US Guide PDF

Cube Folding Guide
This test measures your spatial awareness skill and your ability to mentally
manipulate images and imagine different changes such as rotation and folding.
In this type of question, you are presented with a 2D image that is called an unfolded
cube. You need to determine how this image will look when it’s folded into a 3D
cube. There are four possible answer options that each show a folded cube, but only
one of them shows the correct form the unfolded cube can be folded into.
When you imagine the folding of the unfolded 2D cube into a 3D cube, you should
always fold it outside and not inside. In order to do so, you need to imagine the 2D
cube moving away from you, and not towards you. For example, the 2D unfolded
cube below has 6 facets. You need to fold it outside, so facet number 1 and facet
number 4 would touch and facets number 2 and 3 will face towards you.
2D unfolded cube
Fold it outside Don’t fold it inside
3D cube
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Understanding a cube
There are different types of an unfolded cube, but they all share some common
features. Every unfolded cube has 6 facets and after folding it, a 3D cube is created.
Every facet touches 4 facets and will never touch one of the facets. For example, in
the cube below, facet number 2 always touches facets 1, 6, 5 and 3 and will never
touch facet number 4. Accordingly, facets 1 and 3 will never touch and facets 5 and 6
will never touch. This rule is important because it can help you eliminate answers
that are incorrect.
If you imagine the cube placed on a surface, facet number 6 is the bottom facet that
touches the surface, and facet number 5 is the top facet that faces upwards. They
will never touch each other because they are parallel and on opposite sides. In the
same way, facet 1, that is the left facet, and facet 3, that is the right facet, will never
touch. And facet 2 that is the front facet, and facet 4, that is the back facet, will
never touch.
Other types of unfolded cubes are:
2
In some types of unfolded cubes, it is clear which facet is the bottom one and which
facet is the top one. Other types are more complex and not intuitive. In these types,
you need to imagine the movement of a facet in order to create an image with two
facets that are the top and the bottom and four facets that are the “walls” of the
cube.
When it isn’t clear what the bottom or top facets are in an unfolded cube, turn it into
another unfolded cube so you can see more clearly where these facets are. Here is
an example.
You need to rotate facet number 5 so it touches facet number 3. Pay attention, when
you rotate it, the image on the side rotates as well. (it can be a number, a letter, an
arrow and more).
Now you can fold the unfolded cube into a 3D cube. You need to fold it outside and
attach facet number 5 to facet number 1 so the two green sides touch.
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A sample question:
Which cube can be made from the given image?
The correct answer is (B).
Explanation:
When attaching the black arrow’s facet to the light blue facet you need to rotate the
black arrow’s facet 90 degrees clockwise in order to see its position in relation to the
blue arrow’s facet. You can see that it points to the right like in cube (B). In addition,
the red arrow is parallel to the light blue arrow, making it the correct answer.
Answer (A) is incorrect because in the unfolded cube, the purple arrow and the
yellow arrow point in the same direction, but in cube (A) the yellow arrow points at
the tail of the purple arrow.
Answer (C) is incorrect because in the unfolded cube the green arrow points to the
bottom of the purple arrow, and in cube (C) the purple and green arrows point in the
same direction.
Answer (D) isn’t correct because the red arrow and the purple arrow on the unfolded
cube are on opposite sides and can never be next to each other.
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In solving this type of question, you can start by eliminating answers that aren’t
correct according to the rule that says facets on opposite sides will never be next to
each other. In this question you can eliminate answer (D) immediately.
In case you can’t eliminate an answer according to this rule, you need to look at the
front facet of the 3D cube and compare it to the same facet on the unfolded cube.
You locate it and then look at the facets next to it to check whether they face the
direction they should in relation to the front facet after folding them.
Remember, spatial awareness is a skill that can be developed. Some people find this
kind of question easy and can visualize the spatial changes intuitively. Other people
find it hard to imagine spatial changes when they can’t see a concrete object. If you
find it hard to visualize the folding and rotations that are required in order to answer
this kind of question, you can print the last page in this guide. On this page, there are
examples for unfolded cubes that you can cut and fold into 3D cubes. This practice
may help you improve your spatial awareness skills. Note that in the real test you
can’t use concrete objects and you will have to rely on the ability to mentally fold
and rotate cubes.
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Print this page for practicing
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Print this page for practicing
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Cube Folding Guide

Fold it outside Don’t fold it inside

Other types of unfolded cubes are:

The correct answer is (B).

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