Verbal Reasoning
Verbal Reasoning tests how precisely you can define relationships between words and sentences: analogies, synonyms and antonyms, odd-one-out sets, sentence completion, and ordering of words or sentences. Marks are lost by choosing a pair that is merely associated rather than by identifying the exact relationship.
Analogies: build a bridge sentence
State the link using both stem words, then apply the identical sentence to each option. Frequent links are tool and user, tool and object acted on, part and whole, class and member, cause and effect, degree, and worker and workplace. Direction is part of the relationship: whole : part cannot be answered with part : whole.
Odd-one-out and completion
For odd-one-out, name the property shared by most items and reject the item lacking it. For sentence completion, predict your own word before reading the options, then check tone and grammar fit.
Ordering sentences
Find the opening sentence first, usually a definition or general statement; then follow pronoun and connector cues such as this, therefore, and however to chain the rest.
Worked example
Scalpel : Surgeon :: ?
Bridge: a scalpel is the characteristic tool of a surgeon. Options: (a) brush : painter (b) canvas : gallery (c) hammer : nail (d) needle : cloth. Option (a) is tool : user. Option (c) is tool : object acted on, (d) is tool : material, and (b) is object : place. Answer: (a).
Traps
- Accepting loose association instead of the precise relation.
- Reversing direction between the stem and the answer.
- Ignoring connotation: thrifty is approving, stingy is disapproving.
- In odd-one-out, inventing a category broad enough to admit everything.
- In completion questions, picking a word that fits the blank grammatically but reverses the sentence's logic.