General Aptitude - Verbal and Logical Reasoning
Verbal and Logical Reasoning in the Konkur general aptitude paper tests precise language use and formal deduction in Persian. Typical items include synonyms and antonyms, verbal analogies, odd-one-out, sentence completion, ordering, syllogisms, and assumption/conclusion questions.
Core rules
- Analogy: state the exact relation before looking at options (part to whole, cause to effect, function, degree, category). Then apply the same relation to the pair.
- Odd one out: find the shared category; reject the item that belongs to a different level or type.
- Syllogism: use set diagrams or the rules of quantity. All A are B plus all B are C gives all A are C. Some A are B converts to some B are A. Two 'some' premises give no necessary conclusion. 'No A are B' converts to 'no B are A'.
- Assumption: negate the candidate; if the argument collapses, the assumption is necessary.
- Ordering: track temporal and causal markers first, then relative clauses.
Worked example
All poets are readers. Some readers are critics. Which conclusion follows? A) Some poets are critics. B) Some critics are readers. C) All critics are readers. D) No poets are critics. Answer B. 'Some readers are critics' converts to 'some critics are readers'. A is not guaranteed, because the readers who are critics may be outside the poet group. C overgeneralizes 'some' to 'all'. D contradicts nothing but is not supported.
Traps
Using real-world knowledge instead of the stated premises; reversing a conditional; treating 'some' as 'some but not all'; choosing an extreme option.