Reasoning and Mental Ability
What is tested
Series (number, letter, mixed), analogy, classification, coding-decoding, blood relations, direction sense, ranking and order, syllogism, seating arrangement, Venn diagrams, mirror and water images, paper folding, dice, and calendar-clock problems.
Working rules
- Number series: check differences first, then ratios, then squares, cubes or alternating series.
- Letter series: fix alphabet values (A = 1 … Z = 26); the vowels A, E, I, O, U advance by 4 each time.
- Coding: test letter shifts (+1, −2, reversal), then positional sums.
- Direction: draw axes; a right turn from north is east, and every left or right turn rotates you 90°.
- Blood relations: draw a family tree and mark gender only where the question states it.
- Syllogism: draw the minimum overlapping diagram; a conclusion is valid only if it holds in every possible diagram.
Worked example
A man walks 5 km north, turns right and walks 3 km, then turns right again and walks 5 km. Where is he from the start? Draw it: after the first leg he is 5 km north. Right turn → 3 km east. Right turn → 5 km south. The two vertical 5 km legs cancel, so he ends 3 km east of the starting point.
Traps
- Counting both ends when asked for persons between two ranks: subtract, then subtract 2 again.
- In syllogism, treating "some A are B" as proving "some B are not A".
- Ignoring the words "only", "few" or "not" inside a statement.
- Calendar: a leap year shifts 2 odd days, an ordinary year 1.