Verbal Reasoning

great practice cheers!

Couple of spelling mistakes in the end somewhere, not to be picky!

Thanks though, appreciate the efforts!

Glad you enjoyed it

..could you let us know where the spelling mistakes are? If there are any, we'll get them cleared up!

Hi there,
Has anyone been to a Nationwide Building Society assessment centre? I have a slot booked for the 30th of Sept and I was just wondering if someone could fill me in. Of course, I have read the website, but there's nothing like first-hand experience for knowing what to expect!

Thank you

I found it good practice, but I had some difficulty understanding some of the answers. Could I pm someone to discuss as I do not want to post my queries here and ruin the test for other users.

Hello,
I often struggle with the Cannot Tell option in these tests but I haven't yet been able to find any discussions, online or in print, that go into detail about solutions. I've done about 10 timed practice tests now and am certainly getting quicker, but some questions always leave me uncertain.

Would somebody care to comment on the following, for example?

SPOILER ALERT !!! WIKIJOB VERBAL TEST PASSAGE

The Bay City Rollers were a massive success story in the 1970s. Not only did the band build up a huge following but also spawned a whole new fashion trend. The band consisted of four young lads from Scotland and their music captured the imagination and hearts of millions of teenagers - they were one of the originators of the so-called 'teenybopper' movement.

As with many teen bands, their popularity eventually waned but the story of the band from that point on is full of incident, ill-feeling and problems, not least over how much the band received from their incredible success.

QUESTION:
When the Bay City Rollers ended there were a lot of problems and ill-feeling.

ANSWER: CANNOT TELL
It is impossible to say if the band actually ended, although there were problems when their success demised.

I thought FALSE. The way I understand it, the band hasn't yet ended if it's still being referred to as a 'band'. If it had ended, I feel you would have to say 'former band' or former members of the band'.

What do you think?

The question is a statement about "when the Bay City Rollers ended" - but the test passage does not reveal if the band have actually ended or are still performing.

From the text we cannot deduce if the question statement is true or false, because the band:

• may still be performing;
• may have broken up amicably; or
• may have broken up with problems and ill-feeling.

Your point about the term "band" being used is noted, but incorrect. Whilst using the word "former" before the band's name may indicate that the band has now split up, not using the word "former" is not an indication that they have.

The word "band" can be used to talk about a musical group that existed, exists or will exist.

Further to that, even if the term "former" was used to describe the Bay City Rollers in the above passage - the answer would still be "cannot tell", because we cannot tell if the band ended amicably or with problems from the text (although the indication is that it was a bad ending).

Hope this helps!

I got got 23 of 40 correct in my first try! Your score: 58%. I need more practise. :P

Hi there, there is a spelling mistake in the question about private equity being the source of funding behind company acquisitions. The question went along the lines of private quity, instead of equity. If my memory serves me right, that is!

Just checked the test and couldn't find this. If anyone does spot any errors please take a screen shot and mail it to me at Edward.Mellett@wikijob.co.uk - thanks!

Hi there, its question number 18:

Screen shot:

Hi there, its question number 18:

Screen shot:

Oh! The question.. yes. Good spot!

Thanks for your detailed response, redsuperted, I think my lesson learnt is not to be too pedantic about these things and follow my instincts. I seem to frequently misjudge how suspicious I should be of wording.

Again thanks very much.

Hello All,

I think there is a mistake in the following question...

A type of malaria vaccine for humans is to be tested, following the success of trials undertaken with animals. There is currently no vaccine for the illness, which kills between two and three million people every year. Oxford University scientists, part of an international team, reported, in the journal Nature Medicine, that its virus-based jab worked well in mice. Initial small-scale human safety trials of the vaccine are now expected to start next year. Other researchers have been working towards an effective malaria vaccine, and some candidates are already in trials in humans in malaria-affected countries. However, the Oxford scientists say theirs may be more effective against the "blood stage" of the illness, in which parasite numbers rise sharply in the bloodstream after bursting out of cells, causing severe illness, or death. The scientists behind this vaccine believe that it can trigger a massive immune response against the parasite at this point. The method involves two viruses, a common cold virus (adenovirus) and a pox virus, both of which have been engineered to be harmless in themselves, but to produce a protein on their surfaces which matches one found on the outside of the malaria parasite. When an injection of the adenovirus was followed eight weeks later by the pox virus, the results in mice were clear-cut. The vaccines produced two separate types of powerful immune response to these malaria "antigens", hopefully priming the immune system to respond aggressively when confronted by the malaria parasite later on. In mice, it reduced the growth of the parasite by between 70% and 85%.

