problem solving verbal reasoning

What is Verbal Reasoning? Definition, Examples and Importance

July 04, 2023

The GRE (Graduate Records Examination) has a complete section attributed to verbal reasoning. The LSATs, which the infamous Mike Ross in Suits always cheats on, has a 3-part verbal reasoning section: Reading Comprehension, Analytical Reasoning, and Logical Reasoning . Last but not least, each of our high school tests involved an annoying English test that we all struggled to conquer.

From determining your acceptance into Graduate or Law school to determining your fate in high school, verbal reasoning is tested everywhere. You can see the importance of verbal reasoning and the fact that it is a must-have in most academically oriented settings.

So what is verbal reasoning, and why is it given such high importance? Let’s explore this in detail.

What is Verbal Reasoning?

Verbal Reasoning is defined as (according to Wikipedia) the process of understanding and reasoning using concepts framed in words through creative thinking rather than simple vocabulary recognition. That sounds a bit complex, doesn't it?

Basically, verbal reasoning is an individual's ability to think with words.

For example, a person who can break down complex topics within 250 characters and put them up as a tweet has a pretty good verbal reasoning ability. Well, that's just one of the skills of people with high verbal reasoning ability.

The key verbal reasoning skills are:

• Identifying patterns in letter sequences
• Problem-solving through words
• Decoding codes of letters and numbers
• Following textual instructions to form a solution

Individuals with high verbal reasoning ability are capable of not only thinking in logical patterns but also conveying their thought in a clear and lucid manner. This also makes them great communicators.

Examples of Verbal Reasoning

Let’s consider an example in which we use verbal reasoning to determine whether a statement is valid based on a given piece of information:

The cost of manufacturing phones in China is twenty percent lesser than the cost of manufacturing phones in Vietnam. Even after adding shipping fees and import taxes, it is cheaper to import phones from China to Vietnam than to manufacture phones in Vietnam.

True or False: Importing phones in Vietnam will cut 20% of the manufacturing jobs in Vietnam.

Answer: False – The text contains no information regarding the manufacturing jobs in Vietnam. Even if that were true, i.e., say, importing phones resulted in lesser manufacturing jobs in the country, there is no evidence that exactly 20% of the jobs will be cut.

This thought process, in which you read or listen to words to gain an understanding and make logical conclusions off of it, involves verbal reasoning.

So far we have seen that major academic institutions value a verbal reasoning ability. But why is it given such importance? More specifically, why is verbal reasoning important in the workplace? We explore this in the next section.

Importance of Verbal Reasoning

David Perell, the founder of Write of Passage - an online course on writing effectively, has this to say in his tweet about how leaders in top businesses feel about writing.

As you can see, positions that are highly competitive and valued are filled in by people who can write and communicate effectively. However, this is not restricted to top management and strategic leadership positions.

Consider a customer service rep responsible for resolving customer issues with a product. Say that they have a low verbal reasoning ability and thus find it difficult to understand the problems faced by the customers. How will they communicate it effectively to the rest of the team so that the issue can be resolved without affecting the performance of the business? When the individuals themselves cannot understand the problem, they definitely cannot make someone else understand it.

You want employees who are capable of understanding instructions, communicating effectively, and also have the ability to solve problems. Verbal reasoning encompasses all of this.

Customer-facing roles, sales associates, marketing roles, and content writing roles are all jobs wherein verbal reasoning is a crucial ability to possess. These roles involve tasks that depend on the employee’s ability to comprehend and communicate detailed information .

• Communicating the problems faced by the business in a clear and effective manner to help resolve them at an efficient pace.
• Pinpointing issues in business reports, documents, and company manuals and developing a logical pathway to resolving these issues.
• Ability to communicate effectively and solve problems together as a part of a team.
• Ability to understand through reading and listening.

All of these tasks mentioned above are key in the workplace. They help you and your organization indulge in clearer communication, more efficient problem solving as well as a positive work culture.

Testing for Verbal Reasoning

Testing for skills early on in your hiring process helps you eliminate a lot of candidates who are unfit for the role. You can then have your pick of the litter from the good ones who remain behind.

Most verbal reasoning tests consist of questions in which the candidate goes through a piece of information and makes inferences. While there are only world problems in verbal reasoning assessments, it tests multiple aspects, such as:

• Read and comprehend written information
• Understand the relationships between words
• Draw logical conclusions from the given information
• Solve problems using verbal reasoning skills

For example, the Verbal Reasoning Test evaluates your problem-solving skills, attention to detail, and ability to think critically . The test evaluates a candidate’s ability to go through extensive textual information and make logical conclusions off of it in a time-constrained environment.

A candidate that can clearly understand such information should also be capable of communicating it effectively. Thus using the right tests prior to the final rounds of your hiring process can help eliminate candidates that are unfit for the role.

On a Final Note

Every job role encompasses a unique set of skills that are valued. However, verbal reasoning plays a key part in each of these roles. From being able to communicate clearly to clearly understand what is being communicated, verbal reasoning is involved everywhere.

Thus, ensure that you test for verbal reasoning ability at your workplace, especially in jobs involving communication, problem-solving, and vocabulary recognition. This can save significant time otherwise spent interviewing the wrong candidates and help you hire the right employees for every role.

Pragnesh is the EiR at Adaface. He loves reading books more than scrolling through social media, which is a big deal if you ask him.

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What is verbal reasoning?

Verbal reasoning is, in a nutshell, thinking with words. ‘As the name suggests, it’s a form of problem-solving based around words and language,’ explains Stephen McConkey of Eleven Plus Exam Papers .

It involves thinking about text, solving word problems, following written instructions to come up with a solution, spotting letter sequences and cracking letter- and number-based codes. Verbal reasoning exams are intended to test a child’s ability to understand and reason using words, and are a test of skill, rather than of learned knowledge.

The theory is that they allow the examining body to build a picture of a child’s potential for critical thinking, problem-solving and ultimately, intelligence.

What sort of questions are involved?

‘It’s generally agreed that there are 21 standard types of verbal reasoning question,’ says Stephen. These include:  

• Finding one letter that will complete two words, e.g. hoo (D) oor
• Finding a word hidden inside another word, e.g. dePENd
• Spotting the odd ones out in a list of words, e.g. apple, pear, banana, CREAM, PUDDING
• Finding the words that mean the same from two lists, e.g. PLAIN/expensive/rich and SIMPLE/money/earnings
• Finding antonyms (opposites) from two lists of words, e.g IN/on/over and through/between/OUT
• Breaking a code where each letter of the alphabet is represented by a different letter or number (e.g. A becomes B, B becomes C, C becomes D, so that ‘cat’ would be written ‘dbu’)

‘Although the majority of verbal reasoning tests are word-based, some are based on numbers,’ adds Stephen. For instance, a verbal reasoning exam could include questions where you have to give the next number in a sequence (1, 5, 9, 13…), or where you have to solve a sum where the numbers are represented by letters (so if A=1, B=2, C=3, D=4 and so on, C+A=4). Although these questions require a basic grounding in maths, the main principle is the same as for word-based verbal reasoning problems: to test your child’s ability to solve problems based on written instructions.

Prepare Your Child For The 11+ Exam

• Essential 11+ English and maths skills
• Verbal and non-verbal reasoning questions
• Reading comprehension worksheets
• CLOZE test worksheets

What skills and knowledge do children need for verbal reasoning tests?

‘Children perform best in verbal reasoning tests if they’re widely read and have an extensive vocabulary,’ says Stephen. They need a solid grasp of synonyms (words that have the same meaning), antonyms (words that mean the opposite of each other) and plurals , good spelling skills, and strong maths skills. ‘A good general knowledge is also needed for verbal reasoning tests,’ Stephen adds. Even if your child understands the question and can follow the written directions, if one of the possible words in the answer is unfamiliar, they may trip up.

Why can verbal reasoning be hard to master?

Some children have a knack for verbal reasoning, but for others, it doesn’t come so naturally. And it’s not just about being ‘good at literacy’ – children who can read and spell very well may still struggle with some of the code-based questions. Moreover, verbal reasoning isn’t a curriculum-based skill, so your child won’t be taught the techniques at school, and while they may make sense once they’ve been explained (and practised), at first glance, they can be baffling.

Children also need to be good at reading questions carefully, and following the directions exactly, which can be an issue for those who tend to rush or skim-read. ‘However, research shows that with practice, children can improve their verbal reasoning,’ says Stephen.

Helping your child practise verbal reasoning at home

‘The best thing you can do to improve your child’s verbal reasoning is encourage them to read,’ says Stephen. ‘Children who read widely have a big head-start, as they’re building their vocabulary and general knowledge.’

You can also try the following tips to boost your child’s verbal reasoning skills:  

• Play word games and quizzes, for example, spotting the odd one out from a list of words, giving a synonym or antonym for a word, solving anagrams.
• Encourage your child to do crosswords and word searches , and play games like Hangman.
• Play word-based family games like Scrabble and Boggle.
• Set your child spelling challenges, focusing particularly on commonly misspelt words (there/their/they’re) and homophones (words that sound the same but are spelt differently, like fair and fare).
• Become a family of culture vultures, taking your children to museums, shows and exhibitions to build their general knowledge.

To help your child practise verbal and non-verbal reasoning for the Year 7 CATs  or the Eleven Plus our Verbal and non-verbal reasoning: an introduction learning pack offers 90 practice questions and answers as well as a general overview of secondary school selection tests.

TheSchoolRun's 11+ Learning Journey is a complete guide to 11+ preparation for children and parents and includes 48 verbal reasoning explanatory worksheets.

You can also download free 11+ vocabulary flashcards to help your child increase their vocabulary.

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Verbal Reasoning

Verbal reasoning: unraveling the power of language and logic.

Verbal Reasoning is a cognitive ability that encompasses the skills to comprehend, analyze, and interpret information presented in written or spoken forms. It involves an individual's capacity to understand the meaning of words, recognize relationships and patterns, and draw logical conclusions. This crucial cognitive skill plays a fundamental role in various aspects of life, including education, professional settings, and everyday problem-solving.

Understanding the Essence of Verbal Reasoning

At its core, Verbal Reasoning involves the ability to evaluate and manipulate written or verbal information effectively. It encompasses a wide range of linguistic capabilities, such as vocabulary, grammar, critical thinking, and comprehension. Possessing strong verbal reasoning skills empowers individuals to decipher complex ideas, make connections between concepts, and solve problems with clarity and precision.

Key Components of Verbal Reasoning

Vocabulary : A rich and diverse vocabulary provides the foundation for effective Verbal Reasoning. This includes knowing the meanings and nuances of words, as well as their contextual usage.

Reading Comprehension : The skill to extract meaning from written material, understand the main ideas, and identify relevant details is integral to Verbal Reasoning. It involves the ability to grasp the author's intent, follow logical arguments, and evaluate information critically.

Analogical Reasoning : Verbal Reasoning often entails the ability to identify relationships between words and concepts. Drawing parallels, recognizing patterns, and making logical inferences from these relationships are key elements of this cognitive ability.

Logical Deduction : Verbal Reasoning also involves the capacity to apply logical thinking to solve problems. It requires the ability to extract relevant information, recognize assumptions, and draw valid conclusions based on the given data.

Verbal Fluency : Verbal Reasoning entails the ability to express thoughts and ideas fluently and coherently. It involves effective communication, clear articulation, and the proper organization of thoughts.

Importance of Verbal Reasoning in Various Contexts

Verbal Reasoning is crucial in academic pursuits and careers that require strong communication and analytical skills. Individuals with exceptional Verbal Reasoning abilities excel in fields such as law, journalism, marketing, research, teaching, and management. Additionally, Verbal Reasoning is essential for standardized tests, such as admissions exams, aptitude tests, and language proficiency assessments.

Enhancing Verbal Reasoning Skills

While some individuals naturally possess strong Verbal Reasoning abilities, others can develop and enhance these skills through practice and targeted exercises. Engaging in regular reading, challenging oneself with puzzles or riddles, and actively participating in discussions can contribute to the improvement of Verbal Reasoning capabilities.

Unlock Your Verbal Reasoning Potential

Understanding the significance of Verbal Reasoning provides the groundwork for personal and intellectual growth. By further honing this cognitive ability, individuals can unlock the power of language and logic, enabling them to excel in various educational, professional, and problem-solving endeavors.

Assessing a Candidate's Verbal Reasoning Skill Level: Make Informed Hiring Decisions

Assessing a candidate's Verbal Reasoning skill level is paramount in making well-informed hiring decisions. Verbal Reasoning plays a fundamental role in many professional settings, as it directly impacts an individual's ability to communicate effectively, analyze information, and solve complex problems. By evaluating a candidate's Verbal Reasoning abilities, organizations can identify top talent, predict their potential performance, and ensure successful outcomes.

Gaining Insight into Communication Aptitude

Communication is the backbone of any successful organization. Employing individuals with strong Verbal Reasoning skills ensures clear and concise communication throughout all levels of the company. Candidates who excel in Verbal Reasoning possess the ability to articulate their thoughts, express ideas persuasively, and engage in productive dialogue. Assessing Verbal Reasoning allows recruiters to gauge a candidate's communication aptitude and ensure that they can effectively convey ideas, collaborate with team members, and interact with clients or customers.

Assessing Problem-Solving Abilities

Verbal Reasoning and problem-solving skills are intricately linked. Candidates proficient in Verbal Reasoning possess the ability to analyze complex information, identify patterns, and draw logical conclusions. By assessing a candidate's Verbal Reasoning skills, companies can evaluate their problem-solving aptitude, critical thinking abilities, and their capacity to make sound decisions. This evaluation becomes especially crucial for roles that involve handling intricate tasks, dealing with data-driven challenges, or making strategic business decisions.

Predicting Adaptability and Learning Potential

A candidate's Verbal Reasoning skills can provide valuable insights into their adaptability and learning potential. Those with strong Verbal Reasoning abilities are often quick learners, able to absorb new information efficiently, and adapt to changing circumstances. Assessing a candidate's Verbal Reasoning skill level enables organizations to gauge their capacity for continuous learning and professional growth. Identifying individuals with high Verbal Reasoning aptitude ensures they can thrive in dynamic work environments, grasp new concepts swiftly, and contribute to the company's success.

Fueling Organizational Success

Employing candidates with exceptional Verbal Reasoning skills directly contributes to the overall success of an organization. Those with strong Verbal Reasoning abilities can enhance problem-solving capabilities, streamline communication channels, and foster a culture of critical thinking within a company. By assessing a candidate's Verbal Reasoning skill level, organizations can identify individuals who are likely to excel in their roles, drive innovation, and contribute to the company's long-term prosperity.

Make Informed Hiring Decisions with Alooba

With Alooba's comprehensive assessment platform, organizations can efficiently evaluate a candidate's Verbal Reasoning skill level and make informed hiring decisions. Alooba offers a range of Verbal Reasoning tests designed to assess a candidate's vocabulary, reading comprehension, logical deduction, and verbal fluency, among other essential components of Verbal Reasoning. Unlock the power of Verbal Reasoning assessments with Alooba and ensure that your organization hires top talent equipped with the skills needed for success.

Assessing a Candidate’s Verbal Reasoning Skill Level with Alooba: The Path to Accurate Evaluation

Alooba offers a comprehensive and efficient solution to assess a candidate's Verbal Reasoning skill level, allowing organizations to make accurate and informed hiring decisions. With Alooba's user-friendly and intuitive assessment platform, you can evaluate a candidate's Verbal Reasoning abilities through targeted tests specifically designed to measure their vocabulary, reading comprehension, analogical reasoning, logical deduction, and verbal fluency.

Tailored Verbal Reasoning Tests for Precise Evaluation

Alooba provides a range of Verbal Reasoning tests that suit the unique requirements of your organization. These tests are carefully crafted to gauge a candidate's proficiency in different aspects of Verbal Reasoning. Assess their vocabulary knowledge, ability to comprehend written information, and their logical deduction skills. With customizable test options, you can align the assessment to match the specific Verbal Reasoning requirements of the role you're hiring for.

Seamless Integration and Candidate Invitations

Efficiency is key when it comes to candidate assessments. Alooba allows for seamless integration with your existing ATS (Applicant Tracking System), enabling you to seamlessly transition candidates from the application process to the Verbal Reasoning assessment stage. Inviting candidates is a breeze with Alooba's candidate invitation feature, offering flexibility through email invitations, bulk uploads, ATS integration, or self-registration links. Simplify the assessment process and reduce administrative hassle with Alooba.

