General Intelligence and Reasoning
This domain tests how quickly you detect patterns and apply fixed rules rather than recall facts. CWC Junior Technical Assistant papers mix verbal items (series, coding, syllogism, blood relations, direction sense) with non-verbal items (mirror images, embedded figures, paper folding). Accuracy on rule-based items is worth more than guessing at puzzles.
Core rules
- Number series: check first differences, then ratios, squares/cubes, and alternating or two-tier patterns. A single difference often hides a x2+1 rule.
- Coding-decoding: write the alphabet with positions; test +1/-1 shifts, opposite letters (A to Z), and letter-to-number.
- Syllogism: draw the minimum Venn diagram; a conclusion is valid only if true in every possible diagram. Do not use real-world knowledge.
- Blood relations: build a family tree and mark gender; the brother of my father is my uncle, not my grandfather.
- Direction sense: track net north-south and east-west; final distance uses Pythagoras.
- Non-verbal: distinguish rotation from reflection; count sides, symmetry, and dot positions.
Worked example
Series: 5, 11, 23, 47, ? Differences are 6, 12, 24, which double. The next difference is 48, so the term is 47 + 48 = 95. Equivalently each term is x2 + 1. Check both readings before choosing.
Traps
Assuming a series is arithmetic because the first two differences look small; importing real-world facts into syllogisms; reversing left and right when a person faces south; treating a water image as a mirror image; and overusing elimination on non-verbal items when a 10-second count of lines would settle it.