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!

i got 31/40 first time round...i realy thik the key is just stick to the text, last time i did a shl verbal test 2 weeks ago i only got 37%! not good

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 :-)