Memory Grid Test

Company Preparation Courses IMC Round 1 – Online Assessment Memory Grid Test

Cognitive ~5 min

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Overview

The first NeurOlympics game measures working memory: how much you can take in at a glance and hold. The Memory Grid Test recreates it on a 5 by 5 grid of thin lines, in two parts.

Part 1: blue cells Blue dots flash in the grid for 0.7 seconds, the grid blanks, and you click where they were, in any order. One wrong cell ends the round. Part 1 comes in four variants, and in each you click back only the blue dots: the blue dots alone, yellow dots flashing together with the blue ones, yellow dots flashing after the blue ones have gone, or the dots appearing one at a time with a yellow one in between now and then. A click on a yellow cell is a wrong cell.

Part 2: orientation Blue triangles flash, each pointing to a corner. The grid blanks for a second, then they come back with exactly one of them turned: click the cell that turned. Part 2 comes in two variants: the blue triangles alone, or yellow triangles flashing after the blue ones have gone. Ignore the yellow ones, only a blue triangle turns.

Nine exercises Blue cells, Yellow mixed in, Yellow after and One by one (part 1, one variant each), Orientation and Orientation, yellow after (part 2), the Full run (both parts, 24 rounds, mixing all the variants), the Long run (60 rounds, about ten minutes, for stamina) and the Challenge (the Full run on repeat until your first mistake, with a leaderboard).

Easy, Medium or Hard The presets set how long the flash lasts (a full second, 0.7 or half a second), how many items you start with and how fast the run ramps. The load adapts to you: a perfect round adds an item, anything less takes one away, up to thirteen dots on Medium and fifteen on Hard.

Example: from part 1 into part 2

The last round of part 1 in a Full run on Medium, then the first round of part 2. Eight blue dots flash for half a second, the grid blanks, and the player clicks all eight back (+1,200). Then six triangles flash, the grid blanks for a second, they come back with one of them turned, and the player clicks that one (+300).

Example animation

Round 12 / 24 13 / 24 Part Cells Orientation Points 8,450 9,650 9,950

Remember the blue dots Click where the blue dots were Part 2: which triangle turned? Remember where each triangle points Click the cell whose triangle turned

All 8 recalled: +1,200 The triangles flash, disappear, and come back with one of them turned. Click that cell. Right, 6 triangles: +300

Recalled cells get a green frame; a wrong cell is framed red and ends the round.

This is a looping animation of the game screen, not the live game. Play Now

Game Phases

Flash The blue cells (part 1) or triangles (part 2) are on screen for 0.7 seconds at the start of a part, and by the last round only half a second. Take in the whole pattern, not one cell at a time.

Hold The grid blanks. In part 2 the triangles then come back with one of them turned, and stay on screen until you click.

Click Part 1: click the cells where the blue ones were, in any order, whatever yellow cells came with them or after them. A wrong cell (a yellow one included) ends the round; finding them all ends it too. Part 2: one click, the cell whose triangle turned.

Adapt Twelve rounds per part (thirty in the Long run). A perfect round adds one item to the next grid, anything less removes one, and in runs that mix the variants each variant keeps its own load. On Medium the minimum load rises by one every three rounds (every four in One by one, every two in part 2, which starts at six triangles and goes up to twelve) while the flash shortens and the blank grows longer. Your peak load is the largest set of blue cells you recalled in full.

We are not affiliated with BrainsFirst or IMC. The Memory Grid Test is our own practice game, built to train the skill that NeurOlympics game 1 measures; all information provided is for educational purposes to help students prepare for interviews.

Scoring

+100

Per blue cell recalled Part 1, in every variant (blue cells alone, yellow mixed in, yellow after, one by one): 100 points for every blue cell you click back before the round ends. Yellow cells are worth nothing and a click on one ends the round. Recall the whole set and a bonus of 50 per cell comes on top, so a perfect five (where Medium starts) is 750 points and a perfect thirteen is 1,950.

+50

Per blue triangle on screen Part 2: find the triangle that turned and you score 50 points for every blue triangle that was on screen, so a right answer among twelve is 600. Yellow triangles, in the rounds where they flash after the blue ones, count for nothing. A wrong cell scores nothing.

Peak

Peak load Part 1: the largest set of blue cells you recalled in full, whichever variant it came in. Part 2: the most triangles on screen in a round where you found the turned one. Your best points, run count and last ten scores are kept per exercise and difficulty.

Level

Same points on every difficulty Easy, Medium and Hard pay the same per cell and per triangle. Harder settings flash for less time but start with more items and go higher, so a strong run on Hard scores more than the same run on Easy. Compare your scores within one difficulty.

Top

Challenge leaderboard The Challenge plays the Full run, with all the yellow variants mixed in, lap after lap until your first round that is not perfect. Each lap starts again from the starting load, so the points come from how many rounds you clear. It is always played on Medium, so everyone competes on the same setting, and its points go on the Top Scores board, which keeps each player's best run.

Accuracy is the share of the points on offer. A run with both parts shows it for part 1 and part 2 separately, on the results screen and on the History tab. Only the Challenge has a leaderboard: in the other exercises the aim is more points run after run, which means a higher peak load with fewer broken rounds. Because the load adapts, a run full of perfect rounds means it never found your ceiling, so play it again. The review shows every round as a small grid with your clicks on it, and Replay plays that round again at its real timing. Finish early ends a run and shows the results so far; those runs are logged but never count as your best. Your best is kept per exercise and difficulty. Before the assessment, do each exercise a few times on Medium or Hard, then read the instructions in the test itself carefully: the exact number of cells and the timing can differ from ours.