[R] Reasoning Tricks - 1

The moment you receive your question paper, just write A=1, B=2, C=3...Z=26 at the back of it. This is better than memorizing the values because exam pressure is a bitch :) you may end up recalling wrong values. Moreover, it is easier to decipher the pattern if you have written down the alphabets on a paper.

Since the reasoning questions are pre-defined, I will try to give tricks for few of them.

1. 2-3 questions in reasoning section are vocabulary based. Many students leave these questions because they are confusing/difficult. But these questions are the easiest.

            (1)

 (2)

These questions may pose difficult if you don't know the meaning of the words giddiness, expunge, etc. But don't worry SSC itself solves these questions for you. How? Have a look at the hindi translation of these questions(which is usually given on the adjacent page)...

    (1)

(2)

Looking at this, you can easily decipher that the answers for the above questions are (A) and (C)

Always refer the hindi translation when ever you face any difficulty in solving vocabulary based questions of Reasoning section.

2. Then there are questions, where you have to arrange some words alphabetically. Don't commit the mistake of forming the entire sequence. Learn to solve such questions with options.

Like in the above question it is clear that the first 2 words will be Recollect and Remember. So the sequence will start with 1, 2, ...Stop here only and look at the options. Only option D starts with 1, 2...Don't go on arranging the rest of the words because it is not required and will only waste your time. Similarly for the below question

Smallest organism among these is the mosquito. Hence the sequence will start with 3. Option C is the only option starting with C. 

3. Now let us see a very famous question of CGL - Paper cutting. There are two rules to solve such questions - 

a) Note the position at which the cut is made(most of the questions can be solved with this rule only)

b) Count the layers

This will make sense if we take any example - 

To solve this question, just look at the position at which the cut is made (let's call it position X)

Now match the pattern of X with all the 4 options and see which option has exactly the same pattern.

Answer : C

Again you can see that option A matches the pattern

Answer : A

Both the questions above were solved with rule (a). Now let's see some questions where rule (b) is helpful - 

First of all apply rule (a)

Rule (a) only eliminates Option (2).

So here we will apply rule (b), i.e. counting the number of layers on which the cut is made.

When you are holding a piece of paper, you are actually holding 1 layer. When you fold it once, you will get 2 layers. Making a third fold will result in 4 layers and fourth fold will result in 8 layers.

In this question, the paper is folded twice and hence total no. of layers formed are 4.

There are total 4 layers and two holes are made on them.

So total holes in the final figure  = No of layers * No of holes made = 4*2 = 8

This means in the answer, there will be 8 holes in total

Options (1) and (2) have 8 holes, but option (2) was eliminated with rule (a). Hence 

Answer : (1)

Bonus Trick :

In SSC CGL, there is a very common question of nested square roots and there are total 3 cases for it (addition, subtraction and multiplication)

Case 1

In such questions, you should avoid forming quadratic equations because that will be time consuming. Here is the trick : Break the number written inside the square root into n*(n + 1) form. So 12 = 3*4

Answer is (n+1), i.e., 4

Similarly, for 72 (written as 8*9), the the answer will be 9; for 20(written as 4*5) the answer will be 5, and so on. In CGL questions, the number will always break into n*(n + 1) form.

Case 2

If instead of '+' you have '-' (above image), then

72 = 8*9

The answer is n, instead of n+1. So the above expression evaluates to 8.

If instead of + you have * (multiplication), then the answer is the number itself. E.g. - 

Case 3

Simple, isn't it? :)

I will cover more Reasoning topics in Part-2.

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