Question:

There is currently no cure for Malaria.

I put my answer as Cannot Tell, but the correct answer was True.

But

The text only mentions that there is currently no vaccine for malaria and it doesn't mention anything about a cure. A vaccine is given to prevent and destroy the disease if the person gets infected. A cure is given to someone who is already infected to cure them.

Is my understanding correct??

Hey fayyazrashid,

the way i looked at it was that if a vaccine doesn't exist to prevent the onset of the disease then there probably isn't a cure. It has to just be reasonably possible for this to be true so i chose true. Hope this helps.

I think you both have a point. I agree with habitsus but as I made the test I might be biased. I'll re-phrase things to make this more water-tight. Please let me know of any other problems/questions. Any suggestions for how we can improve on this for the upcoming reasoning tests version II - also appreciated!
Ed

i got only 25/40 at my first attempt....- -..need more practise

hi im new to this, but has anybody ever had a verbal reasoning test for transport for london?? ive got one this week an would be greatful if anyone could help me! thanks

Shilpa - post your query in the forum. One of our users has completed the entire TfL interview process - info is also available here (transport for London (TFL) interview questions) and here (TfL Graduate Scheme Application Process). Good luck.

Hi thanks for producing this! Its great help :)
Just a spelling mistake in question 25 you have put "sponsourship market" when I think it should be sponsorship market.
Also, you have given the answer to question 40, in the question? Not sure why. Thanks :)

Hi

hw did you interview go at nationwide??

i also have slot book for assessment day on 22 oct?

what questions did they ask you?

I will really appreciate your help

thanks
Kunal

I found these questions really useful! But I am just wondering if there are more similar online practices? I really need to practice a lot more.
Thanks :D

Very helpful - has made me think more carefully before jumping in with the answer on some questions. Really appreciate the practice. (And happy with 80%, I must be getting somewhere!)
I also found these: http://www.kent.ac.uk/careers/tests/verbaltest.htm for practice, but they don't give feedback, only a score, so less help than this site, but useful none-the-less.

Just did these too: http://www.assessmentday.co.uk/aptitudetests_verbal.htm
Again, there's feedback for each answer, which is handy for the ones you get wrong!

True. It's easy to read too much in to the questions. The questions relate to the text ONLY. 31/40 is a good result... but keep practicing!

i got 24 out of 40.....60% .....hey guys wht do u think is this sort of score enough to get through in the actual test of p&g ???or if anyone knows wht they expect as a minimum accepted score ??? please.

Hey,
Great test - really helpful.
As others have pointed out, feedback on answers is essential in LEARNING from mistakes - correct answers aren't enough in some cases because if you got the Q wrong, well, you may not be able to see how the 'correct' answer is actually correct.
Any chance of further feedback on answers??

Yes. We can do that. Stay tuned!

I got 93%

Good test, however I have a problem with this question. I was under the impression to be as pedantic as possible with the logic of these types of tests, and so with this phrase:

"This can mean that the normal factors that influence supply and demand take on different degrees of significance. For example, houses are not very mobile things and so the supply of them tends to be affected in a different way than other types of product."

Question:

The normal factors that influence supply and demand change in the housing market.

I read that the factors themselves had not changed, they merely "take on different degrees of significance", which does not indicated any change of absolute factor, and so I answered FALSE where the correct answer is TRUE.

What is the reasoning behind the correct answer?

Idi xxxx

No. I think the test is correct.

The question is: "The normal factors that influence supply and demand change in the housing market." This is TRUE because..

"..houses are not very mobile things and so the supply of them tends to be affected in a different way than other types of product."

The question is concerned with: the factors that influence supply and demand and the text reveals that the supply of houses is affected in a different way than other types of product.

This new Clifford Chance verbal reasoning test is pretty useful practice! - http://gradsuk.cliffordchance.com/verbal-reasoning-test.html.

Thanks for this. Really useful to practice.

Pretty sure I'm right and the test is wrong on the one about malaria and parasites busting from cells in the bloodstream. The text only says that the number of parasites increases when they burst from cells - but not which cells they burst from.

I await to be corrected...

"However, the Oxford scientists say theirs may be more effective against the "blood stage" of the illness, in which parasite numbers rise sharply in the bloodstream after bursting out of cells, causing severe illness, or death."

• When humans contract Malaria, parasites inhabit cells in the blood stream - Answer: True.

I think the key factors are: "blood stage" of the illness; the fact parasite numbers increase in bloodstream; and that the parasites "burst" out of cells.

