Reasoning Ability
Reasoning Ability in the NICL AO exam rewards pattern recognition under time pressure rather than deep computation. Prelims leans on puzzles, seating arrangement, syllogism, inequality, coding-decoding, blood relations, direction sense and alphanumeric series; Mains adds input-output, data sufficiency and critical/logical reasoning.
Rules that decide marks
- Syllogism with the "only a few" quantifier: "Only a few A are B" means some A are B and some A are not B. Plain "some A are B" leaves the "not" possibility open.
- Inequality chains: read the chain in one direction only. A > B ≥ C gives A > C and A ≥ C, never C > A. An "either-or" answer needs a complementary pair plus a missing direct relation.
- Circular arrangements: fix the facing direction first (facing centre means left is clockwise). In a closed arrangement the number of gaps equals the number of persons.
- Blood relations: draw a family tree with gender-marked nodes instead of resolving "brother of the sister of X" mentally.
Worked example
Statements: Only a few pens are ink. No ink is paper. Conclusion I: Some pens are not ink. Conclusion II: Some paper are pens.
- "Only a few pens are ink" guarantees both that some pens are ink and that some pens are not ink. So I follows.
- The pens that are ink cannot be paper, since no ink is paper. The remaining pens could be paper, but a possibility never makes a conclusion definite. II does not follow.
Traps
Treating "some" as "some not"; testing only the possibility case when the question asks for a definite conclusion; assuming two persons cannot share a position in a linear row unless stated; carrying one wrong facing direction through an entire puzzle set.