Analytical Reasoning
What this domain tests
Analytical reasoning items ask you to apply stated rules to a small puzzle: arranging people in a row or around a table, selecting a committee from a group, ordering events in time, or deducing what follows from a conditional statement. No outside knowledge is needed; every answer comes from the rules in the stem, which is exactly why a quick diagram beats a second reading.
Core rules
- Conditionals. If A then B forbids one situation only: A true while B is false. Its valid equivalent is the contrapositive, if not B then not A. The converse, if B then A, is invalid.
- Only if and unless. A only if B means A implies B. A unless B means if not B, then A.
- Selection puzzles. Keep a must-in and must-out list; a rule such as X and Y are always chosen together collapses two items into one slot.
- Ordering puzzles. Fix absolute positions first, then endpoints, then blocks such as immediately after.
- Elimination. Any option that breaks a single stated rule is dead, so you rarely need to construct the full arrangement.
Worked example
Rule: 'If a candidate fails the English cut-off, the candidate is not called for interview.' Ayesha was called for interview. What must be true? Step 1: formalise. Fail (F) implies Not-called (N). Step 2: the stem gives Not-N, because she was called. Step 3: the contrapositive of F implies N is Not-N implies Not-F. So Ayesha did not fail the English cut-off. Note the limit: 'she scored above 50 in English' and 'she passed every other subject' are not supported, because the rule speaks only of the cut-off, not of marks or other subjects.
Traps that cost marks
- Reversing a conditional, i.e. treating if A then B as if B then A.
- Importing real-world assumptions the stem never states.
- Choosing an option that is merely possible when the question asks what must be true.
- Reading all five options repeatedly instead of testing each one against the single rule it violates.