General Intelligence and Reasoning: Pattern Rules That Score
What this section tests
General Intelligence and Reasoning in the BSF Paramedical paper checks whether you can spot patterns and apply fixed rules quickly, not whether you have memorised facts. Expect verbal reasoning (analogies, classification, number and letter series, coding–decoding, blood relations, direction sense, syllogism, seating arrangement) and non-verbal items (mirror and water images, paper folding and cutting, embedded figures, figure series, dice).
Core rules worth locking in
- Number series: check differences first, then ratios, then squares/cubes ± a constant, then alternating or two interleaved series.
- Coding–decoding: write the alphabet with positions 1–26 and test forward/backward shifts; check whether the whole word is reversed or only vowels are shifted.
- Blood relations: draw a family tree, mark gender only where the question states it, and never assume gender from a relation word.
- Direction sense: fix north, record each turn, and remember that a left turn while facing south points east.
- Syllogism: draw minimal Venn diagrams; 'some' does not imply 'all', and 'only a few A are B' means some A are B and some A are not B.
Worked example
Series: 3, 7, 15, 31, ? Differences are 4, 8, 16 - each doubles, so the next difference is 32 and the answer is 31 + 32 = 63. Confirm with the x2 + 1 rule: 3x2+1=7, 7x2+1=15, 15x2+1=31, 31x2+1=63. Both routes agree; if they did not, re-read the series before marking.
Traps that cost marks
- Mirror images reverse left and right but not top and bottom; water images reverse top and bottom.
- In seating puzzles, 'left of' depends on which way the row faces.
- Negative questions ('which does NOT belong') are missed when you answer the first plausible option.
- Guessing without eliminating: two options often differ by one small step, and that step is the test.