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Spatial exercise · ~4 min a run · free

Audio Figure Counting

Listen to a rule, then count the figures that match it.

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Three or four figures are shown, each holding a circle or a square in one hand and either facing you or facing away. A short rule is read out, for example “facing you, left hand, circle”, and you count how many figures match all three parts, then key 0 to 3. The catch is that “left hand” means the figure’s own hand: a figure facing you is mirrored, so its left hand is on your right, while a figure facing away lines up with you, its left hand on your left. Holding the spoken rule while you re-map each figure is the skill. Choose Easy, Medium or Hard to add a fourth figure, bring in closer decoys and tighten the clock.

About this test

What this test measures

Audio figure counting measures a left/right spatial re-mapping held together with working memory and listening. You hear a three-part rule, a facing, a hand and a shape, and count the figures that match it, re-mapping each figure's own hand to the side you actually see: a figure facing you is mirrored, so its left hand is on your right, while a figure facing away lines up with you. Judging left and right on a figure that faces you is the part most people find hard, and doing it from a heard rule loads listening at the same time.

How to improve your score

  • Fix each figure's facing before its hand: facing you is a mirror, so its own left hand is on your right; facing away lines up, so its own left hand is on your left.
  • Do not count by the side of the picture the shape sits on; a figure holding the right shape in the wrong hand is placed to catch exactly that shortcut.
  • Echo the spoken rule back to yourself once before you scan, so a three-part criterion does not drift while you re-map each figure.

Good to know

  • Technique: fix the facing, then the hand

    Do not count by the side of the picture. Take each figure in a fixed order: first decide if it faces you or away, then re-map. Facing you is a mirror, like a person opposite you, so their left hand is on your right; facing away lines up with you, so their left hand is on your left. Only once the hand is re-mapped do you check the shape. Fixing the facing first stops the two mistakes that cost most marks.

  • The trap: the same shape in the other hand

    The most tempting miscount is a figure with the right facing and the right shape but holding it in the OTHER hand, so it sits on the seductive side of the picture. It is not a match. It is placed to catch anyone who counts by where the shape appears instead of re-mapping the hand, and it is exactly why the facing-away figures are worth double-checking.

Frequently asked questions

What does Audio Figure Counting train?

It trains a left/right spatial re-mapping (an own-body transformation) held together with working memory: you re-map a figure’s own hand to the side you see it on, decide whether it matches, and do so while remembering a spoken three-part rule. Judging left and right on a figure that faces you, which is mirrored, is the part most people find hard.

Why is the rule spoken instead of written on screen?

Because that is a real selection format: some batteries read the matching rule out through a headset while you scan a picture, so listening and spatial reasoning are loaded at the same time. Holding the heard rule while you re-map each figure is a distinct skill from reading it, so it is trained here as audio by default.

Is this exercise affiliated with any airline selection test or testing company?

No. This is an original SkyStudy exercise. The figures, the rules and the voice are generated by us, and it is not affiliated with any test publisher, airline or assessment centre, nor does it predict the outcome of a real selection.

I cannot hear anything. Can I still practise?

Yes. Playback uses your browser’s built-in speech, and there is a Show text option and an automatic text fallback when speech is unavailable. The count is scored purely from the figures, so the audio and text paths score identically; the audio version is the target skill and the text is a fallback.

How is it scored?

Your score is the percentage of sets you count exactly right, from 0 to 100. A count that is confirmed after the window closes, or left unconfirmed, counts as wrong, which mirrors the strict answer convention of the real format.

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