Reasoning Ability: Stable Diagrams and Forced Conclusions
Reasoning Ability in LIC ADO Mains tests how quickly you convert verbal rules into a stable diagram, table or chain. Puzzles and seating arrangement dominate, alongside syllogism, inequality, blood relations, coding-decoding, input-output, data sufficiency and logical reasoning.
Core rules
- For arrangements, fix the most constrained entity first; use a table for floor/linear puzzles and a circle with a fixed facing direction for circular puzzles.
- In syllogism, draw minimal Venn models; a conclusion follows only if it is true in every model.
- In inequalities, A > B ≥ C gives A > C; reverse the sign only when you reverse the pair.
- In blood relations, use a tree with gender labels; do not infer gender from a name.
- In input-output, identify the fixed operation repeated at each step, not the whole sequence.
Worked example
Statements: All ADOs are officers. Some officers are trainers. Conclusions: I. Some ADOs are trainers. II. Some trainers are officers. Reasoning: 'All ADOs are officers' places ADOs inside officers. 'Some officers are trainers' creates an overlap between officers and trainers, but that overlap need not contain an ADO, so I is not forced. The second statement is reversible: some trainers are officers, so II follows. Answer: only II follows.
Traps that cost marks
Treating 'some' as 'some but not all'; ignoring possibility cases in 'only a few'; reversing A ≥ B > C as C > A; and marking data sufficiency when each statement alone is insufficient but the two together work. In puzzles, an early assumption about facing direction can invalidate every answer.