Grid Gap

How it is scored

Solve as many as you can in the six minutes. A correct answer scores a point, a wrong one costs a point, and nothing caps the total.

The 9 levels are the difficulty, not the score. Right moves you up to a harder grid, wrong moves you down to an easier one, and every level pays the same point. The bottom is a four by four where one line already holds every other shape; the top is a five by five with a handful of squares shown, where two or three other blanks have to be settled before the question mark gives way.

How to read a grid fast

Start at the question mark, not the corner. List what its row is missing, strike out what its column already holds, and most grids are done. If two shapes are left, ask where else each could go in that row or column: a shape blocked from every other blank has to be yours. Only then start filling other squares, and fill the line with the fewest blanks first.

What is published and what is ours

Aon's own practice document fixes the format: four by four or five by five, blanks and one question mark, no repeats in a row or column, the shapes offered under the grid, working allowed in the blank squares, a timed test with no set number of questions that gets harder as you go. Aon's candidate page puts the clock at six minutes, which is ours too. On marking Aon says points are added for each correct answer and deducted for each wrong one, and publishes no weights, so we charge a wrong answer exactly what a right one pays. Assume nothing about the size of the real deduction from that choice.