# Spatial Ability Improvment?



## howitzer89 (13 Jun 2011)

So before my CFAT I did online IQ tests as well as the United States Military practice tests. I had my recently and I got 3 more questions wrong that I was allowed in 
order to be accepted into the job I really wanted. The captain at the recruiting center told me most of the wrong answers came from my Spatial section, 2nd test.

Does anyone here know any tricks or advice on how to get  better at these sorts of questions. I know I can't discuss the test outside of the office but I'm just looking for
tips so when I go to rewrite the test I'll do well. 

After doing this test, I learned I really need to start reading more books. Never thought our English language had so many words I've never heard of.


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## Nauticus (13 Jun 2011)

howitzer89 said:
			
		

> So before my CFAT I did online IQ tests as well as the United States Military practice tests. I had my recently and I got 3 more questions wrong that I was allowed in
> order to be accepted into the job I really wanted. The captain at the recruiting center told me most of the wrong answers came from my Spatial section, 2nd test.
> 
> Does anyone here know any tricks or advice on how to get  better at these sorts of questions. I know I can't discuss the test outside of the office but I'm just looking for
> ...


Take the CFAT practice tests online. I'm not sure an IQ test is necessarily relevant, and I'm not familiar with the US Military tests so I don't know if they contain the same information.


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## chrisf (13 Jun 2011)

This might sound silly, and might not work, depending on what you had trouble with as far as spatial recognition, but.... play with legos...

I tutored a few people through an "engineering graphics" course a while back, the problems they were having was with changing 3d drawings into 2d sectional views, and 2d sectional views into 3d drawings... I had them build each of the drawings (They were all just basic drawings, mostly cubes), so they could see the transition from 2d to 3d. It worked for them.


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## Sample2K7 (13 Jun 2011)

I absolutely agree with Sig Op. I played with lego since I was two years old and all through my childhood. Building with and without instructions. When I did my aptitude test about a month and a half ago i breezed through the spatial ability section with enough time to double check all my answers.


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## Good2Golf (13 Jun 2011)

Grab a Rubik's cube and try to solve it...you start to get a feeling for what is on the other side of the cube while you're working it.

Cheers
G2G


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## howitzer89 (13 Jun 2011)

thanks a lot guys, the lego idea/ rubics cube sounds like a great idea. When I was doing the test, I knew where some of the parts would match up but I just couldn't put 
it together in my head. I didn't know there were practice tests online I'll have to check those out, I only did the one that was given to me in my package but it was no 
where close to what the real one was like lol.

I don't mind having to do the test again, It's going to be a great sense of accomplishment if I can manage to get into what I want.


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## HavokFour (13 Jun 2011)

Posted this a while ago. It's a team based game made by the Swedish Armed Forces.

http://team.forsvarsmakten.se/english/


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## astecki (13 Jun 2011)

Wow...not sure what I was replying to.  Disregard.


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## Ex-Dragoon (13 Jun 2011)

howitzer89....there are plenty of threads regarding drug use...your thread post was binned as it had nothing to do with the topic. now start using the search function (go to the index page and type "drugs" and then tell me you cannot find anything on drugs).

Milnet.Ca Staff


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## howitzer89 (13 Jun 2011)

my apologies, however I did type in "drugs" and nothing came up, maybe something is going on with the forums. I'll try again later.


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## astecki (13 Jun 2011)

Thank god those posts came in...I had typed and posted a reply to his question only to find when it was posted there was no indication of the post I was replying to!  Glad I'm not going nuts (or on drugs )


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## howitzer89 (13 Jun 2011)

any chance your bored and wanna pm me with what you said if it's usefull? :nod:

I tried using the search function again and nothing came up. Tried google too and all that came up was " Canadian Forces personal choose weed as a drug choice" sooo 
dont think that will help me lol


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## Romanmaz (13 Jun 2011)

There's lots of little tricks like counting faces,edges,vertices. Try looking for differences instead of similarities, if all else fails start doing origami.  :nod:

*edit* Huh, were did the drug topic come from? ???


