Warm up a reasoning skill
Choose a specific drill when you want a quick focused round: patterns, quantities, words, rotation, memory, deduction, or competition-style maths.
Choose a drill belowFree Brain Training · No signup
Free Brain Training Games
Sharpen the cognitive skills your IQ reflects — verbal, logical, quantitative, visual-spatial, working memory and deductive reasoning — plus an AMC 8-style math challenge. Earn XP, keep a daily streak, and play as much as you like.
Make practice count
Choose a route before you open a game
A good session has a clear task, an attempt before the answer, and one idea you can use again. Start with the route that matches today’s goal.
Learn the tactic, not just the answer
The skills guide names common traps and shows how a method works. Read the explanation after trying an item, when it has a problem to attach to.
Read the skills guideBuild a small weekly rhythm
Use the four-week on-ramp when you would rather have a modest plan than decide from scratch every day. Difficulty rises one domain at a time.
View the four-week plan12 drills
What each drill trains
Five cognitive domains, a word-puzzle forge, and a competition-math arena. Each drill mixes several question types and generates them fresh every round, so a domain keeps surprising you however long you play.
Logical
Pattern Sprint
Continue a number run, extend a letter series, or spot the value that breaks the rule.
Try it
2, 5, 11, 23, … what comes next?
▸ Show answer
47 — each term doubles and adds one.
Rule induction — spotting structure from few examples, the core of most non-verbal reasoning items.
Quantitative
Number Crunch
Mental arithmetic, percentages, fractions of a whole, and ratio splits — no calculator.
Try it
13 × 7 − 9 = ?
▸ Show answer
82 — 91 minus 9.
Calculation fluency. Speed here frees attention for the reasoning parts of a timed test.
Verbal
Word Links
Complete an analogy, pick a synonym or antonym, or find the word that does not belong.
Try it
Thermometer : Temperature :: Barometer : ?
▸ Show answer
Pressure — instrument to the quantity it measures.
Relational vocabulary. The trick is to state the link in words first, then test each option against it.
Visual-Spatial
Rotation
Rotate or mirror a figure mentally, or find the shape that breaks the set.
Try it
Rotate ↑ by 135° clockwise.
▸ Show answer
The arrow pointing down-right (↘).
Mental rotation — holding an image while transforming it, one of the most trainable spatial skills.
Working Memory
Recall Grid
A digit run flashes, then vanishes — report a position, read it backwards, or total it.
Try it
7 2 9 4 6 — which was 4th?
▸ Show answer
4 — count positions as they appear, not after.
Span with interference. Chunking digits in pairs is the single biggest win here.
Word Puzzles
Word Forge
Unscramble anagrams, find hidden words, link compounds, and restore missing vowels.
Try it
Which word completes BOTH? SNOW + ? · ? + GAME
▸ Show answer
BALL — snowball and ballgame. Test each option against both halves.
Lexical flexibility: holding a letter set in mind while searching for a word that fits it.
Logical
Deduction
Order people from clues, rule out what cannot be true, or decide what follows from two statements.
Try it
All poets are dreamers. Some dreamers are engineers. What must be true?
▸ Show answer
Nothing linking poets and engineers — "some" never licenses "all".
Set logic, and the gap between what could be true and what must be.
Quantitative
Estimation
Judge which value is closest without working it out exactly — approximating is the skill, not arithmetic.
Try it
Roughly how much is 19 x 21?
▸ Show answer
About 400 — take 20 x 20 and correct slightly downward.
Number sense under time pressure: round to something you can hold, then adjust.
Logical
Logic Grid
Four people, four things, a short list of clues. Cross off what each clue rules out until one arrangement survives.
Try it
Ben has the green. Hugo has either the blue or the grey. Cara has either the grey or the green.
▸ Show answer
Cara has the grey — green is taken, so Hugo must take blue.
Constraint elimination: holding several partial facts at once rather than solving in one move.
Rule Induction
Cipher
One worked pair shows a letter rule. Recover the rule, then apply it to a new word.
Try it
PATH becomes RCVJ. What does RING become?
▸ Show answer
TKPI — every letter moves two places along the alphabet.
