Verbal Reasoning
What you must know
This domain covers verbal analogies, word classification (odd-one-out), and logical selection, in which you choose the conclusion that must follow from a short passage. Analogies test relationships: part-to-whole, cause-to-effect, worker-to-tool, category-to-member, degree, and function. Classification tests whether you can name the rule that exactly three or four words share. Logical selection tests whether you can separate what the passage actually states from what you happen to know about the world.
Traps
- Reversed relationships: puppy : dog is young-to-adult; dog : puppy is not.
- Distractors that copy the topic but not the relationship.
- Classification choices that fit loosely; the answer is the one that breaks the shared rule.
- Conclusions that are plausible but unsupported, or that overreach with all, never, or must.
Rule of thumb
Write a precise bridge sentence using both stem words, then substitute each answer pair into that same sentence. If the sentence has to be reworded to fit, the pair is wrong.
Worked example: Drought : famine becomes "A drought can cause a famine." Among the choices, rain : flood fits the identical sentence, famine : drought reverses the direction, and drought : desert shares the topic but not the relationship. Only the first survives.