Reasoning: Turning Clues into Fixed Structures
Reasoning in the IDBI JAM online test is a structure-building section: nearly every question is a puzzle written in prose, and marks come from converting clues into a grid or diagram rather than from reading faster. The recurring types are floor/box and linear or circular seating puzzles, tabular distribution puzzles, syllogisms, coded inequalities, blood relations, direction sense, alphanumeric series, coding-decoding and order-ranking.
Core rules
- Puzzles: list the categories first (floors, people, cities, colours), then build one grid per pair of categories. Record negative clues ("X is not on floor 3") immediately, because negatives eliminate faster than positives confirm.
- Syllogism: draw Venn diagrams for All, Some and No. "Some A are B" converts to "Some B are A"; "All A are B" converts only to "Some B are A". A conclusion follows only if it holds in every possible diagram, so a possibility conclusion fails only when some diagram rules it out.
- Inequality: in a chain such as A ≥ B = C > D, priority flows in one direction only. A ≥ B and B = C give A ≥ C; signs never reverse unless the entire statement is flipped.
- Coding-decoding: test letter-position shifts and reversals before assuming substitution.
Worked example
Statements: P ≥ Q = R > S ≤ T. Conclusions: (I) P > S (II) T ≥ R.
Combining gives P ≥ Q = R > S, so P > S is definitely true. For II, both T and R sit above S but on separate branches, so no relation can be established; II is false. Answer: only I follows.
Traps that cost marks
Treating the first diagram you draw as the only possible model; assuming "either/or" conclusions are always wrong; and burning six or more minutes on a single five-question puzzle set. If a grid stalls after two clues, mark it and return later.