Analytical Reasoning
What the Analytical Reasoning section tests
This section tests deductive structure rather than general intelligence: syllogisms, ordering and seating arrangements, grouping, series, coding–decoding, and assumptions. The safest method is to translate each statement into a diagram or a strict rule.
Core rules
- In categorical logic, All A are B does not imply All B are A.
- Some A are B is symmetrical: it also means Some B are A.
- A valid conclusion must hold in every model that satisfies the premises; one counter-model is enough to reject it.
- For ordering puzzles, list fixed positions first, then apply immediately before/after and not constraints.
- For series, test differences, ratios, alternating patterns, and squares/cubes before guessing.
Worked example
Premises: All officers are graduates. Some graduates are women. Does it follow that some officers are women? Reasoning: no. The women who are graduates may all be outside the officer group. Draw two sets: officers entirely inside graduates, and women overlapping graduates only outside officers. That model satisfies both premises and makes the conclusion false. The conclusion is therefore not valid.
Traps that cost marks
- Converting All A are B into All B are A.
- Treating some as some but not all; in logic it means at least one.
- Rejecting a valid conclusion because it feels unnatural.
- Ignoring a cannot or only condition in a seating puzzle.
- Assuming a cause from a correlation in an assumption question.