- Questions
- 35
- Time
- 37 minutes
- Per question
- About 63 seconds
- Answer formats
- Four options, or five Yes or No statements
What it tests
Whether you can apply logic to reach a sound conclusion, judge the strength of an argument and make sense of statistical information. Each question stands alone, with its own text, table, chart or diagram.
The two answer formats
- Four options, one best answer. Worth one mark.
- Five statements, each Yes or No. You drag a Yes or a No beside each statement. Worth two marks if all five are right, and one mark if the response is partly correct.
The six kinds of question
Syllogisms
A few statements using words such as all, some and none, followed by conclusions. You decide whether each conclusion must follow. Usually in the Yes or No format.
Logic puzzles
A set of clues about people, places or an order of events, and a question that can be answered only by fitting the clues together. A quick grid or line on your notebook is nearly always faster than holding it in your head.
Strongest argument
A proposal, and four arguments for or against it. You choose the strongest: the one that addresses the proposal directly, rests on fact and not opinion, and does not assume what it sets out to prove.
Drawing conclusions from information
A passage, table or chart followed by statements. You decide whether each one follows from the information given. Usually in the Yes or No format.
Venn and set diagrams
Overlapping shapes holding numbers, or a description to be matched to the right diagram. Sometimes the four answer options are themselves diagrams.
Probability
A short scenario about chance and a claim to judge, often with a reason attached. The arithmetic is simple; the test is whether you can tell a sound reason from a plausible one.
Worked examples
Original example: syllogism with five statements
All of the rowers at Kestrel Club train on Tuesdays. Some of the rowers are also swimmers. No swimmer at the club trains on Fridays.
Place Yes if the conclusion follows. Place No if it does not.
- Some people who train on Tuesdays are swimmers.
- No rower trains on Fridays.
- Some rowers do not train on Fridays.
- All swimmers at the club train on Tuesdays.
- Anyone at the club who trains on Fridays is not a swimmer.
Answer: Yes, No, Yes, No, Yes
1. Yes: the rowers who swim are swimmers, and every rower trains on Tuesdays. 2. No: only the rowers who also swim are ruled out of Fridays; the others might train then. 3. Yes: the rowers who swim cannot train on Fridays. 4. No: we know this only of the swimmers who row. 5. Yes: this restates the third premise.
Five correct earns two marks. Four correct earns one.
Original example: strongest argument
Should the town council replace its printed bus timetables with a phone app only?
Select the strongest argument from the statements below.
- A.Yes, because most people now own a smartphone.
- B.Yes, because apps are the way of the future.
- C.No, because some regular passengers have no smartphone and would lose the information they need to travel.
- D.No, because apps are often difficult to use.
Answer: C
C deals with the word that matters in the proposal, "only", and names a direct, serious consequence. A concedes the problem: most is not all. B is an opinion with no reason behind it. D is a sweeping claim that might not apply to this app.
How to approach it
- Use the notebook. Draw the circles for a syllogism and the grid for a puzzle. Ten seconds of drawing saves thirty of rereading.
- Take "some" to mean at least one. It does not mean "some but not all". This single point decides many syllogism statements.
- Judge each statement separately. In a Yes or No question the five statements do not depend on one another, and there is no pattern to the answers.
- Stay inside the information. As in Verbal Reasoning, a conclusion that is probably true in real life does not follow unless the text makes it follow.
- Bank time on the quick kinds. A strongest-argument question can take thirty seconds. Spend what you save on the long puzzles.
Where marks are lost
- Spending four minutes on one logic puzzle. Flag it, guess, and come back if time allows.
- Choosing the argument you agree with instead of the one that is best argued.
- Reversing a statement: "all rowers train on Tuesdays" does not mean everyone who trains on Tuesdays is a rower.
- Misreading which region of a diagram a number sits in.
How to practise
Learn the six kinds one at a time, untimed, until you have a method for each. Then mix them, because the test does. PrepForDoc tracks your results by kind, so you can see whether it is syllogisms or probability that is costing you, and practise that kind alone. How to prepare has the full plan.
Official sources
Dates, fees and entry rules change every year. Always confirm them on the official page before you act on them.