Track how the number of visual elements changes across figures.
Free to use and free to share. There is no sign-up, no score, and nothing a child does here is recorded or sent anywhere.
Practise it now
Build the missing piece. Two rules are hiding in this grid - one runs across, one runs down.
This exercise practises track object count alongside its own main skill, Matrix Reasoning.
Loading the interactive exercise. Nothing you do here is saved or scored.
A worked example
One question of the kind this skill is tested with, worked all the way through: the reasoning, and what the wrong answers are there to catch.
Counting the change
Count the first two figures, then see how many the third one needs.
Counting is the only thing that changes here, and it changes by one more dot.
a white shield with 2 dots under it → a white shield with 3 dots under it, so a mid grey shield with 1 dot under it → ?
a dark grey shield with 1 dot under it
a white shield with 3 dots under it
a mid grey shield with 3 dots under it
a mid grey shield with 2 dots under it
Answer: a mid grey shield with 2 dots under it
How you get there
The only thing that changes between the first two figures is how many there are: a white shield with 2 dots under it becomes a white shield with 3 dots under it, so the change is one more dot. Making the same change to a mid grey shield with 1 dot under it gives a mid grey shield with 2 dots under it.
Why the other answers tempt
Check whether the number went up or down between the first two figures. Going the wrong way is the commonest slip.
If they are stuck, say this
Work out how many were added or taken away between the first two figures, then do exactly that to the third.
Build the missing piece. Two rules are hiding in this grid - one runs across, one runs down.
This engine’s own main skill is Matrix Reasoning. It practises track object count alongside it.
A matrix hides one rule per direction. Across the rows, the shape stays the same - star, moon, diamond. Down the columns, the count climbs 1, 2, 3 and the fill goes outline, striped, solid. The missing cell sits where row 3 meets column 3, so it must obey both at once: three solid diamonds.
What to say if they get stuck
Read one row at a time, left to right. What never changes along a row?
Now read one column at a time, top to bottom. Two things change as you move across the columns.
Row 3 is the diamond row. Column 3 always holds three shapes, filled in solid.
Scrub the timeline to feel what the pattern is doing, then drag the frame that comes next into the empty slot.
This engine’s own main skill is Sequences. It practises track object count alongside it.
Hard sequences run two rules at the same time, so you have to track them separately. Here the arrows turn 45° further every frame (0°, 45°, 90°, 135°…) and the number of arrows climbs by one every frame (1, 2, 3, 4…). Frame five must obey both: five arrows, turned to 180°.
What to say if they get stuck
Drag the handle slowly. Watch the arrows turn - how far do they swing between one frame and the next?
Now stop watching the turn and count the arrows instead. Something else is growing.
Two rules run at once: the turn adds 45° each frame, and one more arrow joins each time.
The 11+ does not test these skills in isolation, and practising one in the wrong order wastes the practice. These are the skills the curriculum map connects this one to.
How track object count differs from the skills beside it
The same exercise practises several skills, and telling them apart is often the difficulty rather than the exercise itself. On this page the skill is: track how the number of visual elements changes across figures, and it stops where count is the target attribute; shape identity is secondary.
Apply a repeated visual change to select the next figure. One repeated rule only.
Questions parents ask about track object count
Answered from what the skill map records about this skill, not from a template. Every answer here is on the page, and the same questions are the page's FAQ structured data.
Track how the number of visual elements changes across figures. It is one of 22 named non-verbal reasoning skills in the 11+, in the attribute strand, and this page carries 2 interactive exercises that practise it.
Check whether the number went up or down between the first two figures. Going the wrong way is the commonest slip. The wrong answers on this skill are built out of that, not out of random numbers, so it is worth naming out loud before your child meets it under time pressure.
Point at the next move rather than explaining the whole rule. Work out how many were added or taken away between the first two figures, then do exactly that to the third.
The skill map draws the line here: Count is the target attribute; shape identity is secondary. A question past that line is testing a different named non-verbal reasoning skill, which is worth knowing before you spend a week practising the wrong one.
The skill map connects it to complete a visual series. A visual series may compose a count-change rule. That skill has its own page here.
Use Matrix Machine and Sequence Scrubber, embedded on this page. They are the exercises the skill map attaches to track object count, they run in the browser with no account to make, nothing is scored, and nothing a child does here is recorded or sent anywhere. Each also has its own link, so you can send one to a child without sending them anywhere else first.
Non-verbal reasoning is the paper families most often leave until last
A free diagnostic covers matrices, series, odd one out, rotation, reflection and the 3D questions, and shows where the time is worth spending.
