RankHighCompetitive Exam Prep

The Picture Questions on the CDCR Test

Two of CDCR's twelve item types are visual: counting the differences between pictures, and choosing the most accurate description of a scene. Most candidates have never done either under time pressure.

Counting differences

CDCR's sample asks it two ways: compare two pictures and say how many differences there are, or compare three pictures against an original and say which one differs in exactly so many ways. The bulletin's scope lists "remember names and faces" among the abilities measured, and this is the part of the test that works that muscle.

The failure is almost never that a difference is too subtle. It is stopping once you have found the number in the option you already liked. Sweep both pictures in the same fixed order every time, check each object for all five kinds of change — present or absent, moved, resized, turned, or a different number of them — and finish the sweep before you answer.

Describing a scene

The other visual type shows a scene and gives four descriptions of it. The answer is the one that is complete and accurate; the wrong ones leave something out, put something in the wrong place, or add a detail that is not there.

The habit that works is to rule out on a single wrong detail first — one misplaced object makes a description wrong however well it reads — and only then to choose between what survives on completeness. Be especially suspicious of a description that supplies a reason or an intention: what somebody appears to be about to do is not in the picture.

What RankHigh's practice does and does not reproduce

Our difference-comparison questions work exactly as CDCR's do, and because our pictures are generated from structured data we can guarantee that the number of differences is exactly what the question says it is.

Our scene-description practice is different, and we would rather say so here than have you discover it. It trains the same skill — complete, accurate, nothing added — using composed scenes of objects. It does NOT reproduce CDCR's illustrated-scene format, which shows people and actions. For that format, use CDCR's own sample.

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