Verbal reasoning

What it measures

Whether you can judge a short statement against a passage using only what the passage says: true if it says so, false if it contradicts it, cannot say if it does not settle the matter. It is not a test of vocabulary or of what you know about the subject.

How it appears

• Passage with True, False, Cannot say statementsOne passage of 100 to 200 words and three to five statements. For each statement you pick one of the three verdicts. This is the format most graduate schemes use.
• Best-supported statementA passage and four or five statements; you pick the one the passage supports, or the one that must be true if the passage is.
• InteractiveYou drag each statement into a True, False or Cannot say column.

Timing

30 questions in 19 minutes.

graduatesfirst.com's guide gives 18 questions in 15 minutes for the same test (50 seconds each). Treat 35 to 50 seconds a statement as the range.

How to tell it apart

• Reading comprehensionReading comprehension asks what the text says or means, with content options. Verbal reasoning asks for a verdict on a statement someone else wrote about the text.
• Deductive reasoningDeductive questions give you rules and ask what must follow. Verbal questions give you a passage and ask whether one claim is settled by it.

The method

The passage is the only evidence. Three verdicts, and the third is the one people miss.

1. Read the statement first, then find its subject in the passage. You rarely need the whole passage for one statement.
2. Decide on the passage's words alone. What you know about the world, however true, is not evidence here.
3. True only if the passage says it, or it follows from what it says. Reword the statement in the passage's own terms and see if it still holds.
4. False only if the passage contradicts it. A statement the passage never mentions is not false.
5. Cannot say is everything else, the passage is silent or gives only part. A plausible statement feels true and an unlikely one feels false; neither feeling is a verdict.
6. Watch the quantity and certainty words, all, some, most, only, always, never, may, will. A change in one of them changes the verdict.
7. Past the pace, go to the sentence you need rather than rereading from the top.

Traps to know

• True in the world, not in the passage

  The statement is something you believe, or something likely. The passage does not say it. The verdict is Cannot say, and the feeling that it is obviously true is the trap.

  Setup A passage says a retailer opened its first shop in Leeds in 1998. The statement says the retailer is based in Leeds.

  The trap Answering True because a first shop and a head office feel like the same place.

  The escape The passage names where the first shop was, not where the company is based. Cannot say.

• Silence read as denial

  The passage does not mention the thing the statement asserts. False needs a contradiction in the text; silence is not one.

  Setup A passage about a scholarship lists an age limit and a university offer as conditions and says nothing about nationality. The statement says applicants must be UK citizens.

  The trap Answering False because the passage lists the conditions and citizenship is not among them.

  The escape The passage does not say the list is complete, and it does not deny the condition. Cannot say.

• The quantity shift

  The statement swaps one quantity or certainty word for another, some for all, will for may, most for every. The rest of the sentence matches, so it reads as a paraphrase.

  Setup A passage says the council will consider electric bicycles after two years. The statement says electric bicycles will be introduced after two years.

  The trap Answering True because the two sentences share every noun.

  The escape Consider is not introduce. The passage does not settle whether they will be introduced. Cannot say.

• The contradiction you have to construct

  False is often stated indirectly. The passage says one site makes only metal products; the statement says wooden products are made there. Nothing says "not wooden", but the word only does the contradicting.

  Setup A passage says the Fife site makes only metal products. The statement says wooden furniture is made in Fife.

  The trap Answering Cannot say because the passage never mentions wooden furniture at Fife.

  The escape Only metal rules out wooden. That is a contradiction, so the verdict is False.

Worked examples