ANALYTICAL REASONING

You can develop and improve your ability to solve logical or analytical reasoning problems by getting
familiar with the various types of questions in this category and exhaustive practice.

Be careful about “If …. then ….” statements. “If statement A then statement B” does not imply that “If
statement B then statement A”.

Questions in analytical reasoning are based on a set of conditions describing a common situation. Treat
each group of questions as a unit and attempt all of them together before moving on to another group
of questions. Organize the information in the form of a table or a diagram.

Some types of analytical reasoning questions are given below:

“Which of the following can be true?”: The correct answer to this question is a statement that is logically
possible but not logically necessary under the given set of conditions. You can tick the answer as soon as
you find such a statement.

“All the following can be true except”: The correct answer is a statement that is logically impossible. You
can tick the answer as soon as you find such a statement.

“Which of the following must be true?” The correct answer is a statement that is logically necessary. You
can tick the answer as soon as you find such a statement.

“All the following are true except”: The correct answer is a statement that is not logically necessary. You
can tick the answer as soon as you find such a statement.

Whenever possible use elimination to solve such problems. This approach is effective when you can
eliminate statement choices which violate one of the given conditions.

Exercises

Read the information given below and answer the questions that follow.

There are 7 members in a family: P, Q, R, S, T, U and V. $ of them are females. The family runs into 3
generations and consists of 2 married couples, 3 daughters and 2 mothers. S is the brother of R. R, who
is a widow, is the mother of U. V is Q’s son-in-law. R is the only daughter of P.

1. Who is the husband of Q?

(1) P (2) V (3) S (4) T

2. Which of the following is not true?

(1) Q is the mother of T

(2) T is the wife of V
 (3) U is the granddaughter of P
(4) S is the brother of V

3. How many children does P have?

(1) 1 (2) 2 (3) 3 (4) 4

4. How is T related to U?

(1) Real sister

(2) First cousin
(3) Mother
(4) Grandmother

5. S and Q are

(1) Sisters
(2) Aunt, niece
(3) Husband, wife
(4) Brother, sister

Answers to the above questions:

1. Choice (3)
2. Choice (4)
3. Choice (2)
4. Choice (2)
5. Choice (3)