Auto-Grading for Swift and Objective Results

Alooba's Verbal Reasoning assessments are designed to provide swift results while ensuring objectivity. With built-in auto-grading capabilities, you can quickly determine a candidate's skill level without bias. The automated grading process saves time and resources, allowing you to focus on evaluating the broader candidate pool effectively.

In-Depth Insights and High-Level Overview

Alooba goes beyond simple test scores by providing comprehensive, in-depth insights into a candidate's Verbal Reasoning capabilities. After the assessment, you will gain access to a high-level overview of each candidate's performance. Identify their strengths and weaknesses, assess their problem-solving skills, and pinpoint areas for further development. These insights empower you to make well-informed hiring decisions based on a candidate's Verbal Reasoning skill level.

Enhance Your Hiring Process with Alooba

Alooba's vision is to create a world where everyone can get the job they deserve. By using Alooba's Verbal Reasoning assessments, you can unlock the potential of candidates and find the perfect fit for your organization. Streamline your hiring process, ensure accurate evaluations, and discover top talent with Alooba's end-to-end assessment platform. Drive your organization forward with skilled individuals who possess exceptional Verbal Reasoning capabilities.

Exploring the Subtopics of Verbal Reasoning: A Comprehensive Overview

Verbal Reasoning encompasses various subtopics that collectively contribute to an individual's overall proficiency in this cognitive skill. Understanding these subtopics provides further insight into the depth and breadth of Verbal Reasoning. By assessing candidates across these areas, organizations can gain a comprehensive understanding of their Verbal Reasoning abilities and make informed decisions in the hiring process.

Vocabulary and Word Meaning

One crucial aspect of Verbal Reasoning is the understanding and command of vocabulary. Candidates with strong Verbal Reasoning skills possess an extensive repertoire of words and their meanings. They can accurately interpret and use words in context, demonstrating a nuanced understanding of language. Evaluating a candidate's vocabulary knowledge provides insights into their lexical range, precision in communication, and ability to comprehend complex texts.

Reading Comprehension and Critical Analysis

Successful Verbal Reasoning involves more than just understanding individual words; it requires the ability to comprehend written information in its entirety. Assessing candidates' reading comprehension skills allows organizations to evaluate their capacity to grasp the main ideas, infer meanings, and analyze the underlying messages within a text. Strong Verbal Reasoning skills enable candidates to critically evaluate written material, detect biases, and draw well-supported conclusions.

Analogical Reasoning and Logical Connections

Analogical reasoning is a fundamental component of Verbal Reasoning, focusing on recognizing relationships and making connections between different words, phrases, or concepts. Candidates proficient in analogical reasoning can identify patterns and similarities, enabling them to draw logical inferences and solve problems effectively. Assessing candidates' analogical reasoning skills helps evaluate their ability to recognize relationships, apply logic, and think critically.

Logical Deduction and Inference

Logical deduction is another essential subtopic within Verbal Reasoning, involving the ability to draw conclusions based on available information. Candidates with strong logical deduction skills can analyze data, identify relevant details, and make well-reasoned inferences. Assessing candidates' logical deduction abilities enables organizations to determine their capacity for analytical thinking, problem-solving, and decision-making in complex scenarios.

Verbal Fluency and Expressive Communication

Verbal Reasoning proficiency extends beyond comprehension and analysis. It also encompasses the ability to express thoughts and ideas fluently and coherently. Candidates with strong verbal fluency can articulate their insights effectively, engage in persuasive communication, and contribute to productive discussions. Assessing candidates' verbal fluency helps evaluate their communication skills, ensuring they can convey information clearly, engage with stakeholders, and collaborate seamlessly in team environments.

Unleash the Power of Verbal Reasoning with Alooba

Alooba's comprehensive Verbal Reasoning assessments cover each of these subtopics, allowing organizations to evaluate candidates across all dimensions of Verbal Reasoning. Gain a holistic understanding of candidates' vocabulary, reading comprehension, analogical reasoning, logical deduction, and verbal fluency skills. With Alooba's assessment platform, you can accurately assess Verbal Reasoning abilities, make data-driven decisions, and unlock the potential of top talent in your hiring process.

The Applications of Verbal Reasoning: Unlocking Potential Across Domains

Verbal Reasoning finds broad applications across various domains, playing a pivotal role in professional, academic, and everyday contexts. This cognitive ability enables individuals to excel in numerous areas by leveraging their language skills, logical thinking, and problem-solving capabilities. Understanding how Verbal Reasoning is used allows organizations to harness its power and make informed decisions in selecting candidates with strong verbal reasoning abilities.

Academics and Education

Verbal Reasoning holds significant importance in academia, influencing learning, comprehension, and critical thinking. Proficiency in Verbal Reasoning facilitates reading and understanding complex texts, analyzing and evaluating arguments, and formulating articulate written responses. Students with strong Verbal Reasoning skills excel in subjects that demand language proficiency, such as literature, history, philosophy, and social sciences. Assessing Verbal Reasoning abilities allows educational institutions to identify students with the potential for academic success.

Professional Communication

Effective professional communication is built upon the foundations of Verbal Reasoning. Individuals with strong Verbal Reasoning skills can convey ideas clearly and concisely, adapt their communication style to various contexts, and engage in persuasive discourse. Whether it's presenting ideas, negotiating contracts, or delivering impactful speeches, Verbal Reasoning plays a crucial role in fostering successful interactions within the professional realm. Assessing Verbal Reasoning abilities helps organizations identify candidates who can communicate effectively and contribute to their overall success.

Problem-solving and Decision-making

Verbal Reasoning is closely linked to problem-solving and decision-making abilities. Individuals with strong Verbal Reasoning skills possess the capacity to analyze complex information, identify patterns, and draw logical conclusions to reach informed decisions. From strategizing business approaches to resolving conflicts, Verbal Reasoning enables individuals to navigate challenges effectively and make well-reasoned choices. Assessing Verbal Reasoning abilities allows organizations to identify candidates with strong problem-solving skills, further enhancing their ability to innovate and succeed.

Legal and Analytical Roles

Verbal Reasoning is of particular significance in legal and analytical roles, where interpreting and utilizing complex information is paramount. Lawyers utilize Verbal Reasoning to analyze legal documents, construct persuasive arguments, and present evidence convincingly. Similarly, analysts rely on Verbal Reasoning to assess data, identify trends, and draw meaningful insights. Assessing Verbal Reasoning abilities enables organizations to identify individuals with the necessary skills for success in these fields and make sound hiring decisions.

Everyday Problem-solving

Verbal Reasoning is not limited to professional or academic settings—it is also valuable in everyday problem-solving. Whether it's resolving conflicts, making informed purchasing decisions, or navigating social interactions, strong Verbal Reasoning skills enhance an individual's ability to communicate, analyze information, and make sound judgments. Assessing Verbal Reasoning abilities allows organizations to identify candidates who possess the cognitive skills needed to excel not only in their professional roles but also in their daily lives.

Maximize Your Potential with Verbal Reasoning Assessments

Unlock the potential of Verbal Reasoning by utilizing Alooba's comprehensive assessments. Assessing candidates' Verbal Reasoning abilities enables organizations to identify top talent, foster effective communication, drive problem-solving capabilities, and enhance decision-making processes. With Alooba's user-friendly platform, you can efficiently evaluate Verbal Reasoning skills and shape a workforce that excels across diverse domains. Empower your organization and pave the way for success with the power of Verbal Reasoning assessments from Alooba.

Roles That Demand Strong Verbal Reasoning Skills

Verbal Reasoning skills are crucial in various roles where effective communication, critical thinking, and problem-solving abilities are essential. Candidates with strong Verbal Reasoning skills are well-equipped to excel in these positions, leveraging their language proficiency and logical reasoning capabilities. Explore the following roles that require excellent Verbal Reasoning skills to fulfill their responsibilities:

Data Analyst : Data analysts, responsible for analyzing and interpreting complex datasets, rely on Verbal Reasoning to comprehend and articulate data-driven insights clearly.

Data Scientist : Data scientists employ Verbal Reasoning to communicate the results of their analytical models, explaining complex statistical concepts to non-technical stakeholders.

Data Engineer : Data engineers transform raw data into usable formats, leveraging Verbal Reasoning to understand and communicate the requirements of various data pipelines effectively.

Insights Analyst : Insights analysts draw on Verbal Reasoning skills to analyze market trends and consumer behavior, providing valuable insights to inform strategic decision-making.

Marketing Analyst : Effective communication is crucial for marketing analysts, who interpret data and craft persuasive narratives that drive successful marketing campaigns.

Product Analyst : Product analysts rely on Verbal Reasoning to analyze user feedback, communicate product requirements effectively, and collaborate with cross-functional teams.

Financial Analyst : Financial analysts utilize Verbal Reasoning to analyze financial data, communicate investment insights, and articulate recommendations to stakeholders.

Fraud Analyst : Fraud analysts benefit from strong Verbal Reasoning skills to examine patterns, identify anomalies, and communicate findings related to fraudulent activities.

HR Analyst : HR analysts rely on Verbal Reasoning to analyze employee data, facilitate effective communication between departments, and provide insights for talent management strategies.

GIS Data Analyst : GIS data analysts use Verbal Reasoning to interpret geospatial data, communicate insights about geographic patterns, and support decision-making in various industries.

Pricing Analyst : Pricing analysts employ Verbal Reasoning to analyze market trends, understand pricing dynamics, and communicate pricing strategies to optimize revenue.

Product Manager : Product managers make use of Verbal Reasoning to articulate product visions, communicate requirements, and collaborate with cross-functional teams to drive product success.

In these roles and many others, strong Verbal Reasoning skills are vital for effective communication, critical analysis, and data-driven decision-making. Alooba's comprehensive Verbal Reasoning assessments can help identify candidates with the necessary skills for these roles, ensuring that your organization finds the top talent equipped to thrive in their positions.

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Feeling vexed by the GRE Verbal section? Or just not sure how to maximize your score? You’ve come to the right place!

In this total guide to acing GRE Verbal, we’ll give a comprehensive overview of everything you need to know to get a great score. We’ll start with a quick bird’s-eye-view of the section, and then go in-depth on each question type. After that we’ll go over how to prepare for the test—with a special section on addressing common weaknesses. Finally, we’ll suggest some strategies for success on test day and provide a couple of extra tips for those of you who are going for that perfect 170!

The GRE Verbal Section: An Overview

The GRE Verbal Reasoning section tests your high-level reading and language skills. You’ll be asked vocabulary questions about choosing the appropriate word(s) for a given sentence based on context, and reading comprehension questions that have to do with parsing the main ideas and interpreting the details of complex passages.

Like the Quantitative section, the GRE Verbal Section is a 40-question test split into two 20-question subsections. It’s scored on a scale from 130-170, in one-point increments.

The GRE is section-adaptive, which means your performance on the first 20-question subsection determines the difficulty of questions in the second 20-question subsection. If you want a score towards the higher end of the scale, you need to be able to access that more difficult second subsection.

Each 20-question section will have the following approximate question breakdown:

• About 10 questions on vocab, split between sentence equivalence and text completion questions.
• About 10 questions on reading comprehension, split between traditional multiple choice, multi-answer multiple choice (select all correct answers from a list), and select-in-passage questions.

We’ll do a deep dive on each of these question types in the next section.

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GRE Verbal Questions: All 5 Types Explained

In this section, we’ll explain each GRE Verbal question type, provide an example and explanation, and give tips on how to approach those questions.

GRE Verbal Vocab Questions

There are two kinds of vocab questions: sentence equivalence and text completion.

Sentence Equivalence

Sentence equivalence questions give you a sentence with one blank, and you need to pick two words from a selection of six that could both complete the sentence and give the sentence the same general meaning.

Example Question

Here’s an example of a sentence equivalence question from the ETS website.

Directions: “Select the two answer choices that, when used to complete the sentence, fit the meaning of the sentence as a whole and produce completed sentences that are alike in meaning.”

Question: Although it does contain some pioneering ideas, one would hardly characterize the work as __________.

• conventional

Explanation

The key signal word here is “although,” which lets us know that the second half of the sentence is going to offer a counterpoint to the first half. So though the work has “pioneering ideas” [point], one would not characterize the work as pioneering overall [counterpoint]. We’re looking for synonyms of pioneering to complete the sentence, then.

“Orthodox” and “conventional” are antonyms of pioneering—let’s eliminate those. “Eccentric” is tempting, but a work can be strange without being pioneering, so it’s not quite right. “Original”—that could definitely work. “Trifling” means frivolous or inconsequential, which isn’t right. That leaves “innovative,” which is definitely a synonym for “pioneering.” The only answers that really work, then, are “original” and “innovative.”

GRE Verbal Tips for Sentence Equivalence

• While a lot of the individual words might make seem like they make sense in the context of the sentence, the two words have to give the sentence a similar meaning. If you’re pretty sure of one word, that can help you narrow down your choices for the other word; you can eliminate any choices that would make the sentence mean something totally different.
• However, don’t assume that just because you’ve found two synonyms that you’ve got the right answer; the makers of the GRE often put in multiple synonym pairs to trip you up! In the question above, “orthodox” and “traditional” have similar meaning, but they aren’t the right choices because the sentence doesn’t really make sense with them.

Text Completion

Text completion questions give you a sentence or short passage (up to six sentences) missing one to three words. You’ll need to select the word(s) that best complete the passage.

For passages with one missing word, you’ll select the correct word from five choices. For passages with two or three missing words, each blank will have three possible answer choices. In all cases, you’ll select the word(s) you want to choose by clicking on them. For single-blank questions, this will just be from a list; for multiple-blank questions, you’ll have a table where each column represents your choices for a particular blank.

Here’s an example of text completion from the ETS website so you can see what this looks like in action.

Directions: “For each blank select one entry from the corresponding column of choices. Fill all blanks in the way that best completes the text.”

Question: Vain and prone to violence, Caravaggio could not handle success: the more his (i)__________ as an artist increased, the more (ii)__________ his life became.

The key phrase here is “Caravaggio could not handle success.” This indicates that the rest of the sentence is going to elaborate on how he handled success poorly. So the blank in the phrase “the more his <blank> as an artist increased” is going to be a synonym for “success.”

Temperance is definitely wrong—it means “restraint” or “abstinence from alcohol.” That leaves “notoriety,” which means “fame,” but with a potentially negative implication (think “notorious”). It’s tempting, but “eminence”—fame with the implication of skill or success—is a better synonym for “success.”

Since we know Caravaggio could not handle success, we are looking for a negative word to describe his life once he became successful for the second blank. “Tumultuous” (meaning “chaotic,” like a tumult) is the only choice that’s clearly negative. (“Providential” means “lucky”—think “providence,” like “divine providence”—and “dispassionate” means “detached.”) So, the correct answer is “eminence” and then “tumultuous.”

GRE Verbal Tips for Text Completion

• A really important thing for text completion is word valence. What do I mean by this? Word valence is whether a word has a positive or a negative tone overall. You can usually figure out whether a word should have a positive or a negative connotation from sentence context, even if you can’t exactly figure out the word is. For example, in the above question, in the first blank, “the more his _______ as an artist increased,” it’s pretty clear from context that this should be a positive word. This actually helps us pick between “notoriety” and “eminence” even though they have similar meanings—“notoriety” has a negative valence, while “eminence” has a positive one.
• If you aren’t familiar with a word in the list, try to think if you know any similar words. For blank (ii) above, you may not be familiar with “tumultuous,” but have you heard the word “tumult”? Or maybe you don’t know “providential,” but you know “providence” and you have a sense that it means protection or care. Any information you can leverage about words you do know can help you figure out the right choice when you aren’t totally sure what all the words mean.

GRE Verbal Reading Comprehension Questions

There are three kinds of reading comprehension questions: multiple choice, multiple-answer multiple choice, and select-in-passage. All reading comprehension example questions come from ETS and are based on the following example passage: ( See passage and questions from ETS here ).

Reviving the practice of using elements of popular music in classical composition, an approach that had been in hibernation in the United States during the 1960s, composer Philip Glass (born 1937) embraced the ethos of popular music in his compositions. Glass based two symphonies on music by rock musicians David Bowie and Brian Eno, but the symphonies’ sound is distinctively his. Popular elements do not appear out of place in Glass’s classical music, which from its early days has shared certain harmonies and rhythms with rock music. Yet this use of popular elements has not made Glass a composer of popular music. His music is not a version of popular music packaged to attract classical listeners; it is high art for listeners steeped in rock rather than the classics.

