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The 10 Best Tips & Tricks To Pass A Verbal Reasoning Test

A verbal reasoning test is designed to evaluate your ability to read and understand a passage of text, and use that information to answer questions.

To perform well in verbal reasoning tests, comprehension , analysis and speed are important: there are often several passages in a test, each with between 3 to 5 questions.

Verbal reasoning tests are used as part of the job application process for many roles, and are usually completed online. They can vary in their presentation depending on the publisher, and to succeed it is important to understand how the assessment works, what the questions are looking for, and how to approach the test.

To get the best result from a verbal reasoning assessment, we have put together this list of tips and tricks to help you perform well.

First, let’s deconstruct a sample question to show how verbal reasoning questions should be approached:

An example verbal reasoning question decoded

Read the passage and answer the associated questions

Public sector pensions are increasingly under threat as the Government’s actuaries and external financial advisors struggle to establish how current levels of pension scheme obligations can be met. The problem has been caused by a global retraction in world stock indices where many billions of pounds were invested.

While pension fund assets have been falling in value, contributions paid into funds have also fallen as more people take early retirement. Longer life expectancy has also added to the strain. This combination of factors has led to a major deficit that has prompted the government to extend retirement ages and force public sector employees to contribute increasing amounts into their pension schemes. These changes have resulted in outrage amongst many public sector workers. Many private sector workers, however, believe that despite these reforms, public sector workers still benefit from more generous pensions. One radical proposal for alleviating the deficit is infrastructure investment, which some economists believe would stimulate economic growth.

Question 1:

More people taking early retirement is the major contributing factor to the public sector pension deficit.

C: Cannot Tell

Although the article does mention that people taking early retirement is a contributing factor in the deficit, it also mentions less value of the pension fund assets and the longer life expectancy as factors, too. So we cannot say that early retirement is the major contributing factor.

For more practice questions, please take a look at our verbal reasoning test questions and answers page .

Tip 1: Find out who the test provider is

Although the basic framework of the verbal reasoning test is always the same, the way it is presented, the number of questions, and the layout may differ depending on who the publisher is.

There are several verbal test publishers that are regularly used by employers; among them SHL , Kenexa , TalentQ and Cubiks .

You can ask the hiring manager who the test provider is ahead of time, or look on employment sites, forums or even the company website to find out.

Don’t worry if you can’t get this information ahead of time; you can still look at all the various publishers on our site for more details.

Tip 2: Find your weaknesses

Through practice, you might find that you struggle with a certain part of the test: whether that be understanding, reading or even answering. Use the practice sessions to highlight where you are weaker, and seek to improve those areas.

When you discover that you have made a mistake, analyse why you did. This might be in the description of the answer at the end of the practice test, or you might need to work out what went wrong yourself.

Using mistakes as a learning experience is a positive way to move forward, and ensures that you are making the most of your practice sessions.

Tip 3: Understand true, false and cannot say

To answer the questions correctly, you need to be confident that you can label each question as true, false, or cannot say. All the information you need to be able to answer the questions is included in the passage of text – thus you need to make a logical deduction as to whether it is true or false (or impossible to determine).

Don’t be afraid of the ‘cannot say’ answer - it is a relevant deduction that can be made if there just isn’t enough information available.

If the reasoning in the text does not give a definitely true (or definitely false) outcome, then the answer is ‘cannot say’. Remember that verbal reasoning is assessing your ability to extract information from the given text only; there is no need for prior knowledge to be applied.

Tip 4: Practice, practice, practice

This could be the most important part of your preparation. Whether you have taken several psychometric tests as part of a job application, or this is your first time, practicing has several benefits to your performance.

When you know the publisher of the test you are going to take, you can become familiar with the presentation of the text and the questions. Some providers may have three questions relating to the passage, whereas others might have as many as five.

Even if you do not know the publisher, or cannot find out before the test, taking verbal reasoning practice tests can help highlight where you might have difficulties in the live test. This might be a timing issue: if you take too long on one piece of text to find the right answers, you might run out of time to complete other questions. Practicing can help you become faster at answering the questions without losing accuracy.

