The Item Format and Official Rules

What a keyholes item looks like

Every keyholes item has the same anatomy: one three-dimensional object drawn at the left, followed by the outlines of five apertures labeled A through E. Your job is to pick the one opening the object could pass through.

A

B

C

D

E

The five openings share one drawing scale with each other — none of them is enlarged or shrunk for legibility, so if option C looks smaller than option A, it is smaller. The object's own drawing is the one exception: it is fitted to its panel on a scale of its own, so never judge an opening by holding it against the object's drawn size. Size comparisons happen between the openings. This matters because the differences between right and wrong answers are differences of shape and proportion, drawn large enough to judge by eye.

The official rules

The test's instructions define exactly what "passing through" means. Three rules do all the work:

1. You may turn the object any way you like — before it enters. The object may be rotated in any direction to present whichever side you choose to the opening. All of that freedom ends at the mouth of the aperture.
2. Once the object starts through, it cannot turn or twist. The pass is a straight push. If the object would need to corkscrew mid-way, it does not fit.
3. The object must pass completely through. Getting halfway in does not count; every part of the object has to clear the opening.

The instructions add one more promise, about the openings themselves: the correct opening is always the exact shape of the appropriate external outline of the object. What "exact" buys you — and how it kills two whole families of tempting wrong answers — is the subject of the next topic.

Exactly one opening works

Each item has one correct aperture and four wrong ones. The wrong ones are not random shapes; they are near-misses built to punish a hasty glance. Here is the same item again with the answer marked:

A

B

C ✓

D

E

The correct opening is the object's front outline.

Where keyholes sits in your test

Keyholes is the first section of the Perceptual Ability Test: questions 1 through 15 of the 90 PAT items. It greets you the moment the section timer starts, so knowing the rules cold — before test day — is free speed. You can generate unlimited items like the one above in the keyholes practice generator.

The takeaway

An item is one object and five same-scale openings, A–E. Turn the object freely before insertion, never during, and it must clear the opening completely. Exactly one aperture is correct, and it is the exact outline of one side of the object.