Your Quick Guide To Preparing For Any Verbal Reasoning Test

In Singapore, the GEP Selection Test comes with a component called the General Ability test, and this is delivered in two papers across two days. Usually, General Ability 1 is sat with the English paper, and focuses on verbal reasoning. General Ability 2 is taken with the Mathematics paper, and focuses on non-verbal reasoning.

We’ve previously shared about the General Ability test as a whole, and offered some sample questions from the non-verbal reasoning component.

But here today, let’s go on to examine some of the verbal reasoning questions to learn what to expect of these type of tests!

What is verbal reasoning?

‘Verbal’ in this case means ‘relating to words’. So, we can take this to mean that verbal reasoning is the ability to make sense of words and language.

Verbal reasoning = making sense of words and language

Broadly speaking, verbal reasoning can include a lot of language skills, including reading comprehension, range of vocabulary, and grammar knowledge. Sometimes, it also includes the ability to manipulate words (for example, unscrambling letters, or identifying words within words).

What type of verbal reasoning questions are there?

Students in Singapore will be very familiar with English exams consisting of comprehension passages, cloze passages, grammar multiple-choice questions, and editing sections. While some verbal reasoning tests also include similar question types, many tests also include very different type of questions.

Let’s start with the familiar – comprehension passages.

This type of comprehension question tests not only your language understanding, but your logical understanding of the points raised in the passage. To score well in such questions, test-takers need to have strong deduction and inference skills.

The above is an example of an analogy question. The task is to figure out the relationship between the two sets, and choose the most appropriate option to complete the set. Such questions require strong vocabulary skills and also the ability to pinpoint the pattern within the words.

Certain types of questions test your ability to form words using letters which may be scrambled up, hidden in other words, or through transformation of the given words. The above question is an example involving word transformation.

Another common question type is the cipher. The question gives one or more examples of words written in a code, and the test-taker has to use this code to encipher another word, or decipher another coded word.

How can I improve my verbal reasoning?

Verbal reasoning is a skill that has to be consistently honed. You can improve by reading widely to pick up a range of vocabulary, sentence structures, and general language fluency.

Most people improve naturally with time, but if you want to speed things up, you can also put in more conscious effort to make faster progress.

Here are some things we can suggest:

1. Keep a word bank where you write down any new words you learn. Make it a point to study this list and use these new words in your writing and speech to help you remember them better.
2. To improve your inference and deduction skills, get feedback from a tutor or practice book. This helps you see things you may have missed and hones your reasoning abilities.
3. Search for word puzzles like word searches, anagrams, and other word games to sharpen your sensitivity to word and letter forms. Make observations about letter combinations, frequencies of letters, and the like, as these will help you tackle some of the verbal reasoning questions.

Join us to level up your verbal reasoning skills!

Last but not least, you can enrol in a preparatory class to do some favours for your verbal reasoning abilities! Future Academy is now taking students for our General Ability classes, which include one focused on verbal reasoning.

We welcome you to join us if you are:

• Preparing for the GEP Selection Test (it doesn’t have to be this year’s!)
• Preparing for school applications (e.g. DSA or university application)
• Preparing for a job application

With ample practice questions and guidance by our experienced coaches, we can customise the class to your specific needs for your maximum benefit, just as with our regular tuition classes such as IP English Tuition. So, get in touch with us as soon as possible, and get ready to smash that verbal reasoning test!