Tip 5: Don’t assume

One of the main learning points when you are taking a verbal reasoning assessment is that there is no need to use any prior knowledge. They are meant to be abstract ideas, passages and text, and provide all the information you need to answer the questions.

This means that it is important that you don’t apply any bias, knowledge or assumptions into answering the questions – just logical conclusions from the textual data given.

Tip 6: Prepare effectively

For most people, verbal reasoning tests are taken at home via a weblink. If this is the case for you, there are some ways to prepare for a verbal test to give yourself the best chance.

The most important thing to do before taking any test is ensure that you have a good night’s sleep. If you are well rested, you are much more likely to be successful. In addition to this, make sure you have eaten a good breakfast and stay hydrated.

Whether you are using a laptop, PC or tablet, ensure that you have a steady internet connection – you don’t want to suffer a sudden drop in Wi-Fi.

Wherever you are working, make sure you are comfortable, free from distractions, and have everything to hand that you might need (like a pen and paper, if permitted).

If you are taking the assessment in a test centre, be sure to arrive early and be prepared. You will usually receive instructions about what to expect at the test centre; we have some further tips on assessment centres that might help.

Tip 7: Read the instructions

Always take the time to fully read and understand the instructions. This will make taking the test more efficient, plus you’ll get the opportunity to settle down and ready yourself.

The instructions might also have a practice question built in. If so, complete this too, so that you are in the right headspace.

Tip 8: Time management

Almost all verbal reasoning tests are timed, which means that time management is one of the most important things to remember. There will be a number of questions, and some you will naturally find easier than others.

You need to have enough time to read, understand and analyse the text, as well as answering the questions. Don’t linger too long on any single part.

It’s important that you do not spend too long on the trickier questions, since you might run out of time to complete them. If you find there is one that you become stuck on, leave it and move on. Come back to it if you have time at the end.

Tip 9: Choose one of two strategies

There are two ways to approach the verbal reasoning test, and the one you choose will depend on the way you work.

You can choose to read the passage first, then answer each question in turn, going back through the passage to find the correct answers. This is great for those who are good at retaining information.

Some people prefer to read the questions first, and search the passage for the information needed to answer. This can sometimes be quicker, but might not work for all test publishers, depending on how they display their questions.

Whichever way you choose, being able to quickly read and understand the given information is key to answering correctly.

Tip 10: Brush up on your English skills

Whether you are a native English speaker, or have English as a second language, getting used to ‘business speak’ and complicated terminology will make it easier for you to pick apart the language used and find the right answers.

The texts used in verbal reasoning assessments are usually complicated, sometimes with technical language and formal grammar. Getting used to this sort of information and what it means will give you the best chance at speed and accuracy in your comprehension.

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What is Verbal Reasoning? Definition, Examples and Importance

July 04, 2023

The GRE (Graduate Records Examination) has a complete section attributed to verbal reasoning. The LSATs, which the infamous Mike Ross in Suits always cheats on, has a 3-part verbal reasoning section: Reading Comprehension, Analytical Reasoning, and Logical Reasoning . Last but not least, each of our high school tests involved an annoying English test that we all struggled to conquer.

From determining your acceptance into Graduate or Law school to determining your fate in high school, verbal reasoning is tested everywhere. You can see the importance of verbal reasoning and the fact that it is a must-have in most academically oriented settings.

So what is verbal reasoning, and why is it given such high importance? Let’s explore this in detail.

What is Verbal Reasoning?

Verbal Reasoning is defined as (according to Wikipedia) the process of understanding and reasoning using concepts framed in words through creative thinking rather than simple vocabulary recognition. That sounds a bit complex, doesn't it?

Basically, verbal reasoning is an individual's ability to think with words.

For example, a person who can break down complex topics within 250 characters and put them up as a tweet has a pretty good verbal reasoning ability. Well, that's just one of the skills of people with high verbal reasoning ability.

The key verbal reasoning skills are:

• Identifying patterns in letter sequences
• Problem-solving through words
• Decoding codes of letters and numbers
• Following textual instructions to form a solution

Individuals with high verbal reasoning ability are capable of not only thinking in logical patterns but also conveying their thought in a clear and lucid manner. This also makes them great communicators.

