General Intelligence and Reasoning
What is tested
This block checks pattern-spotting rather than calculation: series, analogies, classification, coding-decoding, blood relations, direction sense, syllogism, seating and ranking puzzles, clock and calendar, plus non-verbal sets (mirror and water images, paper folding, embedded figures, figure series).
Rules that repeat
- Letter positions: A=1 to Z=26; EJOTY (E=5, J=10, O=15, T=20, Y=25) gives quick anchors.
- Coding: test the per-letter shift, then reversal, then position-sum patterns, in that order.
- Blood relations: draw a tree. Vertical lines mean generations, horizontal lines mean siblings or spouse. Never solve in your head.
- Syllogism: draw minimal Venn diagrams. A conclusion is valid only if true in every possible diagram; "either-or" arises only when both conclusions are individually possible and the pair is exhaustive.
- Directions: fix north on paper and rotate the person, not the page.
- Clock: angle = |30H − 5.5M|. Mirror time of H:M on a 12-hour clock = 11:60 − H:M.
- Calendar: 100 years have 5 odd days, 200 have 3, 300 have 1, 400 have 0.
Worked example
Angle between the hands at 3:40. Using |30H − 5.5M| = |90 − 220| = 130°. Since 130° is below 180°, the hands are 130° apart (the other arc is 230°).
Traps
Counting the gap between letters instead of the letters themselves; using mirror arithmetic where a water image is asked; accepting a syllogism conclusion that is merely possible; forgetting left and right swap after a U-turn.