Puzzle Items
In the Puzzle Items section, you’ll be asked to visualize how different objects would come together to make a whole. The prompt box on the left will have several separate shapes. You’ll then mentally assemble them together and choose which of your four answer options on the right is the best match. Puzzle items are one of two item types in the Assembling Objects subtest - the other is connection items, covered in the previous chapter.
Strategies
The main strategy for assembling objects is process of elimination.
First, count the number of fragments, and eliminate any answers with too many or too few.
Second, analyze the types of cuts: smooth, jagged, or curved. Eliminate any answers that don’t match.
Third, look for size differences and easily-identified shapes. Is there a long skinny rectangle? One large triangle? A small rhombus? Eliminate any answer options that don’t match what you’ve identified.
Fourth, remember that pieces can be rotated in the answer choices but not flipped into a mirror image. If an option only fits as a mirror image rather than a rotation, eliminate it.
Let’s look at an example.
Example 1
Let’s use our process-of-elimination steps to solve this puzzle. First, we count the number of shapes in the prompt box. There are five shapes there, so we can eliminate option A, which has four shapes, option C, which has six shapes, and option D, which has four shapes. Because we only have one answer option left (option B), we do not have to go through the other process-of-elimination steps. We can simply stop here and say that the correct answer is B.