Examples of Verbal Reasoning

Let’s consider an example in which we use verbal reasoning to determine whether a statement is valid based on a given piece of information:

The cost of manufacturing phones in China is twenty percent lesser than the cost of manufacturing phones in Vietnam. Even after adding shipping fees and import taxes, it is cheaper to import phones from China to Vietnam than to manufacture phones in Vietnam.

True or False: Importing phones in Vietnam will cut 20% of the manufacturing jobs in Vietnam.

Answer: False – The text contains no information regarding the manufacturing jobs in Vietnam. Even if that were true, i.e., say, importing phones resulted in lesser manufacturing jobs in the country, there is no evidence that exactly 20% of the jobs will be cut.

This thought process, in which you read or listen to words to gain an understanding and make logical conclusions off of it, involves verbal reasoning.

So far we have seen that major academic institutions value a verbal reasoning ability. But why is it given such importance? More specifically, why is verbal reasoning important in the workplace? We explore this in the next section.

Importance of Verbal Reasoning

David Perell, the founder of Write of Passage - an online course on writing effectively, has this to say in his tweet about how leaders in top businesses feel about writing.

As you can see, positions that are highly competitive and valued are filled in by people who can write and communicate effectively. However, this is not restricted to top management and strategic leadership positions.

Consider a customer service rep responsible for resolving customer issues with a product. Say that they have a low verbal reasoning ability and thus find it difficult to understand the problems faced by the customers. How will they communicate it effectively to the rest of the team so that the issue can be resolved without affecting the performance of the business? When the individuals themselves cannot understand the problem, they definitely cannot make someone else understand it.

You want employees who are capable of understanding instructions, communicating effectively, and also have the ability to solve problems. Verbal reasoning encompasses all of this.

Customer-facing roles, sales associates, marketing roles, and content writing roles are all jobs wherein verbal reasoning is a crucial ability to possess. These roles involve tasks that depend on the employee’s ability to comprehend and communicate detailed information .

• Communicating the problems faced by the business in a clear and effective manner to help resolve them at an efficient pace.
• Pinpointing issues in business reports, documents, and company manuals and developing a logical pathway to resolving these issues.
• Ability to communicate effectively and solve problems together as a part of a team.
• Ability to understand through reading and listening.

All of these tasks mentioned above are key in the workplace. They help you and your organization indulge in clearer communication, more efficient problem solving as well as a positive work culture.

Testing for Verbal Reasoning

Testing for skills early on in your hiring process helps you eliminate a lot of candidates who are unfit for the role. You can then have your pick of the litter from the good ones who remain behind.

Most verbal reasoning tests consist of questions in which the candidate goes through a piece of information and makes inferences. While there are only world problems in verbal reasoning assessments, it tests multiple aspects, such as:

• Read and comprehend written information
• Understand the relationships between words
• Draw logical conclusions from the given information
• Solve problems using verbal reasoning skills

For example, the Verbal Reasoning Test evaluates your problem-solving skills, attention to detail, and ability to think critically . The test evaluates a candidate’s ability to go through extensive textual information and make logical conclusions off of it in a time-constrained environment.

A candidate that can clearly understand such information should also be capable of communicating it effectively. Thus using the right tests prior to the final rounds of your hiring process can help eliminate candidates that are unfit for the role.

On a Final Note

Every job role encompasses a unique set of skills that are valued. However, verbal reasoning plays a key part in each of these roles. From being able to communicate clearly to clearly understand what is being communicated, verbal reasoning is involved everywhere.

Thus, ensure that you test for verbal reasoning ability at your workplace, especially in jobs involving communication, problem-solving, and vocabulary recognition. This can save significant time otherwise spent interviewing the wrong candidates and help you hire the right employees for every role.

Pragnesh is the EiR at Adaface. He loves reading books more than scrolling through social media, which is a big deal if you ask him.

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What is verbal reasoning?

Verbal reasoning is, in a nutshell, thinking with words. ‘As the name suggests, it’s a form of problem-solving based around words and language,’ explains Stephen McConkey of Eleven Plus Exam Papers .

