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EPSO Verbal Reasoning study materials
EPSO Verbal Reasoning study resources

EPSO Verbal Reasoning: Explicitly Stated Detail and Factual Retrieval

EPSO Verbal Reasoning · Work through your exam, one topic at a time.

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Explicitly Stated Detail and Factual Retrieval

Factual retrieval items ask whether a specific statement is supported by the passage. In the three-way format the answer is True (stated or directly supported), False (contradicted), or Cannot say (the passage does not supply the information). This section covers the first two; success depends on exact matching of quantity, time and attribution.

Match the text exactly

  • Quantifiers: 'some', 'most', 'all', 'a minority', 'up to 20%', 'fewer than'. 'Up to 20%' does not license '20% achieved'; 'most' does not license 'all'.
  • Time: check tense and dates. A measure 'proposed in 2021 and adopted in 2023' did not exist in 2022.
  • Comparatives: 'higher than in 2018' is not 'the highest ever recorded'.
  • Modality: 'may', 'is expected to', 'should' are not 'will'; 'can' is not 'does'.
  • Attribution: if the passage reports that a committee claims X, the passage states the claim, not X itself.

Scan, then verify

Locate the sentence containing the key term and read one sentence either side of it. Most wrong answers are built by taking a phrase from the right sentence and attaching it to the wrong subject, verb or year.

Worked example

Passage: 'In 2022 the agency carried out 480 inspections, up from 300 in 2019. Non-compliance was found in 12% of inspections, half the rate recorded three years earlier. The agency notes that the rise in inspections was funded by a temporary budget line due to expire in 2024.'

  • 'The share of inspections finding non-compliance halved between 2019 and 2022' - True: 'half the rate recorded three years earlier'.
  • 'The agency carried out more inspections in 2022 than in 2019' - True: 480 against 300.
  • 'The inspection budget increase became permanent in 2022' - False: the line is 'temporary ... due to expire in 2024'.
  • 'The programme will be repeated in 2025' - Cannot say: expiry is mentioned, continuation is not.

Traps

  • Distractors that recycle passage vocabulary inside a different logical relation.
  • Outside knowledge: real-world truth is irrelevant to the three-way decision.
  • Silent insertions of 'only', 'at least', 'exclusively'.
  • Confusing a rate with a count, or a share with an absolute number.

Practical check

Before deciding False, find the contradicting words. If you cannot point to them, the answer is Cannot say.