Multiple Choice

Multiple choice questions are pretty straightforward, at least in format.

Directions: Select only one answer choice.

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Question: The passage addresses which of the following issues related to Glass’s use of popular elements in his classical compositions?

• How it is regarded by listeners who prefer rock to the classics
• How it has affected the commercial success of Glass’s music
• Whether it has contributed to a revival of interest among other composers in using popular elements in their compositions
• Whether it has had a detrimental effect on Glass’s reputation as a composer of classical music
• Whether it has caused certain of Glass’s works to be derivative in quality

This question wants to know what the passage says about “issues related to Glass’s use of popular elements in his classical compositions.” Let’s go through the answers to see if any are supported by the passage.

Choice (A) says “how it [Glass’ use of popular elements] is regarded by listeners who prefer rock to the classics.” If you look back up at the passage, you can see that the passage doesn’t mention people who prefer rock music at all. Choice (A) can’t be correct; let’s move on. Choice (B) refers to Glass’ commercial success, but again, the passage doesn’t mention anything about Glass’ profits or popularity. Choice (C) discusses Glass’ effects on other composers. Other composers aren’t mentioned—just popular musicians Brian Eno and David Bowie.

We are left with choices (D) and (E) as the only possible answers at this point. Choice (D) talks about Glass’ reputation as a composer. The passage doesn’t say anything explicit about his reputation; for all we know, everyone but the author hates Philip Glass. This leaves (E)— “whether [Glass’ use of popular elements] has caused certain of Glass’ works to be derivative in quality.” If you look in the passage, the author asserts about Glass’ symphonies based on works by Eno and Bowie that “the symphonies’ sound is distinctly his.” This does address whether or not the works are derivative by asserting that they are not. (E) is the correct answer.

Tips for Multiple Choice Reading Comprehension Questions:

• Rely on evidence from the passage. This is the most important strategy for ALL reading comprehension questions. There might only be a few words in the passage that directly address the correct answer, as in the above question, where all we get on the issue of whether or not Glass’ works are derivative is the phrase that the “symphonies’ sound is distinctly his.” This is sparse—but it’s there, and it is responsive to whether or not his works are derivative. There will always be concrete evidence of some kind in the passage to support the correct answer. Don’t get tricked by answer choices that aren’t directly contradicted by the passage but that don’t actually have any evidence present— ETS loves to include choices like this.
• With that said, don’t try to absorb every detail of the passage on a first pass-through. We’ll discuss developing a strategy to address passages later in the article, but it’s far better to read passages for main ideas first and then look back at the passage for more details when you are trying to select the right answer.

Multi-Answer Multiple Choice

In multiple-answer multiple choice GRE Verbal questions, you’ll be given three numbered choices and need to select all that apply.

Directions: Consider each of the three choices separately and select all that apply.

Question: The passage suggests that Glass’s work displays which of the following qualities?

• A return to the use of popular music in classical compositions
• An attempt to elevate rock music to an artistic status more closely approximating that of classical music
• A long-standing tendency to incorporate elements from two apparently disparate musical styles

Explanation:

Since we need to pick each statement that applies, let’s consider each of them separately.

First, does Glass’s work display “a return to the use of popular music in classical compositions”? If we look back at the passage, we can see that the very first phrase is “Reviving the practice of using elements of popular music in classical composition” about Glass’s work. (A) is correct!

Let’s move on to (B). Does Glass’s work display “an attempt to elevate rock music to an artistic status more closely approximating that of classical music”? You might think the answer is yes because Glass is an artistic composer who uses rock elements. But it’s critical that we actually look back at details in the passage. Then we’ll see that it says that “this use of popular elements has not made Glass a composer of popular music.” If Glass doesn’t compose popular—i.e. rock—music, then he can’t be attempting to “elevate” rock music. He’s simply incorporating rock elements in classical music, which already has “artistic status.” So (B) isn’t correct.

Moving on to (C), does Glass’s work display “a long-standing tendency to incorporate elements from two apparently disparate musical styles”? We know that Glass incorporates rock elements into his classical compositions. So he does “incorporate elements” of “disparate musical styles.” But is it a “long-standing tendency?” The passage says Glass “revive[d] the practice,” which had “been in hibernation.” This suggests that there was a history of combining musical styles. That could be described as a “long-standing tendency.” (C) is also correct. That leaves us with (A) and (C) as our answers.

GRE Verbal Tips for Multiple-Answer Multiple-Choice Questions

• You have seven possible answer choice combinations for these questions (A, B, C, A&B, A&C, B&C, A&B&C), but don’t be overwhelmed by this. Consider each statement individually and assess it on its own merits without considering any of the others. For other question styles, comparing answer choices is smart because there will be one best answer. For this kind of question, it’s much better to treat each statement as a mini-question of its own. Does the statement apply to the passage? Yes or no?
• For a statement to be correct, every part of that statement has to be correct. For example, in the above statement (C), we didn’t just have to determine if Glass combined disparate elements of two styles—we had to determine if there was a “long-standing tendency.” You have to consider all parts of each statement. Don’t ignore a single word!
• As in other reading comprehension questions, rely on what’s in the passage for evidence. If you have to make any logical leaps or inferences with no direct evidence from the text, it’s not the right answer.

Select-in-Passage

In select-in-passage questions for GRE Verbal, you will be directed to select the sentence that best fulfills a particular criteria. Then you will literally click the sentence in the passage on your screen to select your answer.

Directions/Question: Select the sentence that distinguishes two ways of integrating rock and classical music. [Note: in the actual GRE Verbal section, you will hover your cursor over the passage and click on the sentence you want].

• Reviving the practice of using elements of popular music in classical composition, an approach that had been in hibernation in the United States during the 1960s, composer Philip Glass (born 1937) embraced the ethos of popular music in his compositions.
• Glass based two symphonies on music by rock musicians David Bowie and Brian Eno, but the symphonies’ sound is distinctively his.
• Popular elements do not appear out of place in Glass’s classical music, which from its early days has shared certain harmonies and rhythms with rock music.
• Yet this use of popular elements has not made Glass a composer of popular music.
• His music is not a version of popular music packaged to attract classical listeners; it is high art for listeners steeped in rock rather than the classics.

The key thing we are looking for here is a sentence with two ways to integrate rock and classical music. Let’s go through it sentence-by-sentence:

• The first sentence only talks about one way: “using elements of popular music in classical composition.”
• The second sentence continues to talk about this one way, just with a specific example.
• The third sentence continues to talk about one way—using popular elements in “Glass’s classical music.”
• The fourth sentence seems a little ambiguous at first—it mentions his use of popular elements has not made him a “composer of popular music,” which suggests a second option. But that doesn’t really delineate two ways of integrating rock and classical, just two kinds of composers—classical and popular.
• The last sentence, finally, presents two different ways of integrating rock and classical: a “version of popular music packaged to attract classical listeners,” one way, is contrasted against Glass’s method of “high art for listeners steeped in rock rather than the classics,” another way. Since the last sentence is the only one that really presents two ways to integrate rock and classical, it has to be the right choice.

GRE Verbal Tips for Select-in-Passage Questions

• A key part of select-in-passage questions is choosing the best sentence. So if there are two sentences that both seem like they might kind of work, you need to assess which one answers the question in the most complete and direct way. Again, I can’t reiterate enough that using evidence from the passage is the essential reading comprehension strategy —you’ll know the best sentence because it will have the clearest evidence that it fulfills whatever criteria you need to select for.

How to Study for GRE Verbal

Before you start preparing in earnest, there are two things you need to do: establish a baseline and set a goal score for the GRE Verbal Reasoning section.

To establish a baseline, take a complete, scored Verbal section (that would be two subsections or 40 questions). I advise taking an entire PowerPrep test to set your baseline for the entire test anyways—it forms an essential part of any GRE study plan . But since we’re discussing Verbal right now, I’ll focus on Verbal. The Verbal score you get at the very beginning of your prep process is your baseline. Once you’ve established this baseline, you need to figure out a goal score.

Your goal score for a given section just needs to be a high enough score to not be a barrier to admission. How do you figure this out? Look up the average GRE Verbal scores for all of the programs that you’re interested in. Take the highest number, add 1-2 points for safety, and that’s your goal score. You can see more on setting a goal score here , including advice on what to do if your programs don’t give much score information.

So once you’ve set a goal score, you can get a decent idea of how long you’ll need to study to bring your baseline up to your goal score. We have the following estimates for the hours it will take to improve a certain point amount:

• 5 points = 40 hours
• 10 points = 80 hours
• 20 points = 160 hours
• 30 points = 240 hours

So if your baseline is 155, and you need to get up to 160, expect to spend about 40 hours studying.

Once you’ve set a goal score, there are two overall prongs of attack you’ll need to consider when you prepare for the GRE Verbal section: content/skills (the underlying foundational material the GRE is testing) and strategy (how you actually approach questions and the overall test. We discuss how best to approach the two prongs below.

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GRE Verbal Content and Skills Practice

There are a few key content and skills areas to work on for GRE Verbal. We’ll detail each—and how to work on it—below.

Learning GRE Vocabulary

A big part of GRE success is learning vocabulary. As you might imagine, it’s very hard to answer sentence equivalence and text completion questions if you aren’t familiar with any of the answers. Even beyond that, a strong vocabulary makes it much easier to parse the difficult passages you’ll be faced with for reading comprehension.

There are two parts to learning vocab: simple memorization and vocab-in-context. Both are critical parts of the vocabulary process.

For simple memorization, your best bet is the friendly flashcard. We have our own flashcard PDF , as well as reviews of other flashcard sets you might consider. When you are drilling those cards, I recommend using the waterfall method  to ensure you’re really memorizing every word. If you want to be able to review your flashcards online, you can use Quizlet , although you can’t do the waterfall method with their interface so I recommend also making hard copies.

You might think that after memorizing 1000 vocab flash cards that you’re all set. But that’s only part of the equation. You also need to make sure that you actually understand the words in context —so you know how to use them and how to understand them being used by others. This will also help you actually remember the words and what they mean.

There are a couple things you can do to work on your in-context vocabulary. First, you can try writing out sentences with your vocab words to make sure you really know how they are used in context. You can also read high-level publications and make note of how the words you learned are used there. When you find yourself using the words in conversation or in writing fairly naturally, you know that you’ve really learned them.

Reading Comprehension for Complex GRE Passages

As you might imagine, the best way to improve your reading comprehension is to read a lot. But don’t just go for quantity—you should read things that are topically similar to what you’ll be faced with on the GRE. Try to read a diverse array of articles from publications with a high reading level like the Atlantic , the New York Times , the Economist , Nature , and so on. Because there are often science passages on the GRE, you can even try reading abstracts from scientific studies on PubMed . Can you figure out the main hypothesis and results of the study from the abstract, even if it’s in an area you aren’t familiar with?

As you read articles, make sure you really understand what’s being said. What’s the main idea? What evidence does the author advance to support their position? Do they present any counterpoints? If you can understand the argumentative and rhetorical structure of complex articles, you’ll be all set for GRE Verbal Reasoning.

Identifying Signal Words

Signal words and phrases tell you important contextual information about the sentence or passage—information that will help you select the correct answer. They are particularly critical elements for selecting the correct words in vocab questions, but can also help you quickly parse the meaning of complex passages.

Signal words are usually transitions and indicate whether some previously presented piece of information is going to be supported, contradicted, clarified, and so on.

Here are a few common groups of GRE signal words, what they signal, and a brief, simple example sentence:

• Although the author was social by nature, he did not particularly enjoy book tours.
• The author was social by nature; indeed, he loved meeting hundreds of new people on book tours.
• The author was not social by nature; rather, he was forced into sociability by the necessities of book tours and signing.

To practice your understanding of signal words, try to notice every time you think you see a signal word in what you are reading. Consider what the signal word is indicating. You might even keep a running list with the sentence, the signal word, and what it indicates in that sentence. Over time, you’ll develop your own base of signal word knowledge.

Study Tips for GRE Verbal Practice Questions and Sections

Here are my recommendations for using actual practice tests and questions to prepare for the GRE Verbal section.

Use Official Material When Possible

The best material for Verbal practice questions will always be official ETS material. Since they make the test, their material is the closest to the real GRE experience. You can get complete official practice tests from the PowerPrep software, plus additional practice questions from their paper tests and online. (Check out  our guide to the best Verbal resources out there .) You can also consider buying a prep book .

Target Your Weaknesses

When you complete practice GRE Verbal questions, tests, and sections, pay close attention to what you get wrong. The patterns of what you answer incorrectly will reveal any content or strategy weaknesses that you need to target to improve. Are you always missing sentence equivalence? Do science-themed passages confuse you? You’ll know to work on those things.

Practice Pacing and Test Strategy  

It’s critical that you practice staying on pace so that you can answer all the questions in the time allotted. To that end, be sure to take timed practice sections and monitor any areas where you’re losing too much time. In general, try not to spend too much time on vocabulary, since reading comprehension questions will naturally take longer due to the reading time involved.

You also need to practice strategies for selecting the correct answer like working on your process of elimination skills.

Develop a Consistent Strategy for Passages

It’s critical that you come up with a strategy for approaching passages on the GRE that works for you. Having a consistent approach that you hone during prep will help you with time management during Verbal and increase your comfort level when faced with the GRE’s dense, complex passages.

There are two solid strategies for approaching GRE passages and reading comprehension questions:

• Skim passage first: In this strategy, you’ll quickly skim the passage before reading the question. Then once you’ve read the question, you’ll look back in the passage for the details and evidence that you need to answer the question.
• Read question first: For this approach, you’ll read the question first, then read through the passage looking for the evidence that will tell you the right answer.

Both of these strategies can work well for students and help them manage their time; making them work for you is mostly a matter of personal preference.

Unfortunately, there’s also a third approach that, while commonly used, is not a good strategy. In this approach, you’ll closely read the passage first, trying to absorb every detail. Then you’ll read the question, and find that you still have to go back into the passage to find the answer. As you might imagine, this is an inefficient strategy that wastes a lot of time. Most of the details in the passage aren’t going to be important for an individual question, so getting too bogged down in trying to understand and remember them is totally unnecessary. If you’re going to read the passage first, just quickly skim it for the main points.

4 Common GRE Verbal Problems and How to Fix Them

It’s critical to address your own particular weaknesses on the Verbal section, but there are a few weak points that are common to a lot of students. We’ve listed them below and suggested some ways to address them if they are issues that you have.

Forgetting The Vocabulary You Learned

If you find yourself forgetting large swathes of the vocab you drilled, it means you probably didn’t learn it in a very effective way (sorry). Did you complete both components of the vocabulary process mentioned above? Or did you just memorize without applying? Make sure that you have been both drilling flashcards effectively and learning vocabulary in context. See above for my recommendations on the best way to really learn and retain vocabulary.

Running Out of Time

If you are struggling to finish Verbal sections on time, the primary thing you need to do is figure out where you’re losing time. Are you primarily losing time on vocab, or reading comprehension? For vocab, it’s typically a waste of time to spend a long while agonizing over those questions—you typically either know the words, or you don’t. Read the questions very carefully and answer them to the best of your ability, but don’t spend 30 seconds staring blankly at the answers. If you find yourself doing this, try completing passage questions first, and then come back to the vocab.

If, by contrast, you’re flying through the vocab questions but running out of time because you’re spending too much time on passages, your approach to passages may not be very effective. Are you spending too much time on your initial read-through? Are you overthinking what counts as “evidence” and overanalyzing every little word? Re-read our advice on passage strategy above for some tips on adjusting your approach.

Of course, you could feel rushed because of a combination of vocab and reading comprehension issues, in which case, fiddle around with changing your passage strategy and answering vocab questions at a faster pace or after reading comprehension to try to figure out what works best for you.

Being Torn Between Two Answers

There is always a best answer choice on the GRE (except for multi-answer multiple choice, but then there’s no need to be torn!) If you frequently find that you can narrow your choices down to two, but then you can’t choose the final one, a couple things could be happening. If this is happening primarily on vocab questions, you may just not know the vocab well enough. Also be sure to consider word valence —based on context, does a positive or negative word belong in the blank? That can help a lot in differentiating answers.

If this is primarily happening on reading comprehension, you need to hone your understanding of identifying evidence in passages. Only one answer will ever be correct based on clear evidence in the passage. This means you need to practice parsing the complex passages for the small details that point to the correct answer.

