Thinking Skills · 5 min
Spatial questions love a trap: four shapes that all look alike, where one is secretly a mirror image. Once you can tell a turn from a flip, these become some of the quickest marks on the paper.
The idea
A turn (also called a rotation) spins a shape round. It is still the same shape, just facing a new way. A flip (a reflection, or mirror image) is different. It turns the shape inside out, like a right hand becoming a left hand.
The trap: a flip can look like one more turn. It never is. No amount of turning undoes a flip, and you can prove that to yourself below.
See it: turn it, then flip it
The faint shape on the left never moves. It is the original, for comparison.
This is the shape you started with. Turn it, and watch the dot: it rides round with the shape and never changes which square it sits on.
Tips to remember
Turns keep the hand. Turn your right hand upside down and it is still a right hand. Only a mirror makes it a left hand. Ask: is it still the same hand?
Follow the dot. Pick one small feature, like a dot, a notch or the short arm, and track only that. Ignore the rest of the shape.
Walk it. Walk from the dot to the corner, then on to the foot. Do you turn left or right? A turn never changes the answer. A flip always does.
Mirror means same distance, other side. In a reflection every point lands the same distance from the mirror line, on the opposite side. Check the nearest corner first.
Kill two, then check one. Cross out the options that are plainly wrong, then use “walk it” on the ones left.
The one test that always works: walk it
Start at the dot and walk down to the corner. On the original you turn left to reach the foot. On the mirror image you turn right. However you turn the page, the original always turns left, so any option that turns right is a flip.
The two traps
1.Calling a mirror image “turned”. When the question asks which of several turned shapes is the odd one out, the mirror image is the answer, because it is the only shape that is actually different.
2.Mixing up which mirror. A left–right flip and an upside-down flip are both mirror images, but they are different pictures. Read which one the question asks for.
1. Three of these are the same shape, just turned. One is a mirror image. Which is the odd one out?
2. This shape is turned a half turn (180°). Which option shows it after the turn?
3. A mirror stands to the right of this shape. Which option is its mirror image?
Remember
Turns keep the hand.
Follow the dot.
Walk it.
Mirror means same distance, other side.
Kill two, then check one.
Ready to try it against real exam-style questions?
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