Objective: Mentally unfold a hole-punched sheet of paper and pick the option showing where all the holes end up.
How to read the diagrams:
- The dashed square outline is the full sheet of paper; the solid shaded shape is the paper in its current folded state
- Each panel shows one fold: the yellow arrow shows which half folds over, and the dashed line is the crease
- The last panel shows the fully folded paper with holes punched through all layers
- Pick the option (A–D) showing the unfolded sheet with every hole in the right place
How the holes multiply:
- Each fold doubles the layers, so each unfold mirrors every hole across that crease
- With one punch, 1 fold makes 2 holes, 2 folds make 4, and 3 folds make 8. If there are two punch holes, those totals double
Tips:
- Work backwards: undo the last fold first, mirroring the holes across its crease, then the fold before it
- Watch out for options that mirror across the wrong crease or shift holes instead of mirroring them — these are the classic traps
- This format appears in real aptitude tests (DAT, military and technical entrance exams), so it's useful exam practice as well as spatial training