Standard Progressive Matrices (SPM) Test
The Standard Progressive Matrices (SPM) is the classic black-and-white version of Raven's Progressive Matrices: 60 items in five sets, non-verbal, and designed for children through general adults. This page provides a free SPM-structured practice set.
Disclaimer
This test is for educational and self-reflection purposes only. It is not a diagnostic tool. If you are experiencing mental health concerns, please consult a qualified healthcare professional.
How the practice set is organised
| Set | Items |
|---|---|
| Set A | 12 |
| Set B | 12 |
| Set C | 12 |
| Set D | 12 |
| Set E | 12 |
The published SPM contains 60 items in five sets of twelve. The practice bank on this page follows that grouping.
What Is the Standard Progressive Matrices (SPM) Test?
The Standard Progressive Matrices (SPM) is the classic black-and-white version of Raven's Progressive Matrices. Each item shows a matrix of abstract figures with one piece missing, and your task is to choose the option that completes the pattern.
It was first published in 1938 by John C. Raven, and it is deliberately non-verbal: no reading, no writing and no spoken answer is required. That is why it has been used across language groups and cultural settings where a verbal test would be harder to justify.
The word progressive describes the structure rather than the score. Items get harder as you move through the test, so the same set of items can give useful information across a wide range of ability.
Format: 60 Items in Five Sets (A–E)
The published SPM contains 60 items arranged in five sets — A, B, C, D and E — of twelve items each. The sets are not parallel forms; they are a staircase, and that ascending structure is where the name comes from.
Set A opens with items most people solve in seconds. By Set E, several rules have to be combined at once. The easy sets give a floor and the hard sets give a ceiling, which is why the SPM can be given to a child and to a capable adult with the same instrument.
The practice set on this page follows the same five-set grouping. Items come from a locally generated bank built from the rule families that appear in matrix reasoning items — counting progressions, rotation, union and subtraction of elements, size and fill alternation, and relational combinations — so you can work through the format without depending on any external image host.
Who Takes the SPM Test?
The SPM is designed for children through general adults. It sits in the middle of the family: the Coloured Progressive Matrices below it, built for younger children, and the Advanced Progressive Matrices above it, built for higher-ability adolescents and adults.
Because it requires no reading and no spoken response, it has been used in cognitive research, in educational settings, in clinical assessment, and in some hiring or selection contexts where reasoning about unfamiliar problems matters more than prior knowledge.
One consequence is worth understanding before you read anything into a score: because interpretation runs against age-based norms, the same raw score means different things at different ages. A raw score on its own is not directly comparable across ages.
How the SPM Is Scored
A raw score on the SPM is simply the number of items answered correctly — one point per item, with no penalty for wrong answers and no item weighted more heavily than another. The published test reports a raw score plus a percentile rank, obtained by comparing that raw score against an age-appropriate norm group.
The full conversion tables belong to the professional administration manual rather than to an open document. That is why the official tables are not freely distributable, and why any score chart you find elsewhere should be treated as informal reference rather than an authority.
The practice set on this page does not produce a percentile or an IQ-style score. It reports accuracy and the number of items answered, and nothing more. A practice score is not a test result and should not be read as one.
SPM vs APM vs CPM: Which Version Applies to You?
The three versions of Raven's Progressive Matrices share the same kind of puzzle and differ in difficulty, item count, and the population they were calibrated for. The Coloured version is built for young children and is also used with older and cognitively impaired test-takers. The Standard version covers children through general adults. The Advanced version targets higher-ability adolescents and adults.
A common reason people find a Raven's test either far too easy or unfairly hard is that they sat the wrong version. For an adult testing themselves for the first time, the Standard version is the usual starting point; if the Standard set feels comfortably easy, the Advanced set is the next step; for young children, the Coloured version is the right entry point.
On this site the three versions are separate practice pages, so that each one can describe its own format, item structure and scoring instead of sharing a single generic page.
Raven Progressive Matrices (RPM) IQ Test
Coloured Progressive Matrices (CPM)
Advanced Progressive Matrices (APM)
References
- Raven, J. C. (1941). Standardization of progressive matrices, 1938. British Journal of Medical Psychology, 19(1), 137-150.
Frequently Asked Questions
Have another question? Let us know.
What is the Standard Progressive Matrices (SPM) test?
It is the classic black-and-white version of Raven's Progressive Matrices, first published in 1938. It contains 60 non-verbal items in five sets of twelve, with difficulty rising from Set A to Set E. Each item shows a matrix with a missing piece, and the task is to select the option that completes the pattern.
Is the SPM an IQ test?
The published SPM reports a raw score and a percentile rank — it does not print an IQ score. It is best described as a non-verbal estimate of fluid intelligence: one strand of cognitive ability rather than a complete IQ profile. Scores become comparable to IQ-style metrics only after standardisation against the relevant norms.
Is Raven's Progressive Matrices a good IQ test?
It has a long research history and is widely used where a language-free measure of reasoning is needed. It is also deliberately narrow: non-verbal, visual, and focused on abstract reasoning. That narrowness is what makes it fair across language groups, and it is also why it should never be read as a complete picture of someone's cognitive ability.
Is there a free Raven's Progressive Matrices IQ test available?
There are free practice tests online, and this page is one of them — but the distinction matters. The published Raven tests are professionally licensed and administered under controlled conditions with official norm tables. Free online versions are practice tools: they let you work with the item format and see how you perform, but they cannot give you an official score. If you need one, it has to come from a qualified administrator using the published test.
What is the SPM age range?
The Standard Progressive Matrices is designed for children through general adults. It sits between the Coloured Progressive Matrices, built for children from about five to eleven years, and the Advanced Progressive Matrices, built for higher-ability adolescents and adults. Because scoring runs against age-based norms, the same raw score is interpreted differently at different ages.
How many items are in the SPM?
60 items, organised into five sets — A, B, C, D and E — of twelve items each. One point per correct answer and no penalty for wrong answers, so the raw score range is 0 to 60. The sets are not interchangeable: A is the easiest and E the hardest, and that progression is deliberate.
Is the SPM timed?
The published SPM is normally untimed, with completion typically running around 20 to 45 minutes. Timing changes what the test measures: under an untimed administration you can work each item through, whereas a strict time limit shifts the emphasis towards processing speed. Some selection contexts impose a limit anyway, which is a different thing from the test's own format. The practice set on this page has no time limit.
Can I download SPM practice questions as a PDF?
No — and we would rather say that plainly than send you looking. This page provides online practice only; there is no PDF download. Matrix items need to be answered by selecting among options, and a static page of images loses the interaction that makes practice useful. Third-party SPM PDF collections circulating online are frequently incomplete or not what they claim to be.
