
Administration is classically untimed, typically taking roughly 20 to 45 minutes for the SPM, though timed administration is sometimes used specifically to measure intellectual efficiency.
There is no pass/fail score. Results are reported as age-based percentile ranks, and Raven's 2 also provides standard scores with a mean of 100 and standard deviation of 15.
Set E is decisively the hardest, requiring decomposition of figures into constituent parts and addition-subtraction reasoning, and it's where candidates spend the most time or lose the most points.
No. Materials are sold only to Qualification Level B professionals such as psychologists, schools, and employers, so there is no public registration or candidate fee.