How can I spot patterns more easily in Abstract Reasoning, when the shapes seem random?

If you're struggling to spot patterns in the shapes on an abstract reasoning question, try to remember the few key ways the question writers tend to make a relationship between the two "sets", or pictures in the sets:Numbers: how many shapes? how many sides do they have? are the numbers even or odd? do they change in a set pattern?Direction: do the shapes "point" in a particular direction e.g. rectangles are portrait and diamonds are landscape?Symmetry: do shapes have a particular number of lines of symmetry e.g. grey triangles have a line of symmetry, white ones don't?Colours: are any of the shapes shaded? what do shapes of a certain colour have in common?Position: are certain shapes always touching the edges e.g. vertical arrows always do, horizontal ones don't? are certain shapes in the top or bottom half of the box only?Finally, remember that these patterns will often be combined to make harder questions, like boxes with 3 horizontal arrows that touch the edges, so that the patterns aren't immediately obvious. If the pattern doesn't jump out at you on a question like this, don't be tempted to sit and stare at it - flag it and move on, the next question could be obvious.