Feeling Intimidated by GRE Passages

If you find yourself doing well during low-pressure prep sessions but getting flustered by the long, complex passages during timed practice tests, work on staying calm. If all the practice test passages seem crazy-difficult , it’s possible that the material you’ve been reading isn’t difficult enough, or that you aren’t reading a big enough variety of sources. But it’s also possible that you’re just suffering from some test anxiety. In this case, maintain positive self-talk, take deep breaths, and know that you can do it.

Taking the Test: 4 GRE Verbal Tips for Success

When you actually take the test, here are some strategies to help you ace the Verbal section!

Use Mark & Return Liberally

Friends, you get the same amount of points for easy questions as hard questions. What does this mean for your strategy? Do questions that you find easy first! If you look at a question or a passage and you think “ew, gross,” or you find yourself staring at it in blank confusion for more than a few seconds, mark that question and come back to it! Odds are that it will seem easier when you come back to it, and even if it doesn’t, at least you didn’t waste valuable time when you could have been getting easy (or at least easier) points.

Answer Every Question

There’s no guessing penalty on the GRE, so it’s to your advantage to answer every question. Keep an eye on the time and when you have a few minutes left, quickly skim remaining questions and pick answers.

When You Do Guess, Guess Smart

To the extent that you can avoid guessing randomly, you should. This means you should hone all of your educated guessing and process-of-elimination skills, then deploy them with a vengeance on the test! Every time you can eliminate a wrong answer, your chance of guessing the right one goes up.

Keep Calm and Do What You Practiced

Don’t get psyched out when you’re faced with the actual test. Trust that you’ve prepared all you can, and calmly implement all of your passage and question-answering strategies. Even if you feel like some questions are throwing you for a loop, maintain positive self-talk, take some deep breaths, and move on to another question. You can do it!

2 Bonus Tips for a Perfect Score on GRE Verbal

If you’re really going for that 170 on Verbal, here are a couple additional tips to help you get there!

Be Aware of What You Can Afford to Get Wrong

The answer: not much. While a 170 on Quant usually requires a truly perfect raw score, though, you can usually get one question wrong and still get a 170 on Verbal. This leaves you with a very, very tiny margin for error.

Laser in on Your Weaknesses

It’s always good to focus on your weaknesses when you’re preparing for a test, but if you want a 170, you need to pinpoint your weak points as exactly as possible. It’s not enough to know that you sometimes get tripped up by Sentence Equivalence—which Sentence Equivalence questions? Are you picking things that aren’t quite synonyms? Are you tripped up by multiple pairs of synonyms? To really figure out exact, specific weakness, you’ll probably need to do an enormous amount of practice problems so you can notice patterns in what you’re missing that are as specific as possible. Then, you can target those super-specific weaknesses and not be thrown on test day.

Review: GRE Verbal Questions, Practice, and Tips

Here’s what we reviewed in our total guide to GRE Verbal domination.

There are five types of GRE Verbal questions:

Vocab Questions:

• Sentence equivalence (choose two words that could both complete a sentence and give it a similar meaning)
• Text completion (fill in the blanks with the best word choices)

Reading Comprehension Questions:

• Multiple-choice (choose the right answer)
• Multi-answer multiple choice (choose all correct statements)
• Select-in-passage (choose the right sentence in the passage)

In preparing for GRE Verbal, your first step has to be establishing a baseline and a goal score. Then take the following steps.

Review Content:

• Build your vocabulary
• Get comfortable reading complex material
• Learn to identify signal words
• Use the best (official) material
• Target your weaknesses
• Practice pacing and strategy, like process-of-elimination
• Develop a strategy for passages

Address Weaknesses:

• If you’re forgetting the vocab you learned, you probably aren’t drilling it very effectively.
• If you’re running out of time, you may be either spending too much time deliberating on vocab questions or your passage strategy isn’t very effective.
• Being torn between two answers is a sign that you need to further hone your vocabulary knowledge or your ability to pick out evidence in passages.
• If you feel intimidated by passages, it could be a sign either that you aren’t practicing difficult enough reading material or that you just have some test anxiety.

Test-Day Success Strategies:

• Take advantage of mark & return to do the easier questions first and save the hardest ones for last!
• Answer every question—it can only help you.
• When you do guess, eliminate as many answers as you confidently can first.
• Keep calm and trust in the preparation you did!

Extra Tips for a 170:

• Be aware of what you can get wrong and still get a 170. Usually, you can get one question incorrect and still receive that top score.
• When you’re prepping, laser-in on your weaknesses as specifically as possible.

The bottom line is that if you follow good prep practices as outlined in this article, you can ace GRE Verbal!

What’s Next?

For more resources for the GRE Verbal section, check out our list of 357 mission-critical GRE vocabulary words , our complete 357-word GRE flashcard set , and our set of versatile GRE vocabulary PDFs . Also see our collection of all the best GRE Verbal practice resources .

Looking for more general GRE study resources? See our 34 essential tips and strategies for the GRE  and our comprehensive list of 21 GRE practice tests .

If you’re worried about test difficulty, check out our analysis of all the factors that contribute to the GRE’s difficulty level .

Ready to improve your GRE score by 7 points?

Author: Ellen McCammon

Ellen is a public health graduate student and education expert. She has extensive experience mentoring students of all ages to reach their goals and in-depth knowledge on a variety of health topics. View all posts by Ellen McCammon

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Verbal Reasoning

Verbal reasoning topics assess a candidate's linguistic and comprehension abilities. Mastering them involves understanding concepts, tips, and tricks. Additionally, practicing questions and answers is vital for achieving high scores in placement exams, where they carry significant weightage.

Verbal Reasoning Topics

Order of Importance   Order of Preparation Easy to Hard Hard to Easy

Why Choose Us for Practicing Verbal Reasoning Questions?

The following are the reasons why you should choose our platform for practicing verbal reasoning questions:

1. All-in-One Solution

Our platform provides a comprehensive collection of verbal reasoning questions, allowing you to enhance your problem-solving skills. You can practice the latest verbal reasoning questions for various topics, along with definitions, concepts, and real-time applications.

2. User-Friendly Interface

With our platform, you can access important verbal reasoning questions in a creative and informative manner. Our user interface is designed to be simple and intuitive, providing easy navigation.

3. Curated by Experts

Our platform is backed by industry experts curated content to offer simple explanations of complex verbal reasoning concepts. Our experts ensure that you can easily comprehend the concepts and apply them while practicing verbal reasoning questions.

4. Regular Updates

Our platform is regularly updated, ensuring that you can practice the latest and most relevant questions at your own pace. With just a click, you can access a wide range of questions from various verbal reasoning topics.

5. Completely Free

Our platform is committed to providing free access to verbal reasoning practice questions. We do not charge any fees, making it accessible to all learners. Whether you explore our newsletter, YouTube channel, webinars, or any other resources, everything is available to you free of charge.

Is the verbal reasoning section difficult?

A resounding NO! In reality, most people find verbal reasoning questions and answers to be quite straightforward and intriguing to solve.

How many topics are there in verbal reasoning?

There are typically around 10-20 common verbal reasoning topics that are commonly asked in most placement exams. Here are the common verbal ability topics:

• Logical Sequence of Words
• Blood Relation Test
• Venn Diagrams
• Seating Arrangement
• Direction Sense
• Data Sufficiency
• Coding and Decoding
• Cube and Cuboid

How to prepare for verbal reasoning for placements?

To prepare for verbal reasoning in placements, we recommend diving right into problem-solving to save time. This approach helps you develop your critical thinking skills.

Once you have attempted solving questions across various subtopics, you can seek out effective shortcuts to learn the quickest ways to solve problems.

How much time does it take to learn verbal reasoning for placements?

The time it takes to learn verbal reasoning for placements varies depending on each individual's capacity for creative thinking and problem-solving.

On average, gaining a fundamental understanding of each subtopic can take approximately 1-2 hours with clear learning direction and available resources.

What are some of the best books to learn verbal reasoning?

There is no such thing as the perfect book for verbal reasoning. Instead of focusing on a single book, it is more important to understand and practice verbal reasoningquestions.

At Placement Preparation, we provide the best available information to help you in learning verbal reasoning effectively.

For more information, refer to our blog post on the best books to learn verbal reasoning.

Which is the best website to learn verbal reasoning?

Placement Preparation is the the best website to learn verbal reasoning. Our website is dedicated to providing students with the most valuable and useful information for learning verbal reasoning.

We strive to continuously update and improve our content to make it the best resource for verbal reasoning learning.

Stay tuned to our website for ongoing updates.

Which is the best youtube channel to learn verbal reasoning?

There is no such thing as the best YouTube channel to learn verbal reasoning.

We encourage you to follow individuals and channels that promote understanding the underlying principles and reasoning behind formulas, rather than simply memorizing and applying them blindly.

How do you benefit from learning verbal reasoning strategies?

Learning verbal reasoning strategies can benefit you by improving your reading comprehension, critical thinking skills, and ability to analyze and interpret written information. It helps you effectively navigate through passages, identify key information, and draw logical conclusions.

How to remember verbal reasoning strategies for a longer time?

To remember verbal reasoning strategies for a longer time, it is helpful to actively engage with the material. Regular practice of reading and analyzing different types of texts, such as articles, essays, and arguments, can reinforce the strategies in your mind.

How conceptual understanding helps in remembering verbal reasoning strategies?

Conceptual understanding is essential for remembering verbal reasoning strategies. When you grasp the underlying concepts, such as identifying main ideas, recognizing logical fallacies, or evaluating arguments, it becomes easier to remember and utilize the strategies while addressing verbal reasoning questions.

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Examining Scarborough’s Rope: Verbal Reasoning

by Great Minds

every child is capable of greatness.

Posted in: Aha! Blog > Wit & Wisdom Blog > Science of Reading > Examining Scarborough’s Rope: Verbal Reasoning

Good readers think about what they are reading. Developing strong reading comprehension includes developing students’ expectation that what they read should make sense (Liben and Pimentel). In Scarborough’s Rope, the Verbal Reasoning strand refers to a reader’s ability to think about a text and infer meaning from what is explicitly and implicitly stated. To do so, readers must engage in cognitive and metacognitive processes such as

• making logical inferences,
• integrating ideas within and across texts, and
• interpreting abstract language.

Verbal reasoning requires readers to go beyond what they read so they can make sense of a text and more deeply understand a topic (Burton et al. 5). For students to flex their verbal reasoning muscles, they need access to complex texts, adequate stores of background knowledge, and regular opportunities to think for themselves, with appropriate support along the way.

Knowledge and Verbal Reasoning

Readers make inferences by connecting prior knowledge to information stated in the text. But what happens if a student has very little prior knowledge? What if their knowledge is inaccurate or incomplete? The student will likely struggle to make a logical inference.

Educators often fail when trying to teach students to make inferences without first building background knowledge —students need to draw on a body of knowledge as they think through a text. According to cognitive scientist Daniel Willingham, “factual knowledge enhances cognitive processes [such as] problem solving and reasoning. The richer the knowledge base, the more smoothly and effectively these cognitive processes—the very ones that teachers target—operate.” Background knowledge provides the reader with tools to ask questions, connect concepts, and evaluate ideas within a text.

Productive Struggle and Verbal Reasoning

To support students with reading and thinking about complex texts, educators must foster students’ productive struggle. Productive struggle describes the effort students exert when they persist and succeed with appropriately challenging tasks. Educators can foster productive struggle by gradually releasing responsibility to students as they work with complex texts.

Teachers may equip students with strategies for making inferences or interpreting and integrating textual information. Education researcher Nell Duke and colleagues recommend teachers gradually release responsibility to students to apply strategies in the texts they read. Teachers model thinking, provide opportunities for collaborative or guided practice, and require students to independently apply their strategies to reading. The most beneficial work happens in the middle when students collaboratively and independently practice while supported by the teacher (65–66).

Strengthening Verbal Reasoning in Wit & Wisdom

With a strong foundation of building knowledge and fostering productive struggle, Wit & Wisdom ’s design further supports verbal reasoning development in three ways:

• Complex texts create opportunities for verbal reasoning. Students need opportunities to read texts that will challenge their thinking. The complex texts students read in Wit & Wisdom allow them to apply their background knowledge to make inferences, interpret language, and integrate information across texts in a module.
• The Content Stages invite all students to engage in verbal reasoning. The Content Stages scaffold students toward deeper thinking about a text over time. Each Content Stage employs associated strategies, which students use to comprehend what they read. Students gradually gain increased responsibility for applying the Content Stages to their reading and internalize the process for navigating texts independently.
• Wit & Wisdom instruction fosters collaboration. Students regularly collaborate with their peers to exchange ideas and build on each other’s thinking. Much of the collaborative work in Wit & Wisdom engages students in productive struggle to make sense of the texts they read. Students will often collaborate with a partner or small group and eventually bring their learning back to the whole group to deepen everyone’s understanding of the text.

Successful reading comprehension requires students to apply their knowledge to new ideas in texts. In Wit & Wisdom classrooms, students leverage their background knowledge to effectively make inferences, interpret language, and integrate ideas within and between texts while engaging in lively, collaborative work that helps unlock hidden meanings in the rich, complex texts of each module.

Works Cited

Burton, Nancy W., et al. Toward a Definition of Verbal Reasoning in Higher Education . ETS, Nov. 2009, https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED507807.pdf .

Duke, Nell K., et al. “Essential Elements of Fostering and Teaching Reading Comprehension.” What Research Has to Say About Reading Instruction , edited by S. Jay Samuels and Alan E. Farstrup, 4th ed., International Reading Association, 2011, 51–93.

Liben, Meredith, and Sue Pimentel. “Placing Text at the Center of the Standards-Aligned ELA Classroom.” Achieve the Core , Student Achievement Partners, 24 Aug. 2021, https://achievethecore.org/page/3185/placing-text-at-the-center-of-the-standards-aligned-ela-classroom .

Smith, Reid, et al. “The Role of Background Knowledge in Reading Comprehension: A Critical Review.” Reading Psychology , vol. 42, no. 3, 22 Feb. 2021, pp. 214–240. Taylor & Francis Online, https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02702711.2021.1888348 .

Willingham, Daniel T. “How Knowledge Helps: It Speeds and Strengthens Reading Comprehension, Learning—and Thinking.” American Educator , American Federation of Teachers, Spring 2006, https://www.aft.org/periodical/american-educator/spring-2006/how-knowledge-helps.

Wexler, Natalie. The Knowledge Gap: The Hidden Cause of America’s Broken Education System—And How to Fix It . New York, Avery-Penguin Random House, 2019.

About Hannah Dieter 

Hannah Dieter is a director of implementation services on the Humanities team at Great Minds. In this role, she leads a team of implementation leaders who support schools and districts across the country with their implementation of  Wit & Wisdom and Geodes . Before joining the Great Minds team, she was the director of early childhood education for Lorain City Schools in Ohio. Hannah is also a former kindergarten teacher and instructional coach. She is currently working on her master’s degree in reading science from Mount St. Joseph University in Cincinnati. 

About Tanisha Washington 

Tanisha Washington is a director of implementation services on the Humanities team at Great Minds. In this role, she leads a team of implementation leaders who support schools and districts across the country with their implementation of Wit & Wisdom and Geodes . Before joining the Great Minds team, she was an assistant principal for a charter school in Washington, DC. As an assistant principal, Tanisha was a member of the 2013 New Leaders’ Aspiring Principals program, the 2018 Relay Graduate School of Education’s National Principals Academy, and the 2018 School Leader Lab’s leadership cohort. Tanisha is also a former elementary school teacher and has a master’s degree in elementary education from American University in Washington, DC. 

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Analytical Reasoning Tests

• 538 questions

Analytical reasoning tests examine an individual’s ability to apply logic to solve problems. The questions vary depending on the type of analytical reasoning test you’re taking: from extracting key information from complex passages of text (verbal reasoning), to looking for patterns in a series of images (non-verbal reasoning), or using given information to draw conclusions or make predictions (inductive and deductive reasoning).

What is an analytical reasoning test?

An analytical reasoning test is a type of aptitude test that is often used by employers to assess a job candidate’s ability to think critically and solve complex problems.

As well as these skills, employers want to see evidence that you can keep calm under pressure and work quickly against the clock.

The test is nearly always timed, meaning you don’t have long to work through each question to find the correct answer.

Depending on which type of job you’re applying for, the test you take may be in the style of verbal reasoning , non-verbal reasoning , inductive reasoning or deductive reasoning . As such, it’s worth practicing as many different types of tests as you can to familiarise yourself with the questions.

