Raven's Progressive Matrices: how it differs from workplace assessments

Raven's Progressive Matrices has a longer history than almost any other test on this list — it was designed in the 1930s as a culture-fair, language-free measure of abstract reasoning, and it's still used today in contexts ranging from psychological assessment to job screening. If you've been told to expect a 'Raven's-style' test, it's worth knowing what makes the original distinctive.

Why it was designed this way. Raven's was built specifically to minimise dependence on language, education, or cultural background — every question is a grid of abstract figures governed by a rule, with one piece missing, and you choose the completion from several options. No vocabulary, no numbers, no assumed background knowledge. That design goal is exactly why it became a template that so many later workplace assessments (Matrigma, Talent Q's logical reasoning section, and others) borrowed from.

Standard vs. Advanced versions. The Standard Progressive Matrices (SPM) is the more common, general-purpose version; the Advanced Progressive Matrices (APM) is harder and more discriminating at the high end, often used when an employer wants to differentiate among already-strong candidates. Classic administrations are sometimes untimed, though workplace and online versions typically apply a time limit more in line with other assessments on this list.

How it differs from a workplace-specific test. Where Matrigma, SHL, or CCAT are commercial products built for hiring, tuned with modern item banks and often supplemented with decoy elements or multi-rule complexity, Raven's classic item sets lean toward cleaner, single-rule puzzles at the easier end, with genuine difficulty concentrated in the later items of the Advanced version. If you've only trained on multi-rule 'complex' puzzles, a classic Raven's-style test can initially feel simpler — don't let that lull you; the later items in the Advanced set are deliberately difficult.

How to prepare. Because the core skill — spotting a rule across a grid and applying it to find the missing piece — is identical across Raven's and every modern workplace variant, practice transfers directly both ways. If your test is explicitly described as Raven's or 'Raven's-style', spend proportionally more time on single, cleanly-isolated rules (progression, rotation, frequency) since that's where the bulk of the item bank sits, before moving to harder multi-rule practice.

Raven's Progressive Matrices is associated with Pearson as a current publisher of official editions. Job Prepper is an independent practice platform and isn't affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to Pearson or any official publisher of Raven's Progressive Matrices.