"Burst" means a sudden arrival, so it is very likely that the cells are already in the bloodstream. I think this question and answer are correct, but I can understand how candidates might see an ambiguity in the term "cells".

I'll clear this up with a slight change to this question.

Hi. Is there anyone on this forum who has had an interview at the financial service ombudsman?

Ankita - start a thread for them on the messageboards!

where can I find the messageboards?

Good test thanks!

Great practice, thanks!

I have some concerns with the following question:

This is an interesting statement given the record rise in prices to households. The announcement of profits which are not far off one billion pounds, a day after the announcement of the rise in price and the increase in dividend to shareholders, is likely to provoke angry reaction. Many will question the extent of the market power that Centrica possesses. There will also be those that will question what the phrase 'reasonable profitability' means in the context of profits of nearly one billion pounds.

Question:
Announcing large profits, soon after announcing price rises, is likely to provoke angry reaction

The correct answer is TRUE. I chose CANNOT TELL.

The announcement of profits which are not far off one billion pounds, a day after the announcement of the rise in price and the increase in dividend to shareholders, is likely to provoke angry reaction.

It just tells us that that specific announcement is likely to provoke anger. And it is also mentioned some supplementary factors as one-billion profits, increase in dividends. The questions only says to us that large profits and price increase. So I conduct we can not say for sure from that text that every company with large profits which increase prices will provoke angry reaction

What do you think?

Hey guys

what would your answers be for these questions

enjoy :-)

Hi, thanks for the test, i am practising for one i have to do as part of an application online, which is very scary. What sort of percentage should i be aiming for? How many correct answers do companies tend to look for?

Well it probably depends on the job you are aiming for and scores of your peers. I would say that 80%+ should be good enough for most jobs. Having said that though, it also depends on the difficulty of the test, so its hard to give an exact figure. I personally think that the WikiJob verbal test is actually easier that the SHL tests.

Hey

can someone post the solutions to the above test?

Thanks!

Yeah, please post them the questions are ambiguous in many parts (do you even have them?!)

35/40 - 88% for me. not sure if that's a good score or not.. anyone know?

Hi Rav where is this test from? looks like the kenexa site. Thanks

Hey, does anyone have answers for the test posted above?

Question similar to that of "Fast Eddie" (1st Dec). I got 80% but I have never done one of these before so is that good i.e. do employers generally look for a result of over x% or is it subjective?

Do employers frequently use them to assess candidates in grad schemes? Thanks.

Well I can tell you I did the test for a good job at my potential employer and got through to interview so I'd say it was a good result.

Although I don't know what score I got in the actual PSL test, i just received an email inviting me to interview the next day. I was worried as I'm dyslexic and am much better at the number based tests...

The gas provider Centrica has seen its half-year profits fall by 20% to £992 million. Despite this it has decided to increase its dividend to shareholders to 3.9p per share. The rise in energy prices released before the announcement of Centrica's profits was designed, said the company, to restore "reasonable profitability". The chief executive, Sam Laidlaw, said, "We produced a good set of results in tough market conditions... we will continue to concentrate on improving customer service in British Gas..."

This is an interesting statement given the record rise in prices to households. The announcement of profits which are not far off one billion pounds, a day after the announcement of the rise in price and the increase in dividend to shareholders, is likely to provoke angry reaction. Many will question the extent of the market power that Centrica possesses. There will also be those that will question what the phrase 'reasonable profitability' means in the context of profits of nearly one billion pounds.

Question:Announcing large profits, soon after announcing price rises, is likely to provoke angry reaction.
Answer : True
But I choosed Cannot tell.
I don't think True will be the answer,as from the paragraph,more specifically,this sentence 'The announcement of profits which are not far off one billion pounds, a day after the announcement of the rise in price and the increase in dividend to shareholders, is likely to provoke angry reaction. '
only tells us that the combined effect of announcement of rise in price and increase in dividend is likely to provoke angry reaction, but we cannot know whether any of them come alone will have the same effect.As sometimes, one thing might be good for it alone, but not when combined with something else.

did you do this practice test?
was the actual online test easier or tougher than this practice test?

Hard to remember but the real one was easier than I expected and I know thousands apply for the a few places...

Good test.
I've just done the test first time and got a score of 60%; I guess I need to practice a lot more and improve my speed! Probably reading too much into the question...

Hello, I'm planning on taking the BMRB assessment centre in a near future. Has anyone done this before? Or have athread about entering the market research industry?? Please help!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

First timer 36/40

Question:Announcing large profits, soon after announcing price rises, is likely to provoke angry reaction.
Answer : True
But I choosed Cannot tell.