The analytical reasoning test is widely used because it looks for skills that are sought after in almost every industry. It helps employers find candidates who will be quick to learn, adapt and solve problems.

Why do use analytical reasoning tests?

Employers use analytical reasoning tests to assess candidates’ ability to analyze complex information, make logical deductions, and solve problems effectively. These tests help employers evaluate candidates’ critical thinking skills, decision-making abilities, and aptitude for handling challenging situations. By administering analytical reasoning tests, employers can identify candidates who possess the cognitive abilities necessary for success in roles that require analytical thinking, such as management, finance, engineering, and data analysis. Additionally, these tests provide employers with valuable insights into candidates’ problem-solving approaches and their capacity to navigate intricate scenarios, aiding in the selection of the most suitable candidates for the job.

As applicants have to work harder and harder to make their CV stand out, an aptitude test like this is a good way of ensuring candidates possess the necessary skills.

It’s common for employers or recruiters to set the analytical reasoning test before the interview stage, so they can select candidates based on their test performance. The test therefore acts as a filter, ensuring employers get to meet the people they believe are most likely to excel.

Completing a good analytical reasoning test gives an indication that you’re a strong critical thinker who can rise to the challenge – an attractive proposition for any employer.

How do analytical reasoning tests work?

An employer will select the type of analytical reasoning test (verbal, non-verbal, inductive or deductive) based on the skills they want to examine.

Finding out exactly which type of test you’ll be taking is helpful so you can focus your preparation, but if you don’t know we recommend trying out all of the different mock tests to familiarise yourself with the individual question styles and formats.

When you take the test, you’ll normally have around one minute to answer each question – which is yet another reason to familiarise yourself with the kinds of questions you’re likely to be asked.

Here’s a brief overview of the four different test types:

• Verbal reasoning – requires you to read through long passages of text and showcase your comprehension and analysis skills by answering a series of questions on what you’ve just read.
• Non-verbal reasoning – presents you with images such as graphs, pictures and patterns, and requires you to use your logic and problem-solving skills to decipher the rule that connects the sequence.
• Inductive reasoning – equips you with certain facts or information, and then asks you to make predictions or assumptions based on that evidence.
• Deductive reasoning – will ask you to use the statements given to you to make further statements of fact.

After the test, your score will be calculated and compared to those of the other individuals who took the same test, or a normative group (which can help an employer see how well you fared compared to previous candidates).

Analytical test formats

Verbal Reasoning Tests

Verbal reasoning tests examine your ability to draw out key information from long, often complex passages of text, to form a conclusion. Very often this takes the form of questions to which you would select ‘true’, ‘false’ or ‘cannot say’ as the response.

No prior knowledge of the subject matter is required, but it is important to practice verbal reasoning tests as it can take a while to get used to the question format.

You will need to be able to distinguish between what’s fact and what’s merely being inferred when you’re reading through the passages of text. This shows an employer that you have the comprehension, logic and analytical skills they’re looking for.

Practising verbal reasoning tests before you take the one that really matters is vital if you want to showcase the best of your abilities to a potential employer. The more mock tests you take, the better you’ll get at sifting through the passages of text for evidence, quickly assimilating the information and confidently deciding what’s true, false or uncertain.

You’ll normally have around one minute to answer each question on the verbal reasoning test (although it’s always worth checking this is the case with your test when you begin). It’s important you don’t spend ages on a challenging problem, as you could end up not answering other questions that you might have easily been able to answer.

At the end, if you have time left you can always go back to anything you weren’t sure about and have another go.

The verbal reasoning test is most commonly used by employers or recruiters hiring for roles where strong communication skills are critical – which applies to most jobs, hence their popularity.

Non-Verbal Reasoning Tests

Non-verbal reasoning tests comprise graphs, tables and data, and the accompanying questions will assess how adept you are at drawing conclusions from limited information, finding connecting patterns and working quickly under considerable time pressure.

These types of analytical reasoning tests are often part of the application process for roles in industries such as finance, engineering and HR.

The best way you can prepare for a non-verbal reasoning test is to take as many mock tests as you can. After you’ve completed a test, it’s important to look back through your answers and identify your weaker areas, so you know where you need to direct your focus.

Not only will practising ensure you get quicker and better, it’ll also help you familiarise yourself with the different graphs, tables and images you’re likely to be confronted with on a non-verbal reasoning test.

As with the verbal reasoning test, you normally get around one minute to answer each question, so finding the right balance between speed and accuracy is really important – something that you’ll find a lot easier if you’ve put the practice time in beforehand.

A successful non-verbal reasoning test will prove to an employer that you have the critical thinking, reasoning and logical skills needed to cope with the demands of the job you’re applying for.

Inductive / Deductive Reasoning Tests

If you’re asked to take an inductive test or deductive test , you’re essentially being asked to show how well you can identify patterns and use your logic. Although the overall skills you’ll demonstrate are very similar, the two tests are slightly different.

Inductive reasoning test – you’ll need to identify relationships between statements, images or facts and figures, and use this analysis to show, logically, what should come next.

Deductive reasoning test – you’ll be given a statement of fact and you’ll need to use this information to deduce another factually correct statement.

These aptitude tests are most commonly used in the hiring of science, tech and IT roles, as the type of skills they seek to showcase – logical thinking, identifying patterns, problem solving and critical thinking – are all valuable in these industries.

So even if you have the type of brain that finds these kinds of problems easier than most, it’s always worth practising inductive/deductive reasoning tests beforehand to familiarise yourself with the specific style of question, and what’s required of you in a short amount of time.

Prepare yourself for leading employers

5 Free Example Analytical Reasoning Questions

Here are five example analytical questions to try out. Answers for all five are below the tests. If you need further practice, try out our full free tests.

Verbal Question 1

Statement : A derivative could be used by an airline to secure the price of oil now, which it won’t use until six months time.

Verbal Question 2

Statement : More people taking early retirement is the major contributory factor to the public sector pension deficit.

Diagrammatic Question 1

Which is the next logical image in the sequence?

Numerical Question 1

What was the ratio of the cost of a Google click in April compared to the cost of a Facebook and Yahoo click in February?

Abstract Question 1

Which of the boxes comes next in the sequence?

Verbal Question 1 : True – “to secure the price of a commodity which is to be “bought” at a future date, but at a price that is set today.”

Verbal Question 2 : Cannot tell – the passage refers to both this fact, extended life expectancy, and that the value of pension fund assets has fallen.

Diagrammatic Question 1 : There is a central figure and four figures with one in each corner: (i) The central figure firstly increases in size over a series of three, then decreases in the same fashion; (ii) The central figure changes from white, to having a dotted outline, to black; and (iii) The four figures rotate around the four corners, moving two corners at a time. So the correct answer is F.

Numerical Question 1 : Step 1. Extract the relevant figures from the graph Cost of per click in April. Google 18 cents : Facebook + Yahoo (14 + 6 = 20 cents). Step 2. Divide 20 by 18 to calculate the ratio. 20 ÷18 = 1.11 Step 3. Present as a ratio 1 : 1.11

Abstract Question 1 : Arrow changes direction from pointing up, to pointing down, with each turn. 2. Triangle moves from top left corner in an anti-clockwise direction around the frame with each turn. So the answer is B.

Sample Analytical Reasoning Tests question Test your knowledge!

Consider a set of figures where the size of shapes increases with each subsequent figure. If the sequence starts with a small triangle and each figure adds two centimeters to each side of the shape, what size would the fifth shape be?

When analyzing a series of processes in a diagram, you notice that there is a cyclical pattern. If a process starts with A, continues to B, followed by C, and then starts over, what would be the fourth step after starting over twice?

• The process ends.

If a premise states that 'All managers can handle stress' and 'Susan is a manager', what conclusion can you draw?

• Susan cannot handle stress.
• Not all managers can handle stress.
• Susan can handle stress.
• The ability to handle stress is not important for managers.

You are given a dataset where the sales of a company have increased by 5% every month for the past 4 months. If the sales in the first month were $200,000, what should be the sales in the fifth month?

After reading the following passage, determine the main argument presented by the author. 'Many companies focus on short-term gains rather than long-term stability. This can lead to decisions that are profitable in the immediate future but may jeopardize the company's longevity. It is essential for businesses to balance immediate profits with sustainable growth.'

• Short-term gains are more important than long-term stability.
• Companies should consider long-term stability over short-term profits.
• Decisions should balance immediate profits and sustainable growth.
• Long-term stability is impossible to achieve for most companies.

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Analytical Reasoning Tests Tips

1 background research.

Get as much background information as possible on the test you’ll be taking from the employer or recruiter, so you know which areas to focus on.

2 Prepare with mock tests

Preparation is key – take mock tests in a quiet, distraction-free area and always make sure you go back through your answers at the end to identify any areas you need to work harder at.

3 Tips for test day

On the test day itself, make sure you have everything you need to complete the test. When you start, ensure you know roughly how long you’ve got to answer each question, as although you’ll always need to work quickly, it’s important to read the question thoroughly and ensure you’ve understood it before getting started.

4 Stay positive

Try and remain positive. The tests are designed to be challenging, since employers want to push you. If you’ve put the time and effort into practising aptitude tests, you should feel confident you’ve given yourself the best chance possible to succeed.

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Analytical Reasoning Tests FAQs

What is this test used for.

Analytical reasoning tests are a go-to tool for employers looking to gauge a candidate’s problem-solving prowess. Organizations across a myriad of industries use these assessments to get a handle on the analytical skills that are crucial in the modern workplace.

What do these tests involve?

Dive into questions that challenge your problem-solving abilities across verbal, non-verbal, inductive, and deductive reasoning areas. Whether it’s deciphering complex texts, spotting trends in images, or making predictions, these tests are your all-in-one gym to flex those analytical muscles.

What do these tests measure?

Our tests aren’t just a bunch of random questions; they are refined and updated using cutting-edge tech. They’re designed to measure your logical and analytical acumen, ensuring you’re tested against the latest industry benchmarks for analytical reasoning.

Where can I practice these tests?

Ready to put your analytical skills to the test? Practice Aptitude Tests is your one-stop shop for simulating real-world analytical reasoning exams. Here, you’ll find a treasure trove of practice material to get you test-ready!

Which employers use these tests?

Analytical reasoning tests aren’t just popular; they’re a staple in the hiring toolkit for a vast array of organizations looking to identify top talent who can navigate complex problem-solving tasks with ease.

Reviews of our Analytical Reasoning tests

What our customers say about our Analytical Reasoning tests

Bob Gautier

United States of America

October 23, 2023

I really do not think negatively in any way about this test. It dies what it’s supposed to do, and designed to do what it does.

Andrew Smith

United Kingdom

October 05, 2023

A good range of alternating patterns, some repeat themselves on several questions, while others are one-offs.

Caramel Teoh

The seqence

I like how convenient it was to answer to question. I dislike that all the question is almost all the same

Juan Garcera

August 06, 2023

Interesting

It is a good first immersion on the complexity of analytical reasoning and a good first step to get into more demanding exercises.

Stephanie Scalzo

July 25, 2023

Find patterns, but attack each question individually

I have not had the opportunity to take a test like this in years! It was really cool to use my brain in this kind of way again and to work through each individual problem while also finding patterns throughout the test.

MemeLord 29

July 13, 2023

Understanding the sequences

I liked the fact you had to use logical thinking and process of elimination sometimes, to figure the answer

Simulation Aeronautics

July 09, 2023

Attention to detail

The shapes in the pattern have changes which require sharp attention to detail to select the next sequence.

Marco Cavallari

June 03, 2023

My 1st ever psychometric test

It was quite challenging at first, but after a while it became more and more easier to find patterns.

Elizabeth M.Calinawan

Philippines

May 31, 2023

The refreshing abstract reasoning

i like the test very much. Refreshing the next sequence, need enough time to think it over but with the time limit. Yeah, very interesting this test too. Well, when.this test refer to a real life of course anticipation in the area may prevail have a swift solution in every conce

khadijah Ansari

May 16, 2023

My brain had a hard time focusing and differentiating between them, trying to recognise a pattern was difficult.

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Getting Hackney Talking!

Verbal reasoning – what’s going on, problem solving and verbal reasoning.

Verbal reasoning is a skill that is essential for understanding social situations and learning in the classroom. It involves understanding and answering ‘how’ and ‘why’ something has happened and is fundamental for solving social problems. In order to think through and solve problems children need to use their internal language, or ‘self-talk’, so when a child has difficulties with understanding and using spoken language they will usually have difficulties with verbal reasoning.

Many problem-solving skills are learnt through experience of normal social interaction. Children with communication difficulties can benefit from talking through problems in detail as they arise, but also through specific activities such as the ones presented in this section.

Activity: What’s going on?

Aim : to be able to answer questions and about a social scenario

Resources needed: Social scene pictures from the newspaper, from a website or from picture books

Method:   Look at a picture of a social scene together. Encourage your child to look carefully and describe it. Ask concrete questions about things that are obvious from the picture, e.g. ‘who is in the picture?’, ‘what is going on?’. Then move on to questions that are not immediately obvious that about the scene. These questions should require the children to use inference or problem-solving, e.g. ‘why is he doing that?’, ‘what might happen next?’, or ‘what would you do?’

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Verbal Problem-Solving Difficulties in Autism Spectrum Disorders and Atypical Language Development

Children with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) adopt less efficient strategies than typically developing (TD) peers on the Twenty Questions Task (TQT), a measure of verbal problem-solving skills. Although problems with the TQT are typically associated with executive dysfunction, they have also been reported in children who are deaf, suggesting a role for atypical language development. To test the contribution of language history to ASD problem solving, TQT performance was compared in children with high-functioning autism (HFA), children with Asperger syndrome (AS) and TD children. The HFA group used significantly less efficient strategies than both AS and TD children. No group differences were evident on tests of question understanding, planning or verbal fluency. Potential explanations for differences in verbal problem-solving skill are discussed with reference to the development of inner speech and use of visual strategies in ASD.

Young people with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) are often reported to have difficulty with spontaneously generating plans and strategies to solve new problems [ Channon, Charman, Heap, Crawford, & Rios, 2001 ; Mackinlay, Charman, & Karmiloff-Smith, 2006 ; Minshew, Meyer, & Goldstein, 2002 ]. Compared with tasks with a fixed set of responses, children with ASD can struggle with more “open-ended” cognitive tasks where a range of strategies could be deployed to achieve a particular goal [ White, Burgess, & Hill, 2009 ]. Knowing more about why this occurs is important in both the lab and the real world, as it has implications for adaptive skills and independent living [ Kenworthy, Yerys, Anthony, & Wallace, 2008 ].

Problem Solving in People with ASD

A simple example of this is seen on the Twenty Questions Task (TQT), a verbal problem-solving 1 test based on the traditional guessing game [ Mosher & Hornsby, 1966 ]. In the TQT, the experimenter selects a target from a picture array of everyday objects, and the participant asks a series of questions to establish its identity. Typically, the questions will narrow down possibilities via a categorical hierarchy, such as “Is it living?”, “Is it an animal?” and so on. Compared with age and intelligence quotient (IQ)-matched typically developing (TD) peers, high-functioning children and adults with ASD take more guesses on the game and ask fewer category-based questions [ Minshew, Siegel, Goldstein, & Weldy, 1994 ]. Moreover, the grouping questions used by ASD participants are often too specific: for example, they may ask “Is it something you eat soup with?” when it may be more effective to first ask “Is it something you eat with?” or “Is it cutlery?” [ Alderson-Day & McGonigle-Chalmers, 2011 ].

Because many ASD individuals are able to identify basic categories when they are prompted to on other tasks [ Tager-Flusberg, 1985 ; Ungerer & Sigman, 1987 ], it has been suggested that this reflects a specific problem with “concept formation,” namely a difficulty in organizing a set of items into a new grouping heuristic when this needs to be done spontaneously [ Minshew et al., 2002 ]. But the TQT—and problem-solving more generally—also involves a range of other, complex demands that could be affecting ASD performance.

First, efficient problem solving relies on executive functions (EFs); that is, the set of skills required to retain and manipulate information “on-line” during goal-directed tasks, such as planning, flexibility, selective attention, inhibition and working memory [ Hill, 2004 ]. Two studies by Alderson-Day and colleagues studied the effects of these factors on TQT performance [ Alderson-Day, 2011 ; Alderson-Day & McGonigle-Chalmers, 2011 ]. The typical TQT includes an array of pictures that do not change throughout the task, meaning that participants have to remember their questions “on-line” as they play [ Mosher & Hornsby, 1966 ]. Alderson-Day and McGonigle-Chalmers [2011] tested what effect this has using a version of the TQT based on a Guess Who? board, where participants could knock down items as they searched. Compared with controls, a sample of high-functioning children with ASD had to ask more questions on average to reach the target when they were unable to physically eliminate items.

