How to solve: Verbal Reasoning
What this category tests
Tests critical evaluation of written arguments and statements — judging what a passage actually proves versus what it merely implies or leaves undetermined, plus spotting logical fallacies and word relationships.
Where this typology comes from
This format was pioneered by psychologist Goodwin Watson at Columbia in the 1920s and developed further by his student Edward Glaser, whose 1941 doctoral dissertation became the basis for the Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal — still widely used in law-firm and corporate hiring today. Word-analogy items trace to the Miller Analogies Test, created by psychologist William S. Miller and first published in 1926. Fallacy-spotting items trace back further still, to Aristotle's "Sophistical Refutations."
How to approach it
For "true / false / cannot be determined" items, ask only whether the statement is logically guaranteed by the passage — not whether it merely sounds reasonable or matches common assumptions. When judging an argument, name the specific flaw (for example, "confuses correlation with causation") instead of just sensing that something is off. For analogies, state the exact relationship between the first pair of words before searching for a matching pair.
Worked example
Read the passage, then judge the statement that follows.
Passage: 'Every employee who completed the certification received a bonus. Marta received a bonus.'
Statement: 'Marta completed the certification.'
Based only on the passage, is this statement true, false, or cannot be determined?
- True
- False
- Cannot be determined ✓ Correct answer
- True only if Marta has been with the company more than a year
Explanation The passage only tells us that completing the certification guarantees a bonus — it doesn't say a bonus can only come from completing the certification. Marta could have received her bonus some other way (a different program, a manager's discretion, etc.). Without more information, there's no way to confirm or rule out that she completed the certification, so the answer is 'cannot be determined.' This is a classic trap: treating 'if A then B' as if it also meant 'if B then A.'
Practice Verbal Reasoning
- Verbal Reasoning I · 12 questions · Difficulty 2 out of 5
- Verbal Reasoning II — Critical Inference · 12 questions · Difficulty 3 out of 5
- Verbal Reasoning III — Analogies · 12 questions · Difficulty 2 out of 5
- Verbal Reasoning IV — Argument Evaluation · 12 questions · Difficulty 4 out of 5
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