Follow one thing on paper: what you see, where it goes after a turn or a flip, where a face lands when folded. Don't turn the whole shape in your head.
Spatial Reasoning: Position and Routes
Methods in this video
Tap a time to jump to where the video teaches that method.
- 1
Where are you standing? One clue, one stroke
When to use it: A list of compass clues (A is north of B, C is north-east of D, Alan is facing south-east and is looking at Carla), often with no diagram, and you must work out where several people or places are, then say who is in a given direction from a point, or which way someone faces.
- For every clue, ask where you are standing: it is the point after the word of.
- Place the point that comes up most, or the one with only one possible spot, then add one stroke per clue.
- Stand on the point in the question and draw a cross: on the line means due north or due east, and north-east means both north and east, inside that corner.
- 2
Two counts: north–south and east–west
When to use it: A list of moves north, east, south and west, with some going back on themselves, and the question asks which square you end on, how far you are from the start, which direction you are from it, or which route gets there.
- Keep two counts: north take away south, east take away west.
- How far from the start comes from those two counts, not from the distance walked.
- With many moves, pair them up; you never need to trace the route, even when the start is off the map.
Practise exam-style questions with these methods
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