What is verbal reasoning?

Verbal reasoning involves reasoning to do with words and letters and their meanings.

Let's think about how words are constructed. Let's select a word and break it down:

LEARN.

• Composed of letters: L, E, A, R, N.
  
• Vowels: E & A. Consonants: L, R & N.
• Letters of the alphabet. What if they used a different alphabet? What part of the alphabet do they belong to? What letters are close by?
• In that order, it makes a word meaning to acquire knowledge or skill or being taught in English. What if the letters were scrambled? What would be the meaning expressed in a different language?
• Word is a verb. What does this imply?
• Contains letters that can make other words: LEAN, REAL, EARN.
• Certain letters combined can form other words with different letters: LEAP, REALLY

Quite simply, verbal reasoning is problem solving to do with letters and words in the many ways that they come in: type of word, letters, meaning, codes and more. They are the basis of communication and verbal reasoning tests how well you understand this.

How to ACE your verbal reasoning test

You may sit a verbal reasoning with other tests as part of a larger exam or sit the test as an individual stand-alone one. Whichever way, there are some things you'll need to do to ACE it.

1. Pattern detection - this is the basis of the course to help you find the pattern. Remember, the pattern is there. It's your job to find it.
2. Letters of the alphabet. Write down the letters of the alphabet when you first get a question that requires you to do so. You may find it handy for later questions.
3. Vocabulary knowledge.
4. Parts of speech.

For every reasoning question there are 2 overarching steps you need to take:

1. Trying to uncover the underlying pattern.
2. Applying that pattern to find the answer.

This is a process I encourage you to take:

• Prepare before the exam.
• Read the question and identify the type of question and decide whether you can do it within your set time or skip.
• Find crucial information to answer the question.
• Work out the pattern / question using the answer options as hints and eliminate options to help you.
• Select the answer.

The time limit

In many exams, you'll need to race through and answer question after question. Many people worry about this but the key thing to remember is not how many you complete. It's how many you get right.

Here's your time strategy:

1. Read the question quickly and decide whether it is a question you can complete quickly.
2. If yes, then complete. If no, then move on and come back to it later.
3. For any remaining questions at the end (30 seconds left), complete it if you can, or guess - Option B or C is often the most likely correct answer because there could be a chance that you could select the correct option by chance.

Note: Some students have been advised that they should leave the question blank rather than guessing. Unless you lose marks for incorrect answers, our advice is to guess.

It's important to note that you should not spend more than your planned time per question. Every second that you spend on figuring out that question could have been spent getting another 2-4 correct.

Common mistakes

What are the pitfalls when it comes to verbal reasoning exams with a time limit?

• Taking too long to answer a question.
• Reading the question incorrectly.
• Not having a strategy or an approach.

The key thing to remember with verbal reasoning is that it is logic and there is a definite right answer. For all questions with the exception of synonyms and antonyms, you should have the 'Ah-Ha' moment when you've found the correct answer because there is a logical link back.

What you'll learn in this course

This course is about helping you establish the logical links for each type of verbal reasoning question so that you can answer questions more confidently in the exam (and also have an approach).

There are different approaches to take for each type of verbal reasoning question. Why? Because each one has unique requirements and having a customized approach means you can move more quickly through the exam.

This course will go through the approach and strategies for various types of questions.

These questions are:

• Letter Patterns
• Word rearrangement
• Similar/dissimilar meanings
• Odd one out
• Analogies
• Basic logic
• Classification of attributes
• True/false statements
• Probability statements
• Maximum and minimum
• Translating language
• Decoding – an overview
• Decoding – pattern types
• Decoding codes using numbers
• Ordering information

This may seem like a lot but we'll work through these slowly and you can always go back to different areas and review checkpoints as many times as you want.

Practice time!

Now, it's your turn to practice.

The questions in this checkpoint are provided to give you an introduction to possible questions you may see in your exam. Don't worry too much as you'll continue to build your skills throughout the course.

Click on the button below and start your practice questions. We recommend doing untimed mode first, and then, when you're ready, do timed mode.

Every question has two solutions videos after you complete the question. The first is a quick 60 second video that shows you how our expert answers the question quickly. The second video is a more in-depth 5-steps or less explainer video that shows you the steps to take to answer the question. It's really important that you review the second video because that's where you'll learn additional tips and tricks.

Once you're done with the practice questions, move on to the next checkpoint.

Now, let's get started on your practice questions.

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