Verbal reasoning test practice: True, False or Cannot Say
You read short passages about workplaces and public services and mark each statement True, False or Cannot Say against a clock. When you submit, you see for every statement why the answer is right and why the tempting one looked right.
If your invitation names Aon scales verbal or the Civil Service verbal test, this is usually the format you will see. These questions test whether you stop where the text stops: no sensible guess, no fact you already knew, no "some" heard as "all". Practise similar questions here.
Try one: read the passage, then pick True, False or Cannot Say.
Quillmere Press, a small publisher, moved its editors to a four-day week in January. Editors now work Monday to Thursday on the same pay as before, and each of those four days is one hour longer than it used to be. The sales team kept a five-day week, because booksellers expect to reach them on Fridays. In the first three months under the new pattern, the editors finished eleven books, the same number as in the first three months of the year before. The managing director has said the arrangement will be reviewed in December, and she has not ruled out offering it to the sales team. Some editors have told her that they now spend Fridays on freelance work for other publishers, which their contracts allow. Authors who need an editor on a Friday are asked to email instead, and they get a reply on Monday. The company has not hired any new editors since the change, and none have left.
Quillmere's editors are paid the same as they were before the four-day week began.
Check your answer
Rule: the passage states it or it follows. The statement rewords what the passage says about pay.
- The passage: editors "now work Monday to Thursday on the same pay as before".
The four-day week has made Quillmere's editors work faster than they did before.
Check your answer
Rule: the passage neither proves nor contradicts it. It counts books finished, never hours worked or time per book.
- Same number of books in four days instead of five looks like a speed-up.
- But each day is an hour longer.
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When is a statement True, False or Cannot Say in a verbal reasoning test?
Each statement has one right answer: True, False or Cannot Say. Find the place in the passage the statement is about, then check it against the rules below.
Here is how that works on the Quillmere Press passage above:
- Passage: "The sales team kept a five-day week, because booksellers expect to reach them on Fridays."
- Statement: "Quillmere's sales team works on Fridays."
- This one is True: a five-day week includes Fridays.
- Passage: "She has not ruled out offering it to the sales team."
- Statement: "The sales team will move to a four-day week after the December review."
- This one is Cannot Say: not ruling something out is not the same as deciding it.
- Passage only. Use only what the passage says. What you know about the world does not count, even when it is true.
- True. The passage states it, says it in other words, or makes it follow with no gap.
- False. The passage says something that cannot be true alongside the statement. One contradicted part makes the whole statement False.
- Cannot Say. The passage neither proves it nor contradicts it. Choose it because the passage is silent, never because you feel unsure.
- How much. "Some" doesn't rule out "all"; "a cause" isn't "the cause". Stronger than the passage: Cannot Say. Ruled out: False.
- Aims and reports. "Aims to" or "is said to" proves the aim or the report, not the result, unless the passage says the result happened.
- No hidden causes. Two things together, or one after another, are not cause and effect unless the passage links them.
- Swapped words. Revenue is not profit. Terms the passage never links: Cannot Say. Terms it separates: False.
- Direction. "All A are B" does not give "all B are A" unless the passage says so too.
Which kind of verbal reasoning test are you facing?
"Verbal reasoning" covers more than one format. If your invitation names the test, find it below. If it does not, ask the person who invited you what the questions look like.
- Aon scales verbal, Civil Service verbal test. These usually show a passage, then statements you mark True, False or Cannot Say.
- SHL Verify Verbal Ability. This typically shows a passage, then a multiple-choice question on a detail, the main idea or the author's tone. Not practised here.
- Korn Ferry Elements Verbal. This usually shows a passage and a list of possible answers. Usually, some questions ask you to choose more than one. Not practised here.
- Watson-Glaser. This is publicly described as a critical thinking test. One part usually asks you to rate how likely each inference drawn from a passage is to be true. Not practised here.
Testonome is not affiliated with these publishers; names are used only to help you identify your test.
How do you stop overthinking a verbal reasoning test?
- Read the statement first. Then look for the one or two sentences it depends on. You rarely need the whole passage for one statement.
- Underline the small words. "Some", "most", "only", "mainly", "aims to" and "caused" carry the answer more often than the facts around them.
- Decide by the rule, not by the feeling. When two answers seem close, name the rule that settles it, pick, and move on.
What else might come with your verbal reasoning test?
Job applications that use aptitude tests often add numbers or patterns to reading. If yours does, practise those too: our numerical reasoning practice and logical reasoning practice work against the clock in the same way. Wondering whether our answers hold up? See how we write and check every question.
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