The following is an explanation for QUESTION 5 from our Free Wonderlic Test. The strategy listed below is just one of many from my online course, which has helped thousands of people beat their Wonderlic test and land their dream job.

Patterns (series questions) on the Wonderlic test.

You will be asked to recognize a pattern within a given set of numbers and then identify a missing number within that set of numbers by applying the pattern.

Pattern questions are one of those things that you simply get better at with time.

The more you practice and the more pattern types you are exposed to, the more easily and quickly you can recognize them (COUGH – my self-paced online Wonderlic course includes 5 full tests – COUGH).

Excuse me…that was weird.

That being said, we do have a strategy that you can apply to help you efficiently recognize patterns in the case where you have difficulty distinguishing one.

Let’s walk through question 5 from the free Wonderlic practice test together.

1. Look at the first two numbers in the series.

If you do not recognize the pattern, just analyze the first two numbers in the series.

How do you get from 122 to 109?

Since the pattern is decreasing, I assume we need to subtract:

122 – 109 = 13

So, we can get from the first number in the pattern to the second number by subtracting 13.

2. Check by applying this operation to the next numbers in the pattern.

We now see if subtracting 13 from 109 will get us to 96.

If it does, then we know that our pattern is to subtract 13 from the previous number.

109 – 13 = 96

It works!

Subtracting 13 from 109 gets us to the next number in our pattern, 96.

3. Apply the operation to find the missing number in the sequence.

Now that we know that the pattern tells us to subtract each number by 13 to get the following number, we simply need to apply this operation to the final number in order to get the missing number in the sequence.

70 – 13 = 57

Answer: C.

I go through all of the most common patterns in my best-selling Wonderlic course, but let’s do one more together.

Another Wonderlic test sample question

1. Look at the first two numbers in the series.

How do you get from 3 to 6? There are two ways:

Add 3: 3 + 3 = 6

Multiply by 2: 3 x 2 = 6

2. Check by applying this operation to the next numbers in the pattern.

We know that the pattern is likely one of these two operations. Now we check by applying these two operations to the second and third numbers in the sequence.

Add 3: 6 + 3 = 9

Multiply by 2: 6 x 2 = 12 (this is our pattern!)

3. Apply the operation to find the missing number in the sequence.

Now that we know that our pattern tells us to multiply each number by 2 to get the following number, we can apply this operation to the final number in order to get the missing number in the sequence.

48 x 2 = 96

Answer: B.

How did you do? Was our strategy helpful? Let us know in the comments section!

Also, if you want to learn every pattern you will see on the Wonderlic, try my online course. You will be fully prepared for your Wonderlic test in three hours and it comes with a pass guarantee.