Introduction to Reasoning

In all competitive examinations these days questions on reasoning are asked which can broadly be divided into two parts: Verbal Reasoning and Non Verbal Reasoning.

Verbal Reasoning: As the name suggests the questions in this section are based on letters, codes, numbers, words, sentences, etc. these questions may be based on series, analogy, syllogism, assumptions, etc and are stated in words. The verbal questions for testing ability have a drawback. The objective of these questions is to measure the reasoning ability but a candidate with better linguistic skill or quantitative aptitude may get an undue advantage. The non verbal test which depends on the diagrams is free from this drawback. 

Non Verbal Reasoning: Questions in this section are represented by figures (diagrams) and can’t be stated in words. The questions may be based on series, analogy, classification, paper folding, selecting an embedded figure, symmetry, etc. these types of questions are used to gauge the mental and reasoning ability of the candidates. Such types of tests were originally devised by Prof Binet. He devised non verbal intelligence tests to judge one’s power of memory, the nature of mental images, imagination, attention, comprehension, suggestibility and visual judgment. Most of the competitive examinations today use non verbal tests which are fundamentally based on the Binet Simon Test.