The sitting
| Items | 36, in three sets of 12: A, Ab, B (Pearson) |
| Time | untimed; fifteen to thirty minutes, individual or group (Pearson) |
| Options | six per item (third party; consistent with the literature's six to eight) |
| Ink | colour; the last items of Set B black on white |
| Forms | a book form, and a board form with movable pieces, proved equivalent |
| Order | fixed: A, then Ab, then B, rising in difficulty within each set |
How it starts
Individually or in a group, from a booklet or a board. The administrator can explain the task by pointing: this pattern has a piece missing, which of these is it. There is no clock in the room by design; the literature is explicit that timing a Raven’s reduces the validity of its scores, and Pearson’s pages say untimed on every form.
What to expect from set to set
Set A feels like a jigsaw: look at the texture and carry it across the gap. Set Ab turns the page into separate figures and asks which one belongs. Set B introduces the 2x2: the top row shows a change, the bottom row must show the same change. Difficulty rises inside each set, so the last items of each are the ones to slow down for.
Sources: Pearson Clinical UK, CPM product page (items, time, population); Yang et al. 2023 (forms, colour, timing and validity); the six options are third-party. Read 2026-09-21. This is independent practice material. It is not a Pearson product and uses none of Raven's items. Figures come from Pearson's own pages and the primary literature; where only third parties state a figure, the text says so.