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In the mirror

A shape beside a mirror line: which picture is its reflection? The wrong ones are copied, turned, reflected the other way or one cell off.

  • Spatial
  • Timed
  • Endless levels

How it plays

A shape made of squares stands beside a mirror, drawn as a line of │ or ─. Pick the picture that shows what the mirror shows.

An upright mirror swaps left and right but keeps top and bottom; a flat one swaps top and bottom. The wrong pictures are the usual mistakes: the shape copied unchanged, reflected in the other line, turned instead of flipped, or with one square out of place.

Levels grow the shape without end, make the wrong pictures subtler — the other mirror line, then near misses — and shorten the time.

Keys

Space starts and skips ahead · 1–9 pick · Enter submits · Esc stops. On a phone, tap.

What it trains

This practises reflecting a flat shape in a line, as the mirror-image questions of aptitude tests ask. It claims nothing about spatial ability in general.

Learn

How to get better at in the mirror: the method, the techniques, what each new level asks of you, and the traps the wrong answers are made of.

Your approach to each question

  1. Look at the mirror line first: │ upright or ─ flat. An upright mirror swaps left and right and keeps every row where it is; a flat one swaps top and bottom and keeps every column.
  2. Pick one landmark on the shape — the end of its longest arm, or a lone square sticking out — and say where it is: “top row, far left”.
  3. Move only that landmark: in an upright mirror it stays in its row and goes to the other end; in a flat mirror it stays in its column and goes to the other end. Throw out every picture where it is not there.
  4. Check the survivors row by row (upright) or column by column (flat). Near misses differ in just one square, so compare every line, not just the outline.

Techniques and tricks

  • Read each row backwards

    For an upright mirror, the reflection is the same rows in the same order, each read right to left. Say the top row as a pattern of filled and empty, then reverse it.

    e.g. Top row ■■□ becomes □■■; the rows stay in order

  • Stack the rows upside down

    For a flat mirror, the rows themselves do not change — their order does. The bottom row becomes the top row, unchanged inside.

    e.g. Rows ■□□ / ■■■ become ■■■ / ■□□

  • Row counts as a fingerprint

    Count the squares in each row, top to bottom. An upright reflection keeps that list exactly; a flat reflection reverses it. Any picture with a different list is wrong before you look closer.

    e.g. Counts 1, 3, 2: upright gives 1, 3, 2; flat gives 2, 3, 1

  • Copy, turn or reflect?

    Check the landmark’s side against the original. Copied unchanged: same side, same row. Reflected the other way: rows reversed instead of sides. Half turn: both swapped at once.

  • Column counts catch the rest

    A near miss can move a square along its own row, which keeps the row counts. Then count the columns, left to right: an upright reflection reverses that list, a flat one keeps it.

    e.g. Column counts 2, 1, 3: upright gives 3, 1, 2; flat gives 2, 1, 3

As the levels climb

  • The shape gains a square each round of levels, without end, and the box it sits in grows with it. Landmarks matter more as shapes grow; pick one before reading anything else.
  • The wrong pictures get subtler: first plain slips (a copy, a quarter turn, a half turn), then the reflection in the other line leads the wrong ones, then several near misses with one square moved. Against near misses only a row-by-row check works.
  • The clock closes in three steps, to 80%, 65% and 55% of the starting time. Under the tightest clock, use the row-count fingerprint to cut to two pictures, then check those two cell by cell.

Traps to avoid

  • The shape copied as it is, not reflected. It looks right because nothing is out of place — check that the landmark moved to the other side.
  • Reflected in the other line: rows reversed when the mirror is upright, or sides swapped when it is flat. Look at the mirror symbol again before choosing.
  • Turned a quarter instead of reflected: the shape lies on its side. A reflection in an upright or flat mirror never changes the shape’s width or height.
  • Turned half way round: the same as reflecting in both lines at once, so it looks half right. Check the rows that should not have moved.
  • Nearly the reflection, one square out of place. Compare every row (or column) one by one — the outline can look identical.

How to practise

  • Tick only Upright (│) under Mirror lines until it is easy, then only Flat (─), then both, so the mirror symbol must be read every time.
  • Lower Options shown to 2 or 3 while learning the landmark method, then raise it towards 8 so more near misses crowd the answer.
  • Say the row counts aloud for a few rounds, even when the answer is obvious, so the fingerprint is there when the near misses arrive.
  • Read the working after a miss: it names what each wrong picture did — copied, turned, the other line, or one square off — which tells you which check you skipped.

Levels

Each question has a clock that comes from the work it asks for. There is no last level: at least one dial turns without end. Your level is judged on your last ten answers, every ten: 90% moves you up, below 80% moves you down, which holds most people near four in five right.

All of it is in the settings beside Start — how many answers a judgement looks at and how often it recalibrates, the thresholds, the time, which questions, how many options, and whether you see each verdict at once or review them together at the judgement. You can also jump to any level.

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