How to Pass a Verbal Reasoning Test

Many job seekers are terrified of taking a verbal reasoning test. This   aptitude   test  aims to measure your level of comprehension, verbal logic, memory and learning. It will be used in making hiring decisions. If you’re about to take it, read the guidelines below on how to pass and even excel in this challenge.

Anatomy of a Verbal Reasoning Test

During a verbal reasoning test, you will be provided with information in the form of a passage or set of passages and asked to evaluate a set of statements based on the passages. The options for your possible answers are actually divided into the following:

a. True (The statement provided is logically true from the information or opinion provided in the original passage.) b. False (The statement doesn’t follow any logic based on information provided in the passage.) c. Cannot Say (One cannot determine whether the original information or opinion provided in the passage is correct or wrong.)

When figuring out the correct answer, you are to assume that the original information provided in the passage is true. You should only use such information and should not consider any background knowledge in coming up with your answer for a verbal reasoning exam. This set of rules is one of the challenges that test takers find difficult to hurdle when figuring out the correct answer. Also, apart from dense passages, most of the answers in this type of exam are extremely close to each other.

Passing Verbal Reasoning Tests with Flying Colors

The key to passing and consequently acing  aptitude  exams such as a verbal reasoning  test  is to practice as much as possible. Apart from getting used to answering the same set of questions, here are some tricks of the trade to help you finish such exam with flying colors:

1. Focus your entire attention on the texts provided in the passage alone. Don’t refer to your prior knowledge when answering the test items.

2. As much as possible, answer the questions in order. Skipping questions will only distract you resulting to committing more mistakes. There are reasons why a verbal reasoning exam is designed in such order thus it would be better to strictly adhere to it.

3. Be extra careful with synonyms. Words which seem to have the same definition are often used to confuse test takers. However, you can prevent from committing such mistake by understanding words, phrases and sentences through their contextual meaning.

4. Never make postulations and assumptions. A verbal reasoning test is designed to measure your concentration levels as well as your tendency to believe in ambiguity.

5. Don’t spend too much time on one item; calculate how many minutes you should dwell in each question. You can do this by dividing the total number of questions by the total allocated time for the exam.

On a whole, a verbal reasoning test doesn’t measure what you’ve already learned. It actually assesses your concentration to understand written information.