Verbal, numerical and abstract reasoning
This domain is scored separately and rewards method rather than general intelligence. Verbal items test precise reading, numerical items test clean arithmetic on data, abstract items test rule detection. Each has a small set of recurring patterns you can recognise quickly.
Verbal reasoning
- Typical formats: passage plus statement with True / False / Cannot say; or which conclusion follows, which assumption underlies, which statement weakens.
- Judge only what the passage states or necessarily implies. Choose Cannot say when the text is silent, even if the statement is plausible in real life.
- Track quantifiers (all, most, some, none), modal verbs (may, must, should) and scope shifts between sentences.
- Illustration: if all findings above €50,000 are reported and some reported items are later cleared, you cannot conclude that some findings were cleared - reported items need not all be findings.
Numerical reasoning
- Convert everything to one unit and one currency before calculating; check thousands versus millions.
- Percentage change = (new − old) ÷ old. Percentage points describe a difference between two percentages, not a relative change.
- Reversing percentages needs the right base: a 20% rise followed by a 20% fall leaves 96% of the original, not 100%.
- Use weighted averages, ratios, per-capita figures and compound growth where the data form a time series.
Abstract reasoning
- Name the rule dimension first: number of shapes or sides, position (rotation, translation), shading, size, symmetry, overlap rules (add, subtract, XOR), alternating odd/even series, or two rules running in parallel.
- Confirm rotation direction and step before assuming reflection.
Worked example
Commitments were €2.4 bn in 2023 and €2.7 bn in 2024. Absolute increase is €0.3 bn; percentage increase is 0.3 ÷ 2.4 = 12.5%. A distractor of 11.1% is the increase measured against the 2024 base (0.3 ÷ 2.7) - wrong base year. Compound annual growth from 2.4 to 3.0 over two years is (3.0 ÷ 2.4)^(1/2) − 1 ≈ 11.8%, not the arithmetic average of the annual rates.
Traps
- Importing real-world knowledge into verbal items.
- Answering False when the passage is merely silent.
- Using the later value as the denominator when the question asks about change.
- Mixing units (thousands, millions, percentages, percentage points).
- Over-investing time in one abstract item instead of securing the easier marks.