It involves thinking about text, solving word problems, following written instructions to come up with a solution, spotting letter sequences and cracking letter- and number-based codes. Verbal reasoning exams are intended to test a child’s ability to understand and reason using words, and are a test of skill, rather than of learned knowledge.

The theory is that they allow the examining body to build a picture of a child’s potential for critical thinking, problem-solving and ultimately, intelligence.

What sort of questions are involved?

‘It’s generally agreed that there are 21 standard types of verbal reasoning question,’ says Stephen. These include:  

• Finding one letter that will complete two words, e.g. hoo (D) oor
• Finding a word hidden inside another word, e.g. dePENd
• Spotting the odd ones out in a list of words, e.g. apple, pear, banana, CREAM, PUDDING
• Finding the words that mean the same from two lists, e.g. PLAIN/expensive/rich and SIMPLE/money/earnings
• Finding antonyms (opposites) from two lists of words, e.g IN/on/over and through/between/OUT
• Breaking a code where each letter of the alphabet is represented by a different letter or number (e.g. A becomes B, B becomes C, C becomes D, so that ‘cat’ would be written ‘dbu’)

‘Although the majority of verbal reasoning tests are word-based, some are based on numbers,’ adds Stephen. For instance, a verbal reasoning exam could include questions where you have to give the next number in a sequence (1, 5, 9, 13…), or where you have to solve a sum where the numbers are represented by letters (so if A=1, B=2, C=3, D=4 and so on, C+A=4). Although these questions require a basic grounding in maths, the main principle is the same as for word-based verbal reasoning problems: to test your child’s ability to solve problems based on written instructions.

Prepare Your Child For The 11+ Exam

• Essential 11+ English and maths skills
• Verbal and non-verbal reasoning questions
• Reading comprehension worksheets
• CLOZE test worksheets

What skills and knowledge do children need for verbal reasoning tests?

‘Children perform best in verbal reasoning tests if they’re widely read and have an extensive vocabulary,’ says Stephen. They need a solid grasp of synonyms (words that have the same meaning), antonyms (words that mean the opposite of each other) and plurals , good spelling skills, and strong maths skills. ‘A good general knowledge is also needed for verbal reasoning tests,’ Stephen adds. Even if your child understands the question and can follow the written directions, if one of the possible words in the answer is unfamiliar, they may trip up.

Why can verbal reasoning be hard to master?

Some children have a knack for verbal reasoning, but for others, it doesn’t come so naturally. And it’s not just about being ‘good at literacy’ – children who can read and spell very well may still struggle with some of the code-based questions. Moreover, verbal reasoning isn’t a curriculum-based skill, so your child won’t be taught the techniques at school, and while they may make sense once they’ve been explained (and practised), at first glance, they can be baffling.

Children also need to be good at reading questions carefully, and following the directions exactly, which can be an issue for those who tend to rush or skim-read. ‘However, research shows that with practice, children can improve their verbal reasoning,’ says Stephen.

Helping your child practise verbal reasoning at home

‘The best thing you can do to improve your child’s verbal reasoning is encourage them to read,’ says Stephen. ‘Children who read widely have a big head-start, as they’re building their vocabulary and general knowledge.’

You can also try the following tips to boost your child’s verbal reasoning skills:  

• Play word games and quizzes, for example, spotting the odd one out from a list of words, giving a synonym or antonym for a word, solving anagrams.
• Encourage your child to do crosswords and word searches , and play games like Hangman.
• Play word-based family games like Scrabble and Boggle.
• Set your child spelling challenges, focusing particularly on commonly misspelt words (there/their/they’re) and homophones (words that sound the same but are spelt differently, like fair and fare).
• Become a family of culture vultures, taking your children to museums, shows and exhibitions to build their general knowledge.

To help your child practise verbal and non-verbal reasoning for the Year 7 CATs  or the Eleven Plus our Verbal and non-verbal reasoning: an introduction learning pack offers 90 practice questions and answers as well as a general overview of secondary school selection tests.

TheSchoolRun's 11+ Learning Journey is a complete guide to 11+ preparation for children and parents and includes 48 verbal reasoning explanatory worksheets.

You can also download free 11+ vocabulary flashcards to help your child increase their vocabulary.

