Its northeast to southwest. Just like the compass points are on a map. Northeast would be the top, right corner of a square.
I think that’s what it means, but one could argue that the person taking the test should use the actual coordinates in the room where they are sitting. IOW, what if his chair is facing west?
And how about the question asking the applicant to write the word VOTE upside down but in the right order? That just seems stupid and a deliberate attempt to cause the applicant to fail. It has no correlation to understanding the ballot.