When items cannot be removed, participants not only have to remember questions, but they also have to selectively attend to relevant information in the visual array. To parse out these demands, a second study by Alderson-Day [2011] provided participants with a written reminder of their questions when knocking down items was prohibited. This eliminated the need for additional questions in the ASD group—even though the visual demands of the task had not changed—implying a problem with memory for questions rather than attention. In addition, the participants in Alderson-Day [2011] appeared to have difficulty with the planning demands of the TQT. Compared with controls, ASD participants could recognize good questions to ask in isolation but struggled to plan a series of questions in advance that would be likely to narrow down options. Thus, while the TQT may require some element of concept formation, problems with working memory and planning also appear to affect ASD problem solving in this case.

Effects of Language on Problem-Solving: The Comparison With Deafness

Another important factor to consider is the role of language skills, which is prompted by similarities in problem solving between ASD and deafness. In a study with deaf schoolchildren, Marschark and Everhart [1999] observed more guessing and less use of category questions in deaf participants compared with hearing participants, with similar problems being evident in a follow-up sample of deaf graduate students. Executive difficulties are sometimes evident in deaf children, usually presenting as problems with self-regulation and impulsivity [see Hauser, Lukomski, & Hillman, 2008 , for a review]. But rather than explain their data in terms of EF skills, Marschark and Everhart proposed that they are likely to reflect the atypical language development that many deaf children experience. Deafness per se is not associated with delays or deficits: if deaf children have early access to language, usually by having deaf parents or relatives who can sign, they tend to develop very good language and cognitive skills [ Mayberry, 2002 ]. However, over 90% of deaf children have hearing parents [ Mitchell & Karchmer, 2004 ], meaning that many will not encounter skilled users of signing until school age, and some may only be encouraged to use spoken language rather than sign. Accordingly, there can be a range of delays in language skills for deaf children [e.g. Blamey, 2003 ; Moeller, Tomblin, Yoshinaga-Itano, Connor, & Jerger, 2007 ], and it has been suggested that this has consequences for language-related cognitive skills, particularly those more dependent on knowledge of spoken English [ Marschark, 2006 ]. For instance, there is evidence of subtle differences in verbal reasoning, categorization and free recall in deaf adults when compared to hearing controls [ Farjardo, Arfé, Benedetti, & Altoé, 2008 ; Koh, Vernon, & Bailey, 1971 ; Marschark, Convertino, McEvoy, & Masteller, 2004 ; McEvoy, Marschark, & Nelson, 1999 ; Ormel et al., 2010 ; Yi et al., 2011 ].

Given the presence of early communication difficulties in ASD [ Boucher, 2012 ], it could be that similar factors affect verbal problem solving in autism. One way to test this is to compare TQT performance in young people with high-functioning autism (HFA) and Asperger syndrome (AS). In contrast to HFA, AS has typically been associated with the presence of intact structural language skills in the first 3 years of life [ American Psychiatric Association, 1994 ; World Health Organization, 1993 ]. In most other respects, however, HFA and AS are considered to be alike [as indicated by the removal of AS as a separate diagnosis in DSM 5; American Psychiatric Association, 2013 ]. While some early studies reported greater EF skills and stronger verbal than nonverbal skills in AS compared with HFA [e.g. Szatmari, Archer, Fisman, Streiner, & Wilson, 1995 ], studies that have controlled for IQ generally find very few cognitive differences at all between the two groups, including similar performance on many EF tasks [ Manjiviona & Prior, 1999 ; Mayes & Calhoun, 2004 ; Ozonoff, South, & Miller, 2000 ]. No studies, however, have compared verbal problem-solving skills of this kind between autism and AS.

If early language skills affect verbal problem solving in ASD, then children with AS should show intact verbal problem-solving skills compared with children with autism. The main aim of the present study was to test this by comparing children with HFA, AS and typical development in their TQT performance. The first hypothesis was that HFA but not AS participants would show impaired performance on the task compared with TD children.

Explaining Differences in Problem-Solving Performance

The second aim of the study was to explain why such a difference might exist by ruling out confounds and identifying potential markers of early language skills. Poor problem-solving performance could just result from problems with question understanding, planning ahead and coming up with new questions on the spot; none of which are necessarily indicative of early language skills [AS participants, for instance, in some cases show an advantage over HFA participants on tests of word fluency; Spek, Schatorje, Scholte, & van Berckelaer-Onnes, 2009 ]. To rule out such differences, three tasks were deployed: a question discrimination (QD) task and a plan construction (PC) task from Alderson-Day [2011] , and a verbal fluency measure. Following prior evidence of generally similar executive and language skills in HFA and AS, we hypothesized that there would be no difference between the two ASD groups on these measures.

For early language skills to have an effect on later problem solving, they would plausibly need to shape how different strategies are internally considered and selected. For instance, early language delays could disrupt the development of inner speech, interfering with self-regulation and verbal deliberation [ Diaz & Berk, 1992 ]. Alternatively, delays in language could lead to visually mediated cognitive strategies taking precedence over verbally mediated ones [ Soulieres et al., 2009 ]. Arguably the most plausible route, though, is via semantic memory. Delays to early communication could disrupt the learning of new semantic groupings and the development of typical associations between exemplars and categories [ Horton & Markman, 1980 ; Marschark et al., 2004 ]. To test this, a novel semantic decision task (SDT) was included in the testing battery. It was hypothesized that HFA but not AS participants would show atypical semantic decision skills and that this would be associated with group differences in problem solving.

Finally, a questionnaire measure of language milestones was deployed as an exploratory tool to assess possible links between language history and task performance. If semantic skills were not observed to explain problem-solving performance, then language milestones could still indicate the presence of an unspecified effect of language delay.

Participants

Fifteen children with AS (14 m; ages 9–16) and 15 children with HFA (14 m: ages 9–18) were recruited from the local area via parent groups and a local autism charity. Participants possessed a diagnosis of either autism or AS in accordance with ICD-10 research diagnostic criteria [ World Health Organization, 1993 ]. All ASD participants were originally diagnosed via contact with local clinical services, where diagnoses are made based on agreement by a multidisciplinary panel and use of the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule [ Lord et al., 2000 ] and Autism Diagnostic Interview—Revised [ADI-R: Lord, Rutter, & Couteur, 1994 ]. Five participants had also had their diagnosis confirmed within the past 3 years by a trained researcher using the ADI-R. Exclusion criteria included the presence of any other neurological conditions, specific language impairments (SLIs) or reading difficulties. 2 Fifteen TD children (10 m; ages 9–18) were recruited from a participant database to provide a neurotypical comparison group. All recruitment and study procedures were approved by the University of Edinburgh research ethics committee.

Cognitive abilities were estimated using the vocabulary, similarities and matrix reasoning subtests of the Wechsler Abbreviated Scale for Intelligence [WASI: Wechsler, 1999 ], providing scores for full-scale IQ (vocabulary and matrix reasoning) and verbal IQ (vocabulary and similarities). Pairwise t -tests indicated that the three groups did not significantly differ in IQ, although trends were observed for mean differences in VIQ ( P = 0.089) and, to a lesser extent, FSIQ ( P = 0.098) between HFA and TD participants specifically. While HFA and TD participants were age matched, the HFA group was significantly older than the group of AS participants (HFA > AS, t (28) = 2.157, P = 0.040) 3 ( Table 1 ).

Age and IQ Scores for ASD and TD Participants

AS, Asperger syndrome; HFA, high-functioning autism; n.s., not significant; SD, standard deviation; TD, typically developing.

Materials and Procedure

The first task attempted was the TQT. The task was presented on a board containing pictures of 24 everyday items, displayed in hinged frames (allowing for participants to eliminate items after each question). Participants completed three trials of Twenty Questions: the first two trials allowed item elimination during search by knocking down pictures that were no longer needed. On the last trial, elimination was prohibited, increasing the memory demands of the task. Alongside the game board, a 15” laptop was used to provide a “random selector” animation and audiovisual feedback during the game [for a full explanation of the TQT procedure, see Alderson-Day, 2011 ].

The primary outcome for the TQT was question quality (QQ), defined as the minimum proportion of items eliminated per question. For example, in a set of 10 items including five animals, “Is it an animal?” would eliminate at least half of the items irrespective of the answer, providing a score of 0.5. A direct guess (“Is it the dog?”) would only be guaranteed to eliminate one item out of 10, scoring 0.1. For comparison with previous studies, the number of questions used per trial and percentages of grouping questions and guesses were also recorded.

Following the TQT, participants attempted the QD and PC tasks from Alderson-Day [2011] . For QD, participants were presented with 10 hypothetical scenarios from Twenty Questions and asked to select which of two questions would be the best to ask first in each scenario. Five 12-item scenarios and five 24-item scenarios were presented using a stimulus book. The task was scored for the number of correct answers out of 10.

For PC, participants were presented with an array of 32 possible questions and asked to select five questions that would be useful to use “if we were to play the game again in a moment.” Once five questions were selected, participants were asked to order them in terms of which question they would ask first, second and so on. Responses were scored based on the mean QQ for the five questions selected, assuming a 24-item TQT set. For example, a sequence asking about living things, animals and pets would be guaranteed to eliminate 12, 6 and 3 items on average from the set, and would be allocated scores of 0.5, 0.25 and 0.125. Greater scores indicate greater efficiency of plans.

Verbal fluency

To assess verbal fluency abilities, the letter and semantic fluency subtests from the Addenbrooke’s Cognitive Examination—Revised [ACE-R; Mioshi, et al., 2006 ] were administered. Raw scores for letter fluency (words beginning with “P”) and semantic fluency (animals) were used.

The SDT was based on semantic association measures used by Gaffrey et al. [2007] and Marschark et al. [2004] , and presented on a laptop using E-Prime [ Schneider, Eschman, & Zuccolotto, 2002 ]. Participants viewed a target word (e.g. ANIMAL) and were then asked to judge whether a series of cue words was associated with the target (e.g. DOG, HAMMER, HORSE). In the category condition, the target word was a superordinate category term (such as ANIMAL or TOOL), and the cue words were all basic exemplars, only some of which belonged to the target category. In the exemplar condition, a basic exemplar was the target (e.g. DOG), and the cue words were all superordinate category terms (e.g. ANIMAL, PET, FRUIT). Participants completed three blocks of 10 trials in each condition. Each trial consisted of a target word (2-sec presentation), a 500-msec interval and a cue word, which would remain on screen until the participant responded. Responses were followed by a feedback page (showing “Correct!” or “Incorrect”). Based on prior evidence of intact category identification in ASD [ Minshew et al., 2002 ], the reaction times for accurate responses (indicating semantic association) were used as the primary outcome of the task. In addition, accuracy scores were collected for each condition. 4

Language questionnaire

Parents were asked to indicate (a) age of first word, (b) age of first phrase of two or more words and (c) language ratings at age 3, 5, 7 and current age in relation to other children of the same age. Ratings were made on a Likert scale ranging from 1 (“Much worse than other children of the same age”) to 5 (“Much better than other children”). Items (a) and (b) were chosen based on their standard use in the ADI-R [ Lord et al., 1994 ]. Language ratings beyond age 3 were included to reflect the possibility of later language abilities also having important predictive value [see, e.g. Bennett et al., 2008 ].

Unless otherwise stated, analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) was used to compare the three groups on the main task outcomes. Covariate analysis, using age and VIQ as covariates, was used to account for potential influences of age and general ability. VIQ but not full-scale IQ was included as a covariate because of (a) strong collinearity between scores for both and (b) the greater relevance of VIQ to verbal problem solving. Where dependent variables were nonnormal, nonparametric tests were used (specifically, Kruskal–Wallis tests with Mann–Whitney post-hoc tests when assessing group differences and Spearman’s Rho for correlational analysis).

ANCOVA was first of all applied to performance on the TQT to test the hypothesis that HFA but not AS participants would be less efficient than TD participants in their problem solving. Second, ANCOVAs and Kruskall–Wallis tests were used to assess group differences in QD, planning, fluency and semantic decision. To test their effect on problem solving, they were then also included as covariates in a reanalysis of TQT performance. Finally, correlation and hierarchical regression analyses were used to test for potential predictors of problem-solving performance across all three groups combined.

P -values were not corrected across different tasks because there were deemed to be testing separate questions (namely do the groups differ in problem solving, is that because of clear confounds in other relevant skills, and is it because of a difference in semantic abilities?). Within each task, post hoc comparisons were made using P -values Bonferroni-corrected for the number of pairwise tests between groups.

Comparing Problem-Solving Skills

Table 2 displays the main task outcomes for the TQT. To test overall problem-solving efficiency, an ANCOVA was run comparing mean QQ scores in the three groups. This indicated a main effect of group ( F (2, 40) = 5.303, P = 0.009, eta p 2 = 0.210), alongside covariate effects of VIQ ( F (1, 40) = 4.092, P = 0.001, eta p 2 = 0.244) and age ( F (1, 40) = 5.262, P = 0.027, eta p 2 = 0.116). As hypothesized, pairwise comparisons indicated that HFA participants’ questions were significantly less efficient than those of AS participants ( P = 0.016) and TD participants ( P = 0.029). No difference was observed between AS and TD participants ( P = 1.0).

Mean Task Scores in AS, HFA and TD Participants

AS, Asperger syndrome; HFA, high-functioning autism; n.s., not significant; QQ, question quality; SD, standard deviation; TD, typically developing.

For the secondary outcomes of the TQT, similar group differences were evident for the number of questions on each trial (group main effect: F (2, 40) = 4.056, P = 0.025, eta p 2 = 0.169), although only the HFA vs. TD contrast was significant ( P = 0.032). Use of grouping was high in all groups (60–65%), and on average guesses were used twice as much by ASD participants, but Kruskal–Wallis ANOVAs (used because of skew in the rates of grouping and guessing) indicated no significant group differences (all P > 0.400). A mixed ANCOVA was also used to check for any changes in efficiency across the three task trials. Despite the switch from allowing (trials 1 and 2) to prohibiting elimination (trial 3), no significant trial effects or interactions were evident for QQ (all P > 0.05, all eta p 2 < 0.1), suggesting that overall group differences on these variables were consistent across trials.

Explanations of Problem-Solving Differences

ANCOVA indicated no significant Group effect or any covariate effects on QD (all P > 0.05, all eta p 2 < 0.06). For PC, plan efficiency was significantly influenced by VIQ ( F (1, 40) = 6.658, P = 0.014, eta p 2 = 0.164), but no effects of group or age were observed (all P > 0.05, all eta p 2 < 0.06).

All verbal fluency scores were nonnormal, necessitating the use of nonparametric tests. Kruskal–Wallis tests indicated a trend on letter fluency score ( X 2 (2) = 5.175, N = 45, P = 0.075) and a significant difference on semantic fluency score ( X 2 (2) = 6.33, N = 45, P = 0.042) between the groups. In general, performance was best in TD participants and worst in AS participants (see Table 2 ), but no pairwise differences survived correction for multiple comparisons. To test for potential effects of fluency performance on problem solving, letter and semantic fluency scores were then added separately as covariates to ANCOVAs of TQT QQ. Neither significantly contributed to TQT performance, and all original main effects remained the same (all P > 0.600, all eta p 2 < 0.02).

A 3 × 2 (group × condition) mixed ANCOVA was used to compare reaction times in each group on the SDT. Significant contributions of age ( F (1, 40) = 10.774, P = 0.002, eta p 2 = 0.212) and VIQ ( F (1, 40) = 5.388, P = 0.025, eta p 2 = 0.119) were observed, but no significant effect of group. Nominally, mean reaction times were slower for exemplar-to-category associations than the reverse (see Table 2 ), but no significant difference was observed between the two conditions ( P = 0.154, eta p 2 = 0.050) nor any group × condition interactions.

Accuracy scores for the same task were nonnormally distributed. Kruskal–Wallis tests indicated no significant differences in accuracy on the exemplar condition ( X 2 (2) = 4.295, N = 45, P = 0.117), but a significant contrast for the category condition ( X 2 (2) = 8.462, N = 45, P = 0.012). Mann–Whitney U -tests indicated that AS participants were less accurate than TD participants ( U = 49.50, N = 30, P = 0.042) in their identification of exemplars when provided with a superordinate category (e.g. Does it go with TOOL?). No other pairwise comparisons reached significance (all P > 0.05).