Inducing a transformation from a single example, then applying it exactly rather than approximately.
Visual-Spatial
Grid Path
Start on a marked square and follow a list of moves — then, on harder rounds, run the same list backwards.
Try it
From C4: 1 right, 2 up, 1 right, 1 up.
▸ Show answer
E1 — columns run A-E left to right, rows 1-5 top to bottom.
Holding a position while instructions keep arriving: working memory doing spatial work.
AMC 8 style
Math Arena
Contest-format problems, five choices, full worked solution after each.
Try it
What is the units digit of 7^2023?
▸ Show answer
3 — powers of 7 cycle 7, 9, 3, 1 and 2023 ≡ 3 (mod 4).
Competition technique: cycles, divisor counting, ratio and counting arguments.
Six tactics that transfer
Technique you can apply on the very next question — and on test day.
1
Name the relationship before you look at the options
On analogies, say the link out loud — "instrument to what it measures". Options are written to be plausible; deciding the rule first stops a near-miss from pulling you off.
2
Chunk digits in pairs
Working-memory span is roughly four items, not seven. Reading 7 2 9 4 6 as "72, 94, 6" stores three chunks instead of five and survives interference far better.
3
Check the gaps, then the gaps between the gaps
For a number series, take first differences. If those are constant it is arithmetic; if they grow evenly, take second differences; if the ratio is constant, it is geometric.
4
Rotate a landmark, not the whole figure
Pick one feature — an arrow tip, a corner — and track only that through the turn. Rotating the entire shape mentally is far more expensive and error-prone.
5
Estimate before you compute
On multiple choice, a rough magnitude often eliminates three options. 13 × 7 is "a bit over 90", which usually leaves one candidate worth calculating exactly.
6
Skip and return, deliberately
A timed form rewards the cheap marks first. If a question has not resolved in about 40 seconds, move on — the next one may take ten.
Why practice with brain games?
We keep this honest — here is what practice does, and what it does not.
Beat test-day surprise
Most people underperform because a question type is unfamiliar, not because the ability is missing. Seeing the formats first lets you show your true level.
Target one domain
Drill the cognitive area that lags — verbal, logical, quantitative, visual-spatial, or working memory. Each game maps to a real domain on your profile.
Build a light habit
Five minutes a day keeps your reasoning engaged. The streak, XP, and badges make coming back tomorrow easy.
The honest version: practice reliably improves the specific skills you drill and your comfort with test formats — but it does not magically raise your underlying IQ. Anyone promising a big IQ boost from games is overselling.
The AMC 8 Math Challenge
The Brain Gym includes a dedicated AMC 8-style math arena: original competition-math problems in the AMC 8 format (five choices, no calculator) across algebra, number theory, geometry, counting, and probability. Play a fresh daily set of five, or practice endlessly, with a full worked solution after every problem. These are original problems written in the AMC 8 style — not official AMC exam questions, which are copyrighted by the Mathematical Association of America.
Brain Gym FAQ
Do brain games increase your IQ?
They sharpen the specific skills you practice and your comfort with test formats, which helps you perform at your true level. But no game reliably raises your underlying IQ — anyone promising a big "IQ boost" from puzzles is overselling.
Is the Brain Gym free?
Yes — every game, the daily challenges, and the AMC 8 math arena are completely free, with no signup required.
What skills do the games train?
Five cognitive domains — verbal, logical, quantitative, visual-spatial, and working memory — the same domains a full IQ test measures, plus a dedicated AMC 8-style math arena spanning algebra, number theory, geometry, counting, probability and statistics.
Are these real AMC 8 exam questions?
No. They are original problems written in the AMC 8 format and difficulty. Official AMC exam questions are copyrighted by the Mathematical Association of America, so we do not reproduce them.
How does the daily challenge work?
Each day draws six cognitive puzzles from the eleven drills, plus five AMC 8-style math problems — the same set for everyone, refreshed at midnight. Keep a daily streak and earn XP as you go.
Warmed up? See where you really stand.
Drills sharpen the skills. The full 30-question test gives you an estimated IQ, percentile, and a five-domain cognitive profile.
Take the full IQ test