Planning Results

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puzzles solved in the minimum number of moves

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What Does the Tower of London Test Train?

Planning before acting

The Tower of London Test trains your ability to work out a full sequence of moves in your head before you touch anything. Every puzzle has a shortest possible solution, and repeated practice pushes you toward finding it first time. People who plan first tend to solve puzzles in the minimum number of moves. People who start moving immediately usually reach the goal too, but with extra moves along the way, and that gap narrows the more you play.

Separating thinking time from doing time

This planning training splits your time into two numbers. Plan time is how long you look at the puzzle before your first move. Execution time is how long the moves themselves take. Comparing the two shows your natural style: some people think long and move once, others think little and correct as they go.

Working memory under rules

Because each peg holds a different number of balls, you have to hold both the goal picture and the rules in mind at the same time. Carrying that load repeatedly is what makes this executive function training rather than a simple puzzle. If you want a purely memory-focused version of that load, the N-Back Test isolates it.

Who Benefits from This Test?

Students and exam candidates

Planning tasks appear in psychology courses, neuropsychology reading, and some aptitude batteries. Working through a live version of the Tower of London Test makes the concept concrete in a way a textbook diagram cannot. Students revising executive function topics can see for themselves why extra moves, not failures, are the number that matters.

People in planning-heavy jobs

Project managers, schedulers, chefs running several dishes at once, logistics staff, software developers, surgeons, and anyone who has to sequence steps in a fixed order will recognise the demand here. In all of these roles the cost of a bad plan is rework, and rework is exactly what extra moves represent.

People who feel they rush into things

If you often start a task and then have to backtrack, this planning ability test gives you a number for that tendency and a way to work on it. A low plan time paired with a high extra-move count is a clear pattern, and seeing it repeated across puzzles is more convincing than a general feeling. The Stroop Test trains a related kind of self-control, the ability to hold back an automatic response.

Puzzle and strategy players

Chess players, strategy gamers, and puzzle solvers are usually strong here because they already think several moves ahead by habit. For them the interest is in the harder settings, where eight-move minimums require holding a longer chain in mind. Anyone who enjoys this format will also enjoy the classic Tower of Hanoi, which uses a disc-stacking rule instead of peg capacities, and Rush Hour, where the plan is a sequence of car slides.

Older adults tracking their own thinking

Planning is one of the abilities people notice changing first. Because this test saves your recent sessions, you can train regularly and compare your own results over months rather than guessing. It sits alongside the rest of the brain training tools on this site as a repeatable self-check rather than a one-off score.

Real-World Applications

Everyday sequencing

Packing a suitcase, loading a dishwasher, planning a route with three errands, or cooking a meal where things finish at the same time are all small versions of this puzzle. Each has a shortest path and many longer ones. The habit of pausing to picture the end state before starting transfers directly.

Work that cannot be undone cheaply

In some jobs a wrong move costs real time: cutting material, migrating data, arranging a delivery schedule, or setting up equipment. The test rewards exactly the behaviour those situations demand, which is thinking the order through once rather than adjusting repeatedly.

Noticing your own style

The most useful thing to train is often not the score but the split between plan time and execution time. Once you know which side you lean on, you can adjust deliberately in real tasks. The Trail Making Test gives a complementary picture, showing how quickly you switch between two rules under time pressure.

How to Get the Most from This Test

Start at Standard

Easy puzzles need three or four moves and are solved almost by sight. Standard is where planning starts to matter. Move to Hard once you are regularly finding the minimum.

Use the move limit

Turning the move limit on stops you from solving puzzles by trial and error. It is the single quickest way to force real planning.

Compare like with like

Keep the same difficulty and puzzle count when you check your progress, since results from different settings are not directly comparable.

🏗️Tower of London Test

Planning Results