How to do better at spatial span tasks
Spatial span: one path, not seven squares
Cells light up in order, then the grid goes blank. Hold the sequence as one traced shape, and every question about it can be read back off the shape.
Updated
Three to seven cells flash one after another on a small grid, the grid goes blank — and only then does the question land. It varies: which cell was third, which cell lit after a named one, the whole path in reverse, how many cells lit, which cell never lit, how many lit in one row — and at the top difficulties, the path as it would look rotated or mirrored. You cannot know which is coming, so the job is always the same: store the path faithfully, then transform it at answer time.
Trace one line
Do not store the cells as separate positions — trace them as ONE continuous line and hold the shape. Three or four chunks is the practical ceiling of what you can hold, so a long path has to become two or three strokes, not seven separate squares.
Say the moves
Name each hop under your breath as it happens — 'down, right, up-left'. The spoken track carries half the load in verbal memory, where it does not compete with the visual store. Between the traced shape and the muttered directions, most questions answer themselves.
Transform at answer time
For 'the path in reverse', walk your traced line backwards. For rotations and mirrors, turn or flip the SHAPE you stored, then read the cells off it — do not try to memorize transformed positions during the flash. Answers name cells as R2C3 — row 2, column 3 — so translate your shape back into rows and columns only at the end.
The strategy
- Eyes on the grid before the run starts; catch the first cell cleanly.
- Trace, don't collect — one line through all the cells.
- Mutter the moves as they happen.
- Hold the shape through the blank; re-derive whatever is asked from it.
Common traps
- Reading an option with row and column swapped — R2C3 is not R3C2.
- Answering the cell one tap early or one tap late on 'which was third?'.
- A neighbouring cell that 'feels' right — the wrong options sit next to the true cell on purpose.
- Rotating the grid the wrong way, or mirroring when asked to rotate.
- Counting the never-lit cell question as a search — check your shape's gaps instead.
Speed · ~50s/item: Roughly 30–75 seconds per item. Spatial-span items do appear on scored mock tests — at a modest weight — so the tracing habit carries straight over.
Worked example
Four cells, one stroke: right, down, down. Trace the line and mutter the moves — 'which cell lit third?' then reads straight off the shape: row 2, column 2.
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