MAH MBA CET key terms

A form of deductive reasoning in which two or more stated premises are combined to decide whether a proposed conclusion must necessarily follow, treating every given statement as true regardless of real-world knowledge.

A statement offered as evidence or as a starting assumption inside an argument. Conclusions are drawn from premises, so locating them first is essential before judging whether the reasoning holds.

An unstated belief the author takes for granted and which must be true for the argument to work. Spotting it usually exposes the argument's weak link or points to the correct option.

A conclusion drawn from the supplied information by logical steps rather than guesswork. A valid inference must be fully supported by the given data and cannot rely on outside facts.

A puzzle in which people or objects are placed in rows, circles or mixed layouts, and positions are deduced from clues about facing direction, immediate neighbours and relative spacing.

A puzzle describing family links through statements or coded symbols; you build a family tree and then answer how two people are related, watching carefully for gender and generation words.

A question type in which words, letters or numbers are converted by a hidden rule, and you must identify that pattern in order to encode a fresh word or decode a supplied code.

A format where a question is followed by numbered statements and you judge whether the supplied data is enough to answer it, without actually computing the final numerical value.

A critical reasoning task in which you select the option that makes the author's argument more or less likely to hold, typically by adding or removing support for a hidden assumption.

A question giving a problem statement and asking which practical, feasible steps logically follow as a response; extreme, vague or unrelated measures are normally rejected.

A sequence of diagrams that changes by a consistent rule such as rotation, addition, shading or movement of elements, and you must choose the next or missing figure.

The left-right reversed reflection of a figure as seen in a vertical mirror. Letters, digits and asymmetric shapes change orientation, while vertically symmetrical elements stay unchanged.

A sheet is folded one or more times and holes are punched through it. After unfolding, you must visualise how each punch reflects across every fold line to count or locate the holes.

A simple shape concealed inside a more complex drawing. You trace the outline within the larger figure, ignoring lines that do not belong to the target shape.

Counting how many triangles, squares or straight lines appear in a composite diagram, working systematically through intersections and subdivisions so that no shape is counted twice or missed.

Rotation turns a figure about a point and preserves the clockwise order of its parts; reflection flips it and reverses that order, which is the decisive test between mirror-image options.

Selecting the figure that lacks the property shared by all the others, where that property may be side count, symmetry, shading pattern or a rule linking outer and inner elements.

A fraction expressed out of one hundred, used to compare quantities and to handle increase, decrease, successive change and reverse calculation of an original value.

Comparing two quantities of the same kind as a quotient, and equating two such comparisons. Proportions let you scale amounts, divide sums and solve partnership-style problems.

The sum of a set of values divided by the number of values. Adding, removing or replacing an item shifts the average in a predictable way that shortcuts many calculations.

Interest calculated only on the original principal for the entire period, so each year adds an identical amount and the total grows in a straight line.

Interest computed on the principal plus previously earned interest, so the amount grows geometrically and successive rates combine rather than simply adding together.

Money gained or lost when buying and selling, always measured against cost price. Marked price and successive discounts must be treated as percentage changes on different bases.

The relation that distance equals speed multiplied by time, extended to relative speed, trains crossing poles or platforms, and boats moving with or against a current.

Problems about how long individuals or machines take to finish a job, solved by converting each worker's contribution into work-per-day and adding rates when they work together.

A shortcut for mixing two items of different prices or concentrations, which yields the ratio in which they must be combined to reach a stated target value.

Counting arrangements in which order matters versus selections in which it does not, using factorials and the nPr and nCr formulas while handling repetition and restrictions carefully.

The ratio of favourable outcomes to all equally likely outcomes. Probabilities of independent events multiply, while those of mutually exclusive events add.

The largest number dividing given numbers exactly, and the smallest number each of them divides exactly. These are useful for grouping problems and for questions about events recurring together.

Measurement of length, area, volume and surface area for standard two- and three-dimensional shapes such as triangles, circles, cylinders, cones and spheres.

A set of shuffled sentences to be rearranged into a coherent paragraph, with connectors, pronouns, repeated nouns and the overall logical flow serving as the main clues.

A short passage containing blanks, each to be filled by the option that fits both the grammar of the surrounding sentence and the meaning of the passage as a whole.

A fixed expression whose meaning differs from the literal sense of its words, such as to bite the bullet; questions ask for its correct sense or an apt replacement in a sentence.

Replacing a descriptive phrase with the single precise word that expresses it, testing breadth and recall of vocabulary rather than grammatical accuracy.

The central point a reading passage conveys, usually signalled in the opening or closing lines. Wrong options are often true details that are too narrow, too broad or off-topic.

The attitude or feeling behind a passage, such as critical, neutral, ironic or appreciative, inferred from word choice and emphasis rather than from one stated sentence.

Choosing the meaning a word carries in a particular sentence, where its usual dictionary sense may not apply and surrounding clues must decide the answer.

A word opposite in meaning to a given word. These questions reward precision, so near-opposites and options with a different part of speech are common traps.

Identifying the grammatical flaw in a sentence, such as faulty subject-verb agreement, tense, parallelism or modifier placement, and selecting the version that repairs it without changing meaning.