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Turn it in your head

A pixel shape: which picture is the same shape turned, not flipped? Mirror images and near shapes stand in the way, and the shapes keep growing.

  • Spatial
  • Timed
  • Endless levels

How it plays

You see a shape made of squares. Below it are several pictures; exactly one is that shape turned — a quarter turn either way or a half turn. The others are its mirror image, turned, or the shape with one square moved.

A mirror image cannot be reached by turning: you would have to lift the shape and flip it over. So the test is to turn the shape in your mind until it lands on a picture, and to notice when no turn ever will.

Levels add squares to the shape without end, then make the wrong pictures mirror images, then shorten the time. Another format shows two shapes side by side and asks only: turned, or mirror image?

Keys

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

What it trains

This practises mental rotation of flat pixel shapes, which gets faster with practice on shapes like these. It claims nothing about spatial ability in general.

Learn

How to get better at turn it in your head: 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. Find two landmarks on the shape: its longest arm, and something off to one side of it — a foot, a bump, a lone square.
  2. Travel along the arm towards the bump, as if walking it, and note whether you turn left or right to step onto the bump.
  3. In each picture, walk the same arm towards the same bump. The same turn means the picture is the shape turned; the opposite turn means a mirror image, whatever angle it lies at.
  4. For the pictures that pass, check the rest of the squares against the original. A near shape has one square moved, so the landmarks can match while one square does not.

Techniques and tricks

  • The side test

    Turning the shape never changes whether you turn left or right as you walk along it onto a feature; flipping always does. This one check splits turns from mirror images at any angle.

    e.g. L ■□ / ■□ / ■■: walk down the bar and you turn left, onto the foot. In the mirror image □■ / □■ / ■■ you turn right

  • Width and height tell the turn

    A quarter turn swaps the shape’s width and height; a half turn keeps them. Compare the boxes first, then you know which turn to picture.

    e.g. A 3-tall, 2-wide shape lies 2 tall and 3 wide after a quarter turn

  • Quarter right: top row to right column

    Turned a quarter clockwise, the top row becomes the right-hand column, its left end at the top; the left column becomes the top row, read from right to left.

    e.g. L ■□ / ■□ / ■■ becomes ■■■ / ■□□

  • Half turn: read it upside down

    A half turn puts the bottom row on top, each row read backwards. The bottom-right square becomes the top-left.

    e.g. L ■□ / ■□ / ■■ becomes ■■ / □■ / □■

  • Mirror image: read each row backwards

    For the “Turned or mirror image?” question, flip the left shape left to right in your head; if that version, turned, can land on the right shape, the answer is mirror image.

    e.g. L ■□ / ■□ / ■■ flipped is □■ / □■ / ■■

  • Turn the short way

    Do not spin the shape through every angle. Use the box to guess the turn, picture only that one, and check two landmarks. A quarter left is the same as three quarters right.

As the levels climb

  • The shape gains a square each round of levels, without end. More squares mean more places for the one moved square of a near shape, so check the whole shape, not only the landmarks.
  • Then the wrong pictures become mirror images — three of them, at different angles — so you cannot spot the odd outline. The side test is the tool here: it takes one look per picture.
  • The clock closes in three steps, to 80%, 65% and 55% of the starting time. Under the tight clock, run the side test first on every picture, then spend the time left on the one or two that pass.

Traps to avoid

  • The mirror image at the right angle: it has the answer’s width, height and general look, but flipped. Only the side test catches it.
  • A near shape: one square moved. It passes the side test and the box test, so give every picture that passes a square-by-square check.
  • Turning the right way by the wrong amount: picturing a quarter turn when the box says half. Compare width and height before you picture anything.
  • In “Turned or mirror image?”, calling a shape flipped because it looks unfamiliar at a new angle. Turn it before you judge; a turn can make a shape look very different.

How to practise

  • Under Turns asked about, tick only “Half turn” at first — it is the easiest to picture — then add the quarter turns.
  • Set Question to “Turned or mirror image?” for a few rounds to drill the side test on its own, then go back to “Pick the turned shape”, or use “Both, mixed”.
  • Raise Options shown towards 8 to face more mirror images and near shapes at once; every extra option is one more picture the side test must clear.
  • When you miss, read the working: it names which pictures were mirror images and which had a square moved — the first means you skipped the side test, the second the final check.

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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