General Intelligence and Reasoning: Fast, Rule-Based Solving
Scope
This section tests analogies, number and letter series, coding-decoding, blood relations, direction sense, syllogism, seating and ranking arrangements, data sufficiency and non-verbal items such as mirror images, embedded figures and paper folding. Nearly every item is solvable by a fixed procedure, so speed comes from drilled methods, not intuition.
Method that works under time pressure
- Write the position-value table A=1 to Z=26 once at the top of the rough sheet and reuse it.
- Coding-decoding: test a uniform shift first; if it fails, test reversal, then position-sum or positional-difference patterns.
- Syllogism: draw minimal overlapping circles. A 'possibility' conclusion is true unless it contradicts the statements.
- Arrangements: start with the most constrained clue (fixed seat, immediate neighbour, end position).
- Direction sense: keep a north-up sketch and write + or - against every turn.
Worked example
If TRAIN is written as USBJO, how is STATION written? Reasoning: T to U, R to S, A to B, I to J, N to O, so every letter moves one place forward. Apply the same shift to STATION: S to T, T to U, A to B, T to U, I to J, O to P, N to O, giving TUBUJPO. A single uniform shift fits all five letters, so no reversal-based rule needs testing.
Traps that cost marks
- Reading left and right incorrectly in circular arrangements: it depends on whether people face the centre or outside.
- Treating 'all A are B' as reversible into 'all B are A' (invalid), while 'some A are B' is reversible (valid).
- Missing 'either-or' conclusion pairs in syllogism.
- Losing the sign of a movement in direction sense and landing on the mirror-image answer.