When SDT outcomes were included as covariates in the TQT analysis, no significant covariate effects were observed (all P > 0.300, all eta p 2 < 0.03), suggesting that they could not explain group differences in problem-solving efficiency.

Early language ratings

Language milestones and parent ratings are displayed in Table 3 . Spearman’s correlations were used to assess the validity of language ratings for ages 3 and up, showing moderate correlations with full-scale ( r = 0.26–0.29) and verbal IQ ( r = 0.19–0.30). A hierarchical regression analysis was used to explore potential predictors of problem-solving performance, using mean QQ as the dependent variable. Block 1 included age and gender (as control variables), block 2 added ages of first word and first phrase, and block 3 added language ratings for 3, 5, 7 and current age. The only individual predictor to reach significance in any model was age of first phrase (stan. beta = −0.532, P = 0.029), and while block 2 showed a significant R 2 change over block 1 ( ΔR 2 = 0.145, F (2,44) = 3.492, P = 0.043), none of the resulting models significantly predicted mean QQ (all P > 0.110).

Early Language Milestones and Parent Ratings

AS, Asperger syndrome; HFA, high-functioning autism; SD, standard deviation; TD, typically developing.

The main finding of the study was that HFA participants, but not AS participants, adopted less efficient strategies than TD children during verbal problem solving. As was hypothesized, HFA participants asked questions that eliminated fewer items each time, whereas AS participants performed at a similar level to TD children. This suggests that atypical language development may be important to explaining inefficiencies in the task performance of ASD participants and that prior evidence of problems on the TQT in ASD samples [ Alderson-Day & McGonigle-Chalmers, 2011 ; Minshew et al., 1994 , 2002 ] may only apply to those with experience of language delay. There was also tentative evidence to suggest that age of first phrase acquisition was related to problem-solving performance, although in general early language milestones and ratings from parents did not significantly predict success on the TQT.

Alongside this, AS and HFA participants displayed a very similar profile on a range of other measures. No differences between ASD participants were observed in question understanding, planning and verbal fluency, in support of the hypothesis that such skills would not explain group differences in problem solving. This is consistent with prior reports of comparable EF and fluency skills in autism and AS [ Manjiviona & Prior, 1999 ; Miller & Ozonoff, 2000 ; Verté, Geurts, Roeyers, Oosterlaan, & Sergeant, 2006 ; cf. Spek et al., 2009 ]. It may have been expected that AS participants would be generally be more fluent than HFA participants and thus able to generate questions on the task, but the direction of results indicated the opposite. Furthermore, performance on the task was unrelated to problem-solving efficiency on the TQT.

These results add to the prior findings of Alderson-Day [2011] and Alderson-Day and McGonigle-Chalmers [2011] by suggesting that verbal problem solving might be a specific problem for HFA children, rather than ASD as a whole. Moreover, while those studies identified specific executive demands posed by the TQT, the present study suggests that language background may be more important to understanding why children with ASD struggle to use the most effective questions.

The final hypothesis—that differences on the TQT would map on to underlying differences in semantic skill—was not supported: performance on a SDT was unrelated to success on the TQT. Contrary to predictions, AS rather than HFA participants showed the most atypical performance on this task, scoring lowest for the identification of exemplars for specific superordinate categories. This is consistent with prior evidence of atypical semantic skills in AS compared with TD children ( Kamio et al., 2007 ) but hard to explain in relation to HFA participants. Very few studies have directly compared categorization or other related lexico-semantic skills in AS and HFA, and those that have usually find HFA to be more atypical in profile than AS [e.g. Speirs, Yelland, Rinehart, & Tonge, 2011 ]. In any case, there is little evidence here to suggest that semantic skills provide the link between language history and later problem solving for children with HFA.

One process that could be implicated instead is inner speech (also known as silent speech or internal monologue). Inner speech is often argued to be developmental in origin and has been historically associated with problem solving and self-regulation [ Vygotsky, 1987 ]. Problems with early communicative interaction would in theory impact upon inner speech and its developmental precursor, private speech [ Fernyhough, 1996 ]. Intriguingly, use of private speech appears to be intact in children with ASD and can even enhance their performance on cognitive tasks relative to when they are silent [ Winsler, Abar, Feder, Schunn, & Rubio, 2007 ]. However, a range of studies have indicated that inner speech is less likely to be utilized by people with ASD [ Holland & Low, 2010 ; Wallace, Silvers, Martin, & Kenworthy, 2009 ; Whitehouse, Maybery, & Durkin, 2006 ], and this seems to be particularly the case for more complex planning and problem-solving tasks [ Williams, Bowler, & Jarrold, 2012 ]. If the development and internalization of inner speech was more likely to be disrupted in HFA compared with AS, then this could have long-term consequences for activities like verbal problem solving.

Such an explanation is speculative, but it has specific implications that are testable. One prediction is that there would be differences in inner speech use within the autism spectrum according to language history, at its simplest varying as a function of language delay, or varying with the degree of early communicative impairment in some other way. Another implication is that we should expect similar problem-solving profiles in other children with a history of language difficulties, such as those with a SLI. There is initial evidence to suggest that children with SLI show intact use of inner speech but less internalized use of private speech during planning tasks, implying a delayed development of verbal strategy skills [ Lidstone, Meins, & Fernyhough, 2012 ]. It may be that similar delays in the internalization of self-directed language skills affects ASD as well: a question for future research would be to examine how the relative proportions of private and inner speech use vary for ASD children in relation to their degree of language delay.

Another possibility, not mutually exclusive to the first, is that participants with HFA were more likely than AS or TD participants to adopt other, nonverbal strategies in their approach to the TQT. Anecdotally, there are many accounts of people with ASD preferring to “think in pictures” rather than speech [ Grandin, 1995 ; Kunda & Goel, 2011 ]. Direct experimental comparisons are few, but there is some evidence to suggest HFA but not AS participants respond faster to visuospatial rather than verbal matrix reasoning puzzles [ Sahyoun, Soulières, Belliveau, Mottron, & Mody, 2009 ]. If this were to explain differences in problem-solving skill, the implication would be that ASD individuals with language delay would be more likely to adopt visual strategies than those with more typical language development. As the TQT involves a visual array, visualizing potential groupings or basing questions on concrete and perceptual similarities represent possible ways of attempting the task, but also ones that may not identify the most abstract categories for questioning (such as organic vs. nonorganic entities). Dependence on visual or verbal strategies could be investigated by manipulating levels of perceptual similarity and abstractness in the test materials [for a preliminary example, see Alderson-Day & McGonigle-Chalmers, 2011 ].

It is of course possible that AS and HFA participants were differing in other ways on the task. Given its visual presentation, it could be that HFA participants were narrowly focusing on small groupings at the expense of more global categories, as would be typical of a “local-biased” processing style [ Happé & Frith, 2006 ]. However, signs of local bias are generally evident across the autistic spectrum [e.g. Jolliffe & Baron-Cohen, 1997 ]. It is also not clear why, developmentally, the two groups would be more likely to differ in this regard, but not differ in other ways more closely related to language.

Before discussing the practical implications of these findings, some caveats must be acknowledged. First, the sample size tested here is small, and it was not possible to closely match the participant groups in age and IQ abilities. The analytic method used here to compensate for this (ANCOVA) adjusts for the effects of age and IQ, but it should not be interpreted as fully “controlling” for their influence [ Miller & Chapman, 2001 ]. This is perhaps less of a concern regarding age, as HFA participants were significantly older than AS participants and yet still performed worse on the TQT. That being said, the relatively wide age range may have also obscured important differences in ability, given that executive skills and overall problem-solving competence can change considerably for ASD participants in adolescence [ Van den Bergh, Scheeren, Begeer, Koot, & Geurts, 2014 ]. The inequivalence of the groups is more important regarding VIQ, as theoretically this could have driven group differences in performance despite the statistical correction of using ANCOVA. In mitigation, it is worth noting that group differences between HFA and TD participants have previously been observed in samples closely matched for IQ [ Alderson-Day, 2011 ; Minshew et al., 1994 ] and that HFA participants in the present study performed comparably on almost every other task. Nevertheless, these findings need to be replicated in a larger, more closely matched sample before the potential contributions of age and IQ to group differences in problem solving can be clearly ruled out.

Second, the study did not include a standardized measure of language skills, such as the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals (CELF) test [ Semel, Wiig, & Secord, 1995 ]. To allow for other experimental tasks to be used in the time allowed, it was not possible to deploy an in-depth language battery in this instance: a larger study with an existing database of ASD participants should be able to achieve this. However, while a standardized language measure was not deployed here, the tasks used covered a range of relevant skills, including lexical knowledge (WASI vocabulary), category knowledge (SDT) and word fluency (ACE-R letter and semantic fluency). Thus, a number of language-dependent skills were accounted for, even if a standardized battery was absent.

Finally, the use of parent’s retrospective reports of early language abilities—which may have occurred over 10 years ago—at best only offer a rough proxy for language skills at the time, and without additional data it is unknown how reliable those ratings truly are. The data provided by families generally fitted existing diagnoses, but only longitudinal data could fully demonstrate relationships between early language and later cognitive skills. Such data would also be important in assessing how problem-solving abilities may change with language skills over time for people with ASD.

Notwithstanding those limitations, the study has a range of potential implications for methods and practice. First, if the TQT and other measures of verbal problem-solving are used with ASD groups [as it is in the Delis Kaplan Executive Function System; Delis, Kaplan, & Kramer, 2001 ], then task performance needs to be considered in the context of current and past language skills. The TQT is not a simple measure of problem solving or concept formation: it is a complex task with considerable executive and linguistic demands. Other cognitive tasks where the most effective strategies are language dependent, and the executive load is high—such as certain types of free recall or counterfactual reasoning—are also likely to create similar problems for HFA individuals.

Second, although the recent changes to diagnostic criteria have eliminated the diagnosis of Asperger disorder [ American Psychiatric Association, 2013 ], these data act as a reminder that variation in language skills and development across the spectrum are important and can impact upon cognition in subtle ways for people with ASD, even if the large majority of cognitive outcomes appear similar. This is likely to be particularly important in educational contexts for understanding what kinds of strategies are going to be most useful for facilitating verbal problem-solving skills in ASD individuals. In social problem-solving training [ Solomon, Goodlin-Jones, & Anders, 2004 ], for example, young people with HFA who have good structural language skills but a history of language delay may still need considerable support for use of new verbal strategies. Alternatively, they may be more likely to benefit from use of visual materials such as decision trees, Venn diagrams or other graphical techniques that can be used to support decision making [ Davies, Stock, & Wehmeyer, 2003 ; Dexter & Hughes, 2011 ]. AS individuals, in contrast, may be better placed to handle the language demands of such training, while still struggling with the social-cognitive aspects of its core content.

Any problem-solving task presents a range of complex demands: verbal problem solving often requires generating linguistic strategies and applying them flexibly to a new situation. The results presented here suggest that even a simple, game-based example of problem solving could be affected by an individual’s developmental background. A replication of this result, with more closely matched groups and a wider age range, would test this more idea more comprehensively. Understanding how language development can selectively affect performance in a range of problem-solving contexts is crucial to developing better educational tools and better support for people with an ASD.

Acknowledgments

This research was completed as part of a doctoral degree by the author at the University of Edinburgh and supported by a University of Edinburgh College of Humanities and Social Sciences Studentship. Margaret McGonigle-Chalmers and Robert Logie are thanked for their help and support for the research. Thanks are also due to Charles Fernyhough for comments on the manuscript. The author declares no conflicts of interest.

The author is currently supported by Wellcome Trust grant WT098455.

1 “Problem solving” is a term that has been applied to a wide range of tasks that can sometimes vary considerably [c.f. Rumsey, 1985 ; Soulieres et al., 2009 ]. Broadly, it is used to refer to tasks or puzzles where the solution is not made apparent in the task materials. More specifically, problem-solving tasks often require (a) the generation of a strategy to achieve success and (b) working through a series of moves or steps towards a solution [ Newell & Simon, 1972 ].

2 One HFA participant had also previously received a diagnosis of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Because of the high comorbidity of ASD and ADHD [ Leyfer et al., 2006 ], this participant was not excluded, but the data weremarked for later analysis in case of potential outliers in performance. However, all of the participant’s data fell well within range for their group.

3 Parents were also asked to complete a version of the Autism Quotient [AQ-Adolescent; Baron-Cohen, Hoekstra, Knickmeyer, & Wheelwright, 2006 ] about their child as a further means of matching the groups. Questionnaires were available for all but one HFA participant. Both HFA and ASD participants scored higher than TD participants ( P < 0.05). No difference was observed between the ASD groups ( P = 0.596).

4 Participants also initially completed a practice round of identifying four-, six- and eight-letter words without a semantic decision component, but that is not reported here.

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Problem-solving and analytical skills

• Putting together an argument for an essay
• Dealing with an awkward customer when working part-time in a shop or restaurant
• Debugging a computer program
• Managing your budget to keep you going until the end of term
• Working out why your printer won’t respond
• Developing a strategy to reach the next level of a computer game

All jobs involve problems that need to be solved. It’s important to show that you have the right skills to resolve these problems, and the personal resilience to handle the challenges and pressure they may bring.

Solving these problems involves both analytical and creative skills. The skills required can vary, depending on the problem and your role in the organisation, but the following skills are key to problem-solving: analytical ability, lateral thinking, initiative, logical reasoning and persistence.

Analytical and critical thinking skills help you to evaluate the problem and to make decisions. A logical and methodical approach is best in some circumstances: for example, you will need to be able to draw on your academic or subject knowledge to identify solutions of a practical or technical nature. In other situations, using creativity or lateral thinking will be necessary to come up with ideas for resolving the problem and find fresh approaches. Whatever issue you are faced with, some steps are fundamental:

• I dentify the problem
• Clarifying the nature of a problem
• Formulating questions
• Gathering information systematically
• Collating and organising data
• Condensing and summarising information
• D efine the problem
• Managing the problem
• Using the information gathered effectively
• Using techniques such as brainstorming and lateral thinking to consider options
• Analysing these options in greater depth
• Identifying steps that can be taken to achieve the objective
• E xamine the options
• Deciding between the possible options for what action to take
• Deciding on further information to be gathered before taking action
• Deciding on resources (time, funding, staff etc.) to be allocated to this problem
• A ct on a plan
• Implementing action
• Providing information to other stakeholders; delegating tasks
• Reviewing progress
• L ook at the consequences
• Monitoring the outcome of the action taken
• Reviewing the problem and problem-solving process to avoid similar situations in future

At any stage of this process, it may be necessary to return to an earlier stage – for example, if further problems arise or if a solution does not appear to be working as desired.

Developing your analytical and problem-solving skills

Most problem-solving skills are developed through everyday life and experience. However, the following interests and activities may be useful in demonstrating a high level of these skills - this may be particularly important when applying to employers in areas such as engineering, IT, operational research and some areas of finance:

• ‘Mind games’ such as cryptic crosswords, Sudoku, chess, bridge
• Computer games – the best of these can involve strategic planning, critical and statistical analysis and assessing the pros and cons of different courses of action
• Practical interests such as programming, computer repairs, car maintenance, or DIY
• Working with sound or lighting equipment for a band, event or show
• Academic study: evaluating different sources of information for essays, designing and constructing a shelter for an architecture project; setting up a lab experiment

Problem-solving skills and graduate jobs: what do recruiters want?

Analytical ability, problem-solving skills and using initiative are among the top ten skills recruiters want graduates to demonstrate. They want people who will take the personal responsibility to make sure targets are met, who can see that there might be a better way of doing something, and who are prepared to research and implement change - people who don’t panic or give up when things go wrong but who will seek a way around the problem. These problems may be similar to academic problems or may be more practical problems such as those involved in people management.

These skills can be asked for in a variety of ways.  Many job ads will simply ask for candidates who can take the initiative or have the ability to resolve problems. Others, however, may not make it so clear.  You have to learn to interpret phrases like:

• “Someone keen to take responsibility and with the confidence to challenge established practices and come up with new ways of working…”
• “An enquiring mind and the ability to understand and solve complex challenges are necessary…”
• “We are looking for innovative minds and creative spirits ...”
• “The ability to use your own initiative, to think for yourself, to be creative and pro-active...”
• “The ability to resolve problems, to think logically and/or laterally, to use ingenuity to overcome difficulties and to research and implement solutions...”

How will they assess these skills?

