Unit 2 · Schedule and Timetable Matching
Four Friends at the Movies — Preference Matrix
Lesson 2 of 12
Sometimes the question is not about days or timetables at all — it is about people. Given a group of friends with different tastes, can you find the single option they all agree on? This is the simplest form of preference-matching: build a checklist and look for the column that is all ticks.
Preference intersection questions appear regularly in OC Thinking Skills, often early in the paper. They look easy but students rush them and miss a constraint — the safest approach is always to build a column for each person before deciding.
The examiner is testing whether you can track multiple sets of likes and dislikes at the same time without mixing them up. The key trap is misreading one person's rule (e.g. confusing "does not like cartoons" with "likes all movies except cartoons").
Several friends or people each have a stated preference — some positive ("only likes X and Y"), some negative ("likes all except Z"). You must find the one option that satisfies every single person.
Best approach: Write one row per person. For each movie (or activity) type, tick if they like it and cross if they don't. The answer is the column where every row has a tick. Do NOT guess — one missed cross on any row means a wrong answer.
Question
Four friends want to go to the movies. There are four kinds of movies showing: cartoon, comedy, drama and action.
Andrew likes all movies except dramas and action.
Rishi and Audrey only like comedies and dramas.
Yifan would like to watch any movie so long as it is not a cartoon or an action movie.
Which kind of movie would all four friends like to see?
Select an answer to see the explanation.
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