Reasoning
What is tested
Reasoning tests logical structure rather than calculation: analogies, series, coding–decoding, blood relations, directions, syllogism, seating arrangements, ranking, and statement–assumption.
Core methods
- Series: check differences, then ratios, then alternating or square/cube patterns.
- Coding: write alphabet positions; compare letter shifts; test reversal and substitution.
- Blood relations: draw a family tree, use +/− for gender only when stated, and avoid assumptions about marriage.
- Directions: fix north at the top; left/right depends on the facing direction.
- Syllogism: use Venn diagrams; “All A are B” does not convert to “All B are A”, while “Some A are B” does convert to “Some B are A”; “only a few” creates both overlap and exclusion.
- Seating: for circular arrangements, invert left/right when people face the centre versus outside.
Worked example
Statements: “All judges are graduates. Some graduates are women.” Is “Some judges are women” certain? No. The women who are graduates may be outside the judge circle. The judge group lies wholly inside the graduate group, but the women graduates need not overlap with judges. Reasoning: an overlap between graduates and women is not tied to the judge subset.
Traps
- Treating a possibility as a certainty in syllogism.
- Forgetting to reverse direction when a person faces south.
- In blood relations, assuming a sibling is a brother or that a couple is married.
- In coding, applying a shift to the wrong letter position (A=1, not 0).