Reasoning
Reasoning tests fluid problem-solving rather than recall: series, analogies, coding-decoding, blood relations, direction sense, syllogisms, statement-assumption and data sufficiency. The paper rewards a fixed procedure for each item type, because most errors come from skipping a step rather than from lack of ability.
Core procedures
- Series: check differences, then ratios, then alternating or square/cube patterns.
- Coding: convert letters to positions (A=1 … Z=26) and test a constant shift before assuming a complex rule.
- Blood relations: draw a family tree and mark gender explicitly; never infer gender from a name.
- Syllogisms: draw minimal Venn diagrams; a conclusion follows only if it is true in every diagram consistent with the statements.
- Data sufficiency: decide whether each statement alone is enough before combining them.
Worked example
Statements: All teachers are readers. Some readers are poets. Conclusions: I. Some teachers are poets. II. Some poets are readers. Only II follows. “Some readers are poets” converts validly to “Some poets are readers” (I-type conversion). For I, the readers who are poets may lie entirely outside the teacher set, so it is not certain.
Traps
- Illicit conversion: “All A are B” does not give “All B are A”.
- Reading “some” as “some but not all”; in logic it means “at least one”.
- Importing real-world knowledge into statement-assumption items.
- Ignoring the direction of a turn in direction-sense questions.