Keyword here is likely

Cheers! Good practice. I got 32/40. However, I do believe that alot of the real verbal tests are harder than this one. A lot of the answers were quite literal and not nuanced. I think the best way to approach these tests is to read the question first. big time saver cos u know what to look for.

When humans contract Malaria, parasites inhabit cells in the blood stream

Good test, but I can't see how this one is definitely true: we are told that "at the blood stage", there are parasites that come bursting out of the cells (therefore they had to be inhabiting the cells beforehand). So we know that at some stage during malarial infection, parasites inhabit cells. However, we are not told that every case of Malaria has a blood stage, nor are we given evidence as to WHEN the inhabitation takes place (does the "When" mean "at the time that" or "whenever", for example) - I think the When is potentially misleading...

thoughts welcome

thanks

The test was helpful but time limit does not work.

den_ar: I chose CANNOT TELL as well. My reasoning is because it doesn't specifically mention that "profits which are not far off one billion pounds" are considered as large profits (even though it does look like it but it would be based on our assumption). Any other comments on this question?
33/40 for my first try :)

hey,

first time doing the test and at 2.30 am lol (late one haha) and got 30/40, 75%.... is this good in terms of what companies are looking for in percentiles?

Great test!! Really helpful. Does anyone know link to few more like this one? Thanks.

Does anyone have some good advice, other than "read papers and a variety of literature", for someone sitting a verbal critical reasoning test?

I tend to get through numerical tests fine but struggle massively with the verbal. I read every day, have an excellent vocabulary and spelling but I always seem to panic in the verbal tests. I find it hard to pick an answer and believe it is correct. This wastes a lot of time and makes me panic.

I have to sit some fairly straightforward SHL tests. Does anyone know if they negative mark? It's for an in-house test.

I know that I can understand the language in the texts and the statements but I still do very poorly in the tests. Any ideas?

Much appreciated.

Desperate to get better.

34/40 = 85%

nnnnnn

hi there, was looking for the forum Anikita set up about the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) experiences. Anyone know where it is? Anyone got through past the tests for FOS?

look forward to your help!

Flo

I have to repeat everyone else comments, thanks for the effort in helping us all practice. I just hate these types of test. I'd much prefer them to make you include reasoning as even the best thought out tests can be ambiguous. I got 34/40 and think I could make very good case for all but 2 of them which were daft slips on my part. Same with the diagrammatic tests you may be able to demonstrate a sequence or correlation that is perfectly valid just not the one they are looking for. It always makes me start second guessing myself which can be a killer when faced with a time limit.

I like what youguys are doing.
Keep it up and make it more accessible.

Am ready for your drilling

I just did this test and got 34/40. I am quite pleased with this mark. On my first verbal reasoning test I did I passed but I did one yesterday and failed. I was starting to lose confidence but this test has definitely helped. I think practice is the key and will be doing more before any other applications in future!

really helpful! thx for the post!

bah these types of questions are so ambiguous sometimes. If there is doubt you can always explain your viewpoint one way or the other. I hate that they use them for assessment. I began keeping track of all the ambiguous questions on assessmentday.co.uk but there are too many..

these really are easier than most i have had unfortunately thanks for putting them up anyway.

.

I have a question about the pringles question, below:

Proctor & Gamble has argued that Pringles were not a potato crisp on account of the limited potato content and that they did not resemble crisps in that they were always a uniform shape and colour which you would not expect to find in potato crisps. A judge agreed that the product did not conform to the stipulations of the 1994 Act in that they were only 42% potato and that their special shape, the way they were packaged and the fact that they are made from a dough meant that they were more cake than crisp.

The result of the judgement from Mr Justice Warren means that Pringles will no longer be subject to VAT at 17.5%. This could mean that the price that consumers pay for the snack could now fall and for Proctor & Gamble the decision means that it will benefit to the tune of millions of pounds.

Question:

VAT does not apply to cakes.

I may be missing something here, but if pringles are more cake than crisp due to the judgement and they no longer have to pay 17.5% VAT on them, then the reason for this is because they have been classified as cakes, therefore cakes do not have VAT on them, so the answer is true, rather than cannot tell?

I have a question about the pringles question, below:

Proctor & Gamble has argued that Pringles were not a potato crisp on account of the limited potato content and that they did not resemble crisps in that they were always a uniform shape and colour which you would not expect to find in potato crisps. A judge agreed that the product did not conform to the stipulations of the 1994 Act in that they were only 42% potato and that their special shape, the way they were packaged and the fact that they are made from a dough meant that they were more cake than crisp.

