Verbal reasoning test: format, traps and practice

A verbal reasoning test checks how carefully you read. You get a short text, often a few paragraphs about a company or a project, and a statement about it. Your job is to decide whether the statement is true, false or impossible to judge from the text. The texts are rarely hard to understand. What makes the test hard is the clock, and the habit most of us have of filling gaps with whatever seems likely.

What a verbal reasoning test measures

SHL describes its verbal tests as measuring how well you understand written information and evaluate arguments about it. Aon describes its version in similar terms: you analyze written information and judge whether statements are true based on what you are given. Neither checks spelling, grammar or what you know about the subject. Everything you need is in the text, and anything that isn’t in the text doesn’t count.

That sets verbal tests apart from the matrix tests many Swedish employers use. Assessio describes Matrigma’s tasks as non-verbal, and Alva Labs says its logic test needs no language skills beyond understanding the instructions. If an employer wants to see how you handle written material, it needs a verbal test for that.

True, false or cannot say

Most verbal reasoning tests use the same three answers:

• True: the statement follows from the text. It may use other words, or combine two sentences, but the text backs it up.
• False: the text says something that contradicts the statement.
• Cannot say: the text doesn’t settle it either way. The statement might be true in real life, but the text doesn’t tell you.

Aon’s practice tasks show how fine these lines can be. A statement can be true even when it uses different words from the text, as long as the meaning is the same. A statement that is half right and half wrong is false. And when a text says two things happened around the same time, a statement claiming that one caused the other is cannot say.

The traps that cost points

Most traps work the same way: the statement sounds right, but the text doesn’t quite say it. These are the ones to watch for:

• Background knowledge. If the statement matches what you know about the world but the text never says it, the answer is cannot say.
• Cause and effect. A text that says sales rose after a campaign has not said that the campaign caused the rise.
• All, some and none. “Most staff” is not “all staff”, and “not all” is not “none”.
• Mixed-up details. A fact about one group, year or product gets attached to another one in the statement.
• Half-true statements. If any part of the statement contradicts the text, the whole statement is false.

Aon scales verbal

Aon, formerly cut-e, has a verbal subtest called scales verbal: 49 statements in 12 minutes, which leaves less than 15 seconds per statement. You get several data sheets of text, and each statement belongs to one of them. The sheets stay the same throughout the test, so you get to know them as you go. Every statement has one correct answer out of true, false and cannot say. You can move between statements, but Aon recommends working through them in the order given.

Aon says you aren’t expected to answer every statement, only to work quickly and accurately, and that wrong answers generally lower your score. Guessing your way through the last minute is a poor plan. Aon has a free PDF with practice tasks and worked answers, plus a short video about the test. Our Aon test guide covers the other subtests and their time limits.

Verbal tests from SHL

SHL’s combined reasoning test, Verify Interactive G+, measures deductive, inductive and numerical reasoning and has no verbal part. Verbal reasoning is a separate SHL test, and SHL’s website has a free verbal reasoning practice test, along with a reading comprehension test. If your invitation names an SHL verbal test, start with SHL’s own practice test so the format is familiar on the day. Our guide to the SHL test covers Verify G+.

Synonyms, antonyms and vocabulary

Some ability tests also include word tasks. You see a word and pick the one that means the same, a synonym, or the one that means the opposite, an antonym. The test that the Swedish Defence Conscription and Assessment Agency uses at enlistment has both, next to number series and spatial tasks. Word tasks test vocabulary more than careful reading. The wrong options usually come from the same area as the right one, so read them all before you answer. In antonym tasks, watch out for a word that means almost the same as the target word.

How to practice

Practice helps, mostly with the format and the pace. A meta-analysis of 50 studies found that scores on ability tests rose by 0.26 standard deviations on average the second time people took a test. For verbal tests, the aim is to know the three answers so well that you stop hesitating between false and cannot say.

• Start with Aon’s or SHL’s own practice material, depending on which test you have.
• Read the statement first, then find the sentence in the text it depends on.
• Ask one question each time: does the text say this, say the opposite, or say nothing?
• Practice with a clock. Fifteen seconds per statement leaves no time to reread the whole text.
• After each round, find the sentence that decides every answer you got wrong.

Our free verbal reasoning test has eight short texts with true, false or cannot say statements and four synonym and antonym questions, each with its own timer and an explanation afterward. For the Aon format, the Aon scales verbal practice test gives you up to 49 statements in 12 minutes. You can also practice synonyms one at a time, or take the free IQ test, which mixes matrices, number series, words and cubes. Everything is free and you need no account.

Our texts and words are our own and only imitate the task types. They are not Aon’s or SHL’s, and we are not connected to either company.