Reasoning Ability
Core areas
Puzzles and seating arrangement (floor, box, month, circular and square, linear with unknowns) dominate the section; then syllogism, inequality, coding-decoding, blood relations, direction sense, order-ranking, alphanumeric series, input-output, data sufficiency, and critical reasoning (assumption, course of action, cause-effect, statement-argument).
Approach
Convert every clue into a compact symbol or table. For puzzles, count how many definite placements exist after the first pass; if nothing is fixed, re-read for a negative or exclusive clue. Keep one master diagram and never overwrite it - use a pencil copy for tentative cases.
Traps
- Circular arrangements: 'facing the centre' versus 'facing outside' flips left and right. Decide facing direction before assigning sides.
- Syllogism: 'Some A are B' allows 'Some B are A' but never 'All A are B'. Test each conclusion in every possible Venn diagram, not the most natural one.
- Inequality: 'A ≥ B > C' gives A > C; equality is excluded wherever the strict sign sits. Either-or arises only when both conclusions are individually false but together exhaustive.
- Data sufficiency: decide sufficiency without computing the value.
- Critical reasoning: reject options that merely restate the premise or import outside data.
Rule of thumb
Treat 'X is not adjacent to Y' as a filter applied after you build the base arrangement, not as a starting clue.
Worked example
'All pens are books. Some books are red.' Valid: 'Some books are pens' (conversion of 'all'). Invalid: 'Some pens are red' - the red books may be other books.