Reasoning Ability
Reasoning Ability in the BoM Generalist Officer (Scale II/III) paper is a structure-building test, not a reading-speed test. The bulk of the section is puzzle and seating-arrangement sets, with the remainder spread over syllogism, coded inequalities, blood relations, direction sense, order-ranking, coding-decoding, data sufficiency and machine input-output. Marks come from classifying the clue type and applying a fixed rule.
Seating arrangements
In a circle, a person facing the centre has their left towards the clockwise direction; facing outward, their left is anticlockwise. In two parallel rows facing each other, one person's right is the opposite person's left. Fix the immovable attributes (floor numbers, fixed seats) before the movable ones (colour, city, profession).
Syllogism
Treat 'some' as overlap and 'all' as subset. 'Some A are B' never implies 'some B are not A'. A definite conclusion must hold in every valid diagram; a possibility conclusion needs only one diagram. 'Either-or' is valid only when the two conclusions are complementary (one positive, one negative) on the same subject-predicate pair and neither follows alone.
Coded inequality
Chain only in one direction. From P > Q >= R = S, you can conclude P > S. The complement rule: > flips to <, >= flips to <=, and 'not greater than' means <=.
Worked example. Statements: P > Q >= R = S <= T. Conclusions: (i) P > S, (ii) T >= Q. The chain P > Q >= R = S yields P > S, so (i) follows. Q and T are each at least S, but no link between them is given, so (ii) does not follow. Answer: only (i).
Traps that cost marks
Assuming two individual conclusions combine into 'either-or' when they are not complementary; reversing the direction of >= while combining; ignoring qualifying words such as 'only a few' or 'mostly'; and in puzzles, forgetting that a 'facing outward' circle mirrors every left-right clue.