How to Pass Advanced Verbal Reasoning Tests

Over 500 Practice Questions

Mike Bryon

• Publisher: Kogan Page
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN: 9780749480172
• eBook ISBN: 9780749480189
• Edition: 3
• Topic: Personal Development
• Subtopic: Careers

Containing the largest bank of test questions on the market, How to Pass Advanced Verbal Reasoning Tests provides advice, practice and exercises to help you prepare for the rigorous tests used by employers, helping you to build up speed, accuracy and confidence. Testing expert Mike Bryon offers practice on a range of areas, including: - English usage
- Written assessments
- Presentations
- Group exercises
- Assessment centresIncluding four timed realistic tests with interpretations of your score, How to Pass Advanced Verbal Reasoning Tests covers word links, word swaps, sentence sequence, decision analysis, reading comprehension as well as critical reasoning, giving you everything you need to boost your ability and face the challenge head on.

Chapter 1

Verbal reasoning tests

At some stage of your career you are certain to face a verbal reasoning psychometric test. This can involve multiple-choice tests of your work-related verbal abilities organized as tests of your command of English usage, reading comprehension, written assignments, group discussions or presentations. If you are a graduate or applicant to managerial positions or postgraduate courses you are very likely to face a psychometric test of your advanced verbal skills.

Beyond the first stage of a recruitment process your qualifications count for little. Once employers have established that you have satisfied the formal requirements for the position they then turn to investigate your abilities in a range of other competencies relevant to the position; these are bound to include your verbal reasoning skills.

Psychometric tests of verbal reasoning are not like blood tests, rolling up your sleeve and putting up with the discomfort of the needle. They are only indicators of potential and you (the subject) have considerable influence over the outcome. This is good news because you can learn to do really well in them and, through preparation, can pass something you might otherwise have failed.

Psychometric tests of verbal reasoning skills come in many forms, at different stages of your career and at different stages of the recruitment process. Below are descriptions of the more common types. Look out for them, use the advice, insight and practice material provided here and you will maximize your chances of success.

In preparation for any verbal test it is still advisable to revise the rules of grammar and punctuation. Be aware that many tests are used worldwide and for this reason they may follow either US or English practice with regard to spelling and grammar. It is very unlikely that the test will score against either convention, so feel free to follow whichever you grew up using or were taught. It would be a bad test that asked you to identify the correct spelling in the case of, for example, color (US spelling) and colour (UK spelling).

Something you may have to get used to is the lack of certainty found in verbal reasoning tests relative to numerical questions. In maths there is a right answer and little room for argument. But verbal tests are less definite because they are often concerned with judgement, inference and context, which, at the advanced level, can require the drawing of some fine distinctions. It is not unusual for candidates to feel that the answer they selected is at least as correct as the given answer. If you ever find yourself in this situation then the likelihood is that you have to work to bring your judgement more into line with the question setter. When a test author is designing high-level verbal tests he or she has to draw these very fine distinctions between the suggested answers; much finer distinctions than we draw in normal English usage. Practice will help you learn to answer the questions according to the judge’s view of what is right – and remember, the judge’s decision is final.

For some candidates, verbal tests are their worst nightmare

It is common to come across otherwise accomplished candidates who find verbal tests a real challenge. These individuals may have undertaken a great deal of technical training and may score very highly in numerical or non-verbal sub-tests, but do far less well in verbal tests. Organizations are looking for good scores in all the tests they set and don’t offset a good score in one for a bad score in another. So if you are such a candidate and up to now have accomplished a great deal without verbal reasoning skills commensurate with the rest of your abilities, now is the time to put the situation to rights and get down to some serious score-improving practice.

At the advanced level a common type of verbal test involves a series of paragraphs and you having to answer questions about each. These questions are foremost about making judgements where you have to answer true, false or cannot tell. Remember, verbal tests ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Preface
• Mike Bryon – A pioneer in test coaching
• 1    Verbal reasoning tests
• 2    The winning approach
• 3    110 Warm-up questions
• 4    100 English usage questions
• 5    100 True, false or cannot tell questions
• 6    Decision analysis
• 7    Four timed realistic tests with interpretations of your score
• 8    Answers and detailed explanations
• Backcover