The result of the judgement from Mr Justice Warren means that Pringles will no longer be subject to VAT at 17.5%. This could mean that the price that consumers pay for the snack could now fall and for Proctor & Gamble the decision means that it will benefit to the tune of millions of pounds.

Question:

VAT does not apply to cakes.

I put TRUE, but the answer is CANNOT TELL. I may be missing something here, but if pringles are more cake than crisp due to the judgement and they no longer have to pay 17.5% VAT on them, then the reason for this is because they have been classified as cakes, therefore cakes do not have VAT on them, so the answer is true, rather than cannot tell?

I have a question about the pringles question, below:

Proctor & Gamble has argued that Pringles were not a potato crisp on account of the limited potato content and that they did not resemble crisps in that they were always a uniform shape and colour which you would not expect to find in potato crisps. A judge agreed that the product did not conform to the stipulations of the 1994 Act in that they were only 42% potato and that their special shape, the way they were packaged and the fact that they are made from a dough meant that they were more cake than crisp.

The result of the judgement from Mr Justice Warren means that Pringles will no longer be subject to VAT at 17.5%. This could mean that the price that consumers pay for the snack could now fall and for Proctor & Gamble the decision means that it will benefit to the tune of millions of pounds.

Question:

VAT does not apply to cakes.

I put TRUE, but the answer is CANNOT TELL. I may be missing something here, but if pringles are more cake than crisp due to the judgement and they no longer have to pay 17.5% VAT on them, then the reason for this is because they have been classified as cakes, therefore cakes do not have VAT on them, so the answer is true, rather than cannot tell?

I have a question about the pringles question, below:

Proctor & Gamble has argued that Pringles were not a potato crisp on account of the limited potato content and that they did not resemble crisps in that they were always a uniform shape and colour which you would not expect to find in potato crisps. A judge agreed that the product did not conform to the stipulations of the 1994 Act in that they were only 42% potato and that their special shape, the way they were packaged and the fact that they are made from a dough meant that they were more cake than crisp.

The result of the judgement from Mr Justice Warren means that Pringles will no longer be subject to VAT at 17.5%. This could mean that the price that consumers pay for the snack could now fall and for Proctor & Gamble the decision means that it will benefit to the tune of millions of pounds.

Question:

VAT does not apply to cakes.

I put TRUE, but the answer is CANNOT TELL. I may be missing something here, but if pringles are more cake than crisp due to the judgement and they no longer have to pay 17.5% VAT on them, then the reason for this is because they have been classified as cakes, therefore cakes do not have VAT on them, so the answer is true, rather than cannot tell?

I got 38/40..

If you guys what a real challenge try this one.

http://www.kent.ac.uk/careers/tests/verbaltest.htm in which I scored 20.

So I think there are varying degrees in complexity here. Your prospective employer may give you a hard one!!

Dave Kirby..

I too got that one wrong and answered TRUE.

In fact the answer is TRUE as you can make the following logical assumptions.

Products exempt from the 1994 Act do not inccur VAT.

Pringles are exempt from the 1994 Act as they are cake like.

Cakes thus must be exempt from the 1994 Act

Can Some one explain this

 The gas provider Centrica has seen its half-year profits fall by 20% to £992 million. Despite this it has decided to increase its dividend to shareholders to 3.9p per share. The rise in energy prices released before the announcement of Centrica's profits was designed, said the company, to restore "reasonable profitability". The chief executive, Sam Laidlaw, said, "We produced a good set of results in tough market conditions... we will continue to concentrate on improving customer service in British Gas..." This is an interesting statement given the record rise in prices to households. The announcement of profits which are not far off one billion pounds, a day after the announcement of the rise in price and the increase in dividend to shareholders, is likely to provoke angry reaction. Many will question the extent of the market power that Centrica possesses. There will also be those that will question what the phrase 'reasonable profitability' means in the context of profits of nearly one billion pounds. 

Correct Answer
True

@David Kirby:

After checking the question we would agree with you and the answer has been modified

Does anybody have any clue about what do the BBC Online Journalism assessment involves?

Hi
I have some online tests coming up for HSCB i have taken some practice tests but stil not very confident can anyone help me with any tips and advice or direct me?

Jide

Why I can't take the numerical reasoning and verbal reasoning tests here???

Hey dont despair try www.shldirect.com they have some free ones. Assessment day also have free ones to try as do www.psl.co.uk/practice/