On application forms

• Describe a situation in which you analysed data and solved a complex problem
• Describe a complex problem you have faced and the steps that you took to solve it
• Describe a setback in your life and say what you did to overcome it. What lessons did you learn from this?
• Describe a time when you demonstrated creativity in solving a difficult problem
• Give me a specific example of a time when you used good judgment and logic in solving a problem

When answering these questions, cover the process you used to solve the problem rather than just outlining the problem itself. Give examples of how you used initiative/creativity, or made effective use of resources, in solving the problem. It is also useful to say what you learned from this process, especially if the problem was not resolved to your complete satisfaction.

Evidence you could give to an employer to convince them that you have problem-solving skills:

• Analysing data from a project or experiment
• Working on a computer helpdesk
• Advising a client at the Kent Law Clinic
• Implementing a new filing system in an office job
• Acting as a student rep
• Dealing with staff problems or unexpected staff shortages in a part-time job
• Coping with living on a limited student budget

Example from an application form

“Give an example of a time when you have successfully resolved a complex problem .”

In the sixth form, I took part with two friends in a “Robot Challenge” competition. The brief was to design and build a robot that could perform a dance routine synchronised with a music soundtrack. My responsibility was to control the movement of the robot through the sensors and actuators. This was a complex task because of the number of movements that the robot was required to execute and the different stimuli to which it had to respond. In addition, the robot proved particularly sensitive to changes in light levels and I needed to experiment with a number of adaptations to discover the optimum balance between responsiveness and reliability.

Our team achieved second place in the local competition and progressed to the regional final, where we came fifth out of 25 teams.

Through psychometric tests

The most common of these tests involve verbal and numerical reasoning: you may also encounter diagrammatic reasoning and critical thinking tests. They may be administered online at an early stage of the selection process, or at first interview or assessment centres. (link to Psychometric testing pages)

At interview

If your application form has included competency-based questions such as the ones above, you can expect the employer to ask for more detail at interview, about the problem or the situation and the way that you went about finding a solution. Be prepared to be asked about alternative ways in which you might have gone about tackling this problem and what you would have done if things hadn’t worked out.

Hypothetical questions

Hypothetical questions ask you about the course of action you might take in the event of some fictional situation, often work-related. There is usually no right or wrong answer to these questions: the interviewers are seeking to assess your logical thinking and common sense. You may need to ask questions to clarify the situation and gather more information. You can expect your answers to be challenged, the interviewers asking questions such as  “Yes, but what if …?”, or “Have you thought about ….?”, or “Why would you do that …?” This doesn’t mean that there is anything wrong with the answer you have given – just that the interviewers are trying to find out how you have arrived at your solution to the problem. They may also be testing you out to see how you cope with pressure and how well you can argue a point. Although the situation is hypothetical, if you have been faced with any similar situation in real life you can use this, and the way that you handled it then, to support your answer.

• "You are working on the till in a retail store when a customer’s credit card is refused. The cardholder is a regular customer who is trying to buy a present for their mother’s birthday the following day. How would you deal with this situation?"
• "Your manager regularly leaves you in charge of a small office in his absence. The other staff regularly complain to you about the way he runs things, and how irritated they are by his interference in their day-to-day work - what do you do?"
• "You work in a company that manufactures meat pies and pasties. Sales have been falling for several years and you are asked to come up with ideas to revive the company”

Technical questions

These are most commonly asked at interviews for science, engineering and IT posts. They may relate to your previous relevant work experience or to a student project, or may relate to hypothetical situations:

• “The scenario was that we were in charge of lighting a theatre. We were given different examples of what type of problem could be caused by various faults in the lighting plan and who this problem would affect. It got harder as different conditions were added to the original ones and you had to take more and more information into consideration, such as: certain lights need to always be turned on first; some lights need to be warmed up in the breaks; different lights create different effects.”
•  “If I were organising a national cancer screening campaign, what standards/precautions/feasibility/practicality checks would I do before implementing the scheme?” 

Ethical questions

These are particularly common in interviews for medicine and law. Again, there is often no right or wrong answer, although you should be aware of the legal and regulatory framework behind these questions. You will be expected to put both sides of the argument before giving your opinion and can expect to be challenged and asked to justify your opinion.

• Should doctors be authorised to remove organs from a dead person without obtaining consent from their relatives?
• A patient urgently requires a bone marrow transplant but the only suitable donor is her brother, who has severe physical and mental disabilities. Can this brother donate?
• Should conjoined twins be separated even if it is almost certain that one of them will die in the process?
• Since the victims in rape cases have anonymity, should the same anonymity be granted to the accused?

Case study interviews

This type of interview is often used for graduate positions in management consultancy and investment banking. Case questions are business problems designed not only to test your logical and analytical thinking skills, ability to solve problems but also to make you think on your feet. Often there are no right answers to these types of questions, but they give the selector an idea of how you think, your reasoning skills, how you react under pressure and your common sense. The problems may be brief (sometimes seemingly bizarre) “estimation” or “brain teaser” questions such as “ How many cars are there in the EU?”,  or “ How many laptops will be purchased in the UK in 2020?”,  or “ Why are manhole covers round?”

Alternatively, you may be asked questions related to the issues facing real-life clients:

• A manufacturer of umbrellas, based in the west of Ireland, wants to expand into mainland Europe.  What issues should they consider? What risks might they face?
• A parcel delivery company plans to offer a new service where customers can hand a package directly to one of the company's drivers instead of taking it to a depot. What issues need to be thought about?

Through group tasks and discussions at assessment centres

Almost all assessment centres will involve a strong element of group work. These tasks may involve the group sitting around a table discussing a problem or may be more active and practical. The decision reached by the group is likely to be less important than the way in which the group works together to reach its decision – these tasks aim to test your team-working and negotiation, as well as your problem-solving, skills.

• “We were asked to come up with a business proposal for building a computer network between an imaginary group of islands, to be presented to the island’s government.”
• “We were provided with information on four sites that were possible locations for the construction of a nuclear power station. This included information on the environment, the local economy, transport links and the estimated costs of construction. We had to select one and recommend it to the Secretary of State for Energy, giving the reasons for our decision.”
• “We were given a task involving Lego bricks - we had to work out how many bricks we wanted to use to build the tallest tower possible at the lowest cost.”
• “A large part of the Army Officer selection process takes place outdoors – the teams of candidates have to negotiate an obstacle course using ladders, ropes, poles and planks.”

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Logical Reasoning Questions and Answers

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• HCL Placement Paper | Verbal Reasoning Set - 2
• Reasoning Tricks to Solve Coding -Decoding and Calendar Problems
• Statement and Assumption in Logical Reasoning
• Venn Diagram

Logical Reasoning _ Verbal Reasoning

• Verbal Reasoning: Logical Arrangement Of Words
• Placement | Reasoning | Blood Relationship
• Syllogism: Verbal Reasoning Questions and Answers
• Cubes: Verbal Reasoning Questions and Answers
• Seating Arrangement : Aptitude Questions and Answers
• Direction Sense test
• Data Sufficiency in Logical Reasoning

Logical Reasoning _ Non-Verbal Reasoning

• Mirror Image: Verbal Reasoning
• Picture Analogies Questions - Non Verbal Reasoning

Logical Reasoning involves the ability to use and understand logical connections between facts or ideas.

• In verbal reasoning , questions are expressed in words or statements and require the reader to think critically about the language used in order to choose the correct answer from the given options.
• Non-verbal reasoning meanwhile involves questions presented as images and figures, requiring the reader to comprehend how one element relates to another before selecting the right answer out of a list of potential answers.

Logical Reasoning is a key component of many competitive and reasoning ability-testing exams in India and abroad. Reasoning questions allow organizations to assess a candidate’s problem-solving skills, critical thinking capabilities, and capacity for logical and analytical thinking. 

Aptitude Questions such as Quantitative Aptitude and Logical Reasoning are considered essential skills for success in a wide range of competitive exams worldwide. These two sections often form the backbone of entrance exams, whether it’s for a public sector job in India or a university admission test in the United States.

Go through the following article to learn more about the various types of reasoning ability queries generally included in competitive tests.

Logical Reasoning Topics

Logical Reasoning is a crucial section in various competitive exams, and aspirants must study these topics to improve their problem-solving abilities and score better.

Types of Questions included in logical reasoning:

• Verbal Questions
• Puzzle Questions
• Image-Based Questions
• Sequence Questions

Topic-wise practice questions on logical reasoning:

• Number Series
• Letter and Symbol Series
• Verbal Classification
• Essential Part
• Artificial Language
• Matching Definitions
• Making Judgments
• Logical Problems
• Logical Games
• Analyzing Arguments
• Course of Action
• Statement and Conclusion
• Theme Detection
• Cause and Effect
• Statement and Argument
• Logical Deduction
• Letter Series
• Verification of the Truth of the Statement
• Coding Decoding
• Assertion and Reason
• Statement and Assumptions
• Logical Venn Diagram

Verbal Reasoning

Verbal reasoning is the cognitive ability to understand and interpret information presented in written or spoken language and apply logical reasoning to draw conclusions and solve problems.

It involves analyzing and evaluating information, making inferences and deductions, and identifying relationships between concepts and ideas. Verbal reasoning often tests a candidate’s language comprehension, critical thinking, and analytical skills and is commonly used in aptitude tests, job interviews, and higher education admissions.

A strong grasp of verbal reasoning can help individuals communicate effectively, think critically, and make informed decisions in their personal and professional lives.

Verbal Reasoning Questions and Answers Topics

• Logical Sequence of Words
• Blood Relation Test
• Series Completion
• Cube and Cuboid
• Seating Arrangement
• Character Puzzles
• Direction Sense Test
• Classification
• Data Sufficiency
• Arithmetic Reasoning
• Verification of Truth

Non-Verbal Reasoning

Non-verbal reasoning is the cognitive ability that involves questions presented as images and figures, requiring the reader to comprehend how one element relates to another before selecting the right answer out of a list of potential answers.

Non-verbal reasoning often tests a candidate’s ability to think creatively, solve problems, and make quick decisions, and is commonly used in aptitude tests, job interviews, and higher education admissions.

A strong grasp of non-verbal reasoning can help individuals develop their creativity, spatial awareness, and problem-solving abilities, making them more effective at tackling complex challenges in their personal and professional lives.

If you are a government exam aspirant or a student preparing for college placements, the reasoning is the topic that you need to practice thoroughly. Below are some topics that need to be practiced well for the reasoning section of the exam. So, let’s go through the following article to learn more about the various types of reasoning queries generally included in competitive tests.

Non-Verbal Reasoning Questions and Answers Topics

• Analytical Reasoning
• Mirror Images
• Water Images
• Embedded Images
• Pattern Completion
• Figure Matrix
• Paper Folding
• Paper Cutting
• Rule Detection
• Grouping of Images
• Dot Situation
• Shape Construction
• Image Analysis
• Cubes and Dice
• Picture Analogies

Logical reasoning is an important assessment tool for a wide range of competitive examinations. Questions in this section are designed to judge a candidate’s analytical and logical thinking abilities. Various types of reasoning questions are included in this section to test the student’s capacity for problem-solving, deduction, and inference.

Practicing questions is the only way to prepare for the reasoning test section. This way, even those who may struggle in this section can have an equal chance at success during exams or applications. The article contains concepts, questions, and topics of the reasoning section from the competitive exams and the placement exams’ point of view. 

FAQs – Logical Reasoning

Q1. what is logical reasoning  .

Logical reasoning involves the ability to use and understand logical connections between facts or ideas. The reasoning is a critical component of many tests and interviews. In order to perform well, it can be beneficial to practice doing reasoning questions with solutions available. 

Q2. What are logical reasoning questions? 

Logical reasoning questions can be both verbal and non-verbal: In verbal logical reasoning questions, questions are expressed in words or statements and require the reader to think critically about the language used in order to choose the correct answer from the given options and in non-verbal logical reasoning questions, it involves questions presented as images and figures, requiring the reader to comprehend how one element relates to another before selecting the right answer out of a list of potential answers.

Q3. What is the approach to solving reasoning questions? 

Follow the steps given below for preparation: 1. Practice with a timer and solve questions within the time limit. 2. Read the question carefully and try to understand the logic behind it. 3. Practice as many questions as you can and brush up on your skills.

Q4. Which book is good for the preparation of reasoning question sets? 

Students can practice from the following books: 1. A Modern Approach to Verbal & Non-Verbal Reasoning by R.S. Agarwal 2. Shortcuts in Reasoning (Verbal, Non-Verbal, Analytical & Critical) for Competitive Exams by Disha Experts 3. How to Crack Test of Reasoning by Arihant Experts

Q5. What is the syllabus of the Reasoning Aptitude section for competitive exams? 

Reasoning Aptitude covers a wide range of topics. Those topics are already given in the article. Aspirants must go through the article to learn about those topics and practice them thoroughly.

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SSC JE Reasoning Topics To Ace The Exam

SSC JE Reasoning Topics is given here to boost the preparation of candidates. Check detailed SSC JE Reasoning Topics for Tier 1 and Tier 2 Exam here.

Table of Contents

The Staff Selection Commission (SSC) examination is a highly competitive test that demands not only technical knowledge but also sharp reasoning skills. Reasoning ability is a crucial part of the General Intelligence and Reasoning section, which aims to evaluate a candidate’s logical thinking, problem-solving skills, and decision-making capabilities. Excelling in this section can significantly boost a candidate’s overall score. Here’s a comprehensive guide to the key reasoning topics and strategies to ace this section.

SSC JE Reasoning Syllabus

Key topics in ssc je reasoning.

• Verbal Analogy-   Understanding the relationship between two words and finding a similar relationship in another pair.
• Non-Verbal Analogy- Identifying the relationship between figures and patterns.

Classification

• Verbal Classification- Grouping words based on common properties.
• Non-Verbal Classification- Grouping figures or patterns based on shared characteristics.

Series Completion

• Number Series- Finding the missing number or identifying the next number in a sequence.
• Alphabet Series- Completing sequences based on alphabetical patterns.

Coding-Decoding

• Letter Coding- Deciphering codes where letters are replaced by other letters according to a rule.
• Number Coding- Numbers represent letters, and candidates must decode the message.

Blood Relations

• Blood Relations- Understanding and solving problems related to family relationships.

Direction Sense Test

• Direction Sense Test- Determining directions based on given scenarios.
• Syllogism- Logical reasoning involving statements and conclusions.

Puzzle Test

• Puzzle Test- Solving complex problems involving arrangements, sequences, and logical connections.

Venn Diagrams

• Venn Diagrams- Representing sets and their relationships visually to solve problems.

Data Sufficiency

• Data Sufficiency- Determining if the provided data is sufficient to answer a question.

Logical Sequence of Words

• Logical Sequence of Words- Arranging words in a logical order based on given criteria.

Figure Formation and Analysis

• Figure Formation and Analysis- Constructing or analyzing figures based on given parts.

SSC JE Tips And Tricks For Reasoning

• Familiarize yourself with common coding patterns and practice regularly to decode quickly.
• Focus on identifying commonalities and differences quickly to save time.
• Focus on the relevance of the information and practice distinguishing between necessary and unnecessary data.
• Understand set theory basics and practice drawing Venn diagrams for different scenarios.
• Practice different types of puzzles and develop a methodical approach to avoid confusion.
• Improve spatial visualization skills and practice assembling figures.
• Use Venn diagrams to visualize and solve syllogisms efficiently.
• Understand common patterns such as arithmetic progression, geometric progression, and positional patterns in alphabets.
• Identify the criteria quickly and practice with a variety of sequences.
• Practice different types of analogies regularly and develop a strong vocabulary to improve verbal analogy skills.
• Draw family trees and use diagrams to simplify complex relationships.
• Visualize the problem using diagrams and practice regularly to improve spatial understanding.

 SSC JE Preparation Strategies for Success

Regular Practice- Dedicate time daily to practice different reasoning topics. Regular practice helps in recognizing patterns and improving speed.

Mock Tests- Take mock tests to simulate exam conditions. This helps in time management and identifying weak areas.

Understand the Concepts- Rather than rote learning, focus on understanding the underlying concepts and logic of each topic.

Analyze Mistakes- Review your mistakes in practice tests and understand where you went wrong. This helps in avoiding similar errors in the future.

Time Management-   Prioritize easier questions to secure quick marks and then move to more challenging ones. This strategy helps in maximizing your score.

Stay Updated- Keep abreast of any changes in the exam pattern or syllabus and adjust your preparation accordingly.

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