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## Ex-Dragoon (13 Jun 2011)

howitzer89 said:
			
		

> any chance your bored and wanna pm me with what you said if it's usefull? :nod:
> 
> I tried using the search function again and nothing came up. Tried google too and all that came up was " Canadian Forces personal choose weed as a drug choice" sooo
> dont think that will help me lol



Hows your googlefoo?
In your search bar type"site: army.ca drugs


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## howitzer89 (13 Jun 2011)

nothing came up. forget it


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## chrisf (13 Jun 2011)

Nothing? I got "About 148,000,000 results (0.16 seconds) " (That was for "site: army.ca drugs", fix to "site:army.ca drugs" for 1510 results)


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## Romanmaz (13 Jun 2011)

a Sig Op said:
			
		

> Nothing? I got "About 148,000,000 results (0.16 seconds) " (That was for "site: army.ca drugs", fix to "site:army.ca drugs" for 1510 results)


http://tinyurl.com/3kkwehk  -Just incase he didn't believe you.... :nod:


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## howitzer89 (14 Jun 2011)

weird, i didn't get the same results as you did, I got a bunch but they wern't related to our military. Thanks


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## Michael OLeary (14 Jun 2011)

Start here:

Google site specific search: site:army.ca drugs


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## turtlerace79 (14 Jun 2011)

On the topic of the Spatial Ability Testing, I borrowed a few books from my local library. These gave me a variety of spatial practice tests that appear on many aptitude exams. I found that doing a set of similar puzzles or tests allowed me to improve my scores and come up with different ways to look at the problems. My best advice would be to practice these tests until you can easily manipulate 3-d images. 

As for the other topic that seems to be coming up... Don't Do Drugs!  :blotto:


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## chrisf (16 Jun 2011)

Someone automated the process! Finally!

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=site:army.ca+aptitude+test


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## zakiuz (16 Jun 2011)

Origami can help you too.


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## Charles (16 Jun 2011)

After recently completing my CFAT, I agree with zakiuz in that origami could be a great way to practice. I am mostly a kinesthetic learner, so this type of practice works well for me.


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## Eastcoaster03 (21 Jun 2011)

Practice online. Also make sure you examine the parts of the pictures very carefully. Take notice to what is where because the location of lines/images/objects can make it easy to break down 4 possible answers into 2. Its a lot easier to get down to two items fast because then it gives you the time to focus on the smaller differences.


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## M_M (9 Nov 2011)

Video games! It might appeal more to some than orgami; people tend to give up on tasks that require more patience and fine motor skills. 

Scientists use video gamers to help them solve/unlock complex protein structures because they have awesome spatial sense, see article below.

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2393200,00.asp


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## JMacNavy (17 Nov 2011)

I would tend to agree with the CFAT. If your lacking spacial ability and then you proceed to chose Weapons Tech or Vehicle Tech, you will probably struggle with many of the tests on your trades courses. I advice you to talk to a recruiter and see what trades you are compatible with and then go from there. As a former weapons tech who is spacial challenged, I ended up memorizing how the damn thing went back together.


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## cippo (15 Mar 2012)

Hi, I had a question for those who have written the CFAT.

Would the examples found here: http://www.fibonicci.com/spatial-reasoning/test/hard/ ; be a good example of the level of difficulty/ complexity found on Spatial reasoning section of the CFAT test.  

Thank you in advance.


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## PMedMoe (16 Mar 2012)

cippo said:
			
		

> Would the examples found here: http://www.fibonicci.com/spatial-reasoning/test/hard/ ; be a good example of the level of difficulty/ complexity found on Spatial reasoning section of the CFAT test.



It's been a while, but I'd say those examples are more difficult than what's on the CFAT.


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## MKos (9 Apr 2012)

I missed my CFAT the first time too, now I didn't do poorly in spatial, but it saved me on my second go-through, And honestly I would give the same advice as everyone else, play with LEGO, look at things around you and think how you could seperate it and build it again in a map-like form, I also when I wrote the test, tried to think more like the Military, then how I would approach it, I know it sounds weird, but I guess think of "looking at the world a little differently" or like an ant would see....Hope this sort of inspired you!

GOOD LUCK!


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