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Verbal Reasoning. What is it and why is it important?

When we hear the words ' Verbal Reasoning ' our minds automatically jump to the eleven plus tests that school children sit in various parts of England for a place at a grammar school. But Verbal Reasoning is not just used for the eleven plus . It is also used by many employers to test the skills of their prospective employees and by many graduate training schemes to distinguish between applicants.

What is Verbal Reasoning?

Verbal Reasoning is basically about the way we think with words. It is a form of understanding and reasoning concepts based around words and language. It involves:

• problem-solving around words
• thinking about text
• following written instructions and deciphering a solution
• understanding letter sequences
• decoding letter and number-based codes

Verbal reasoning tests judge a person's ability for problem-solving, critical and constructive thinking and general intelligence.

There are many different types of verbal reasoning questions including:

• Insert a letter, where you must find a letter that will fit onto the end of one word and the beginning of another to form two new words.
• Find words that do not belong in a set group of words.
• Find words that have the same, similar or opposite meaning.
• Find hidden words within a sentence.
• Work out which number stands for which letter.
• Word connections
• Letter and number sequences.
• Reading information and analysis.

And many more. Verbal reasoning is something that can be improved with practice and dedication.

Verbal Reasoning Examples

Let's take a look at a few different examples of verbal reasoning and how the answers are based on logically working out what is being asked:

1. If A = 4 B = 6 C = 7 D = 30 E = 13

What is C + A + E + B =

Answer = D (Simply add up the numbers represented by the letters and the answer is 30; represented by the letter D)

2. Gerry's dad Mike is three times as old as Gerry was 2 years ago. If Gerry is 17 next year, how old is his dad ?

Answer = 42 (If Gerry is 17 next year that would make him 16, meaning he was 14 two years ago. 14×3 = 42).

3. If the code for the word YACHT is BZXSG

What is the word for NLZGH ?

Answer = MOATS (This is a simple matter of working out the relationship between the letters. You will notice that Y is to B as A is to Z and C is to X. You should now be able to spot that the first letter of the alphabet transforms to the last letter of the alphabet, the second letter to the second to last letter, the third letter to the third last letter and so on. In this way we are able to work out that the words NLZGH is actually MOATS . You can also check this as two of the letters in the first coded word are also in the second coded word, A and T, so you only have to work out the other three.)

4. Read the following passage and decide which statement is true.

On Saturday Olly, Jim and Christian like to go to the cinema. In the cinema Olly likes to buy popcorn and Jim always gets something to drink. Christian sometimes gets some sweets but will always get what Jim gets too.

A. The boys go to the cinema every Saturday.

B. Popcorn is the cheapest to buy.

C. Christian doesn't have much money.

D. Christian always gets a drink.

E. Jim is the richest one.

The answer is D. (These questions are simply a matter of elimination and again, logic. The statement states clearly that Christian always gets what Jim gets and Jim always gets something to drink. Therefore the only answer that is certain is D).

5. AB is to CD

As EF is to =

Answer = GH (The letters are a continuation of each other in the alphabet)

6. Which number comes next in the sequence?

12 6 16 10 20 14 (?)

Answer = 24 (If you look at the numbers you will notice a pattern. Taking the first, third and fifth numbers they all progress by adding four each time. Then taking the second, fourth and sixth numbers also progress by adding four each time. Therefore the seventh number would just be four more that the fifth number).

As we can see the answers to the questions are based on logic. It's a simple matter of being able to think about what the question is asking and logically working out the answer. There is always a logical sequence, pattern or observation that can be seen; it is just a matter of being able to work it out.

The Importance of Verbal Reasoning

Verbal Reasoning is important both in a child's academic life and their adult lives. Developing their verbal reasoning skills will allow them to become socially independent and succeed in their professional life later on. Having Verbal Reasoning skills will allow your child to develop qualities such as perception, understanding and solving complicated subject questions, empathy and logical reasoning as well as ensuring they have a great vocabulary.

So what do children need to succeed at verbal reasoning tests? Author of Learning Together practice books, Stephen McConkey, states on the website The School Run :

Children perform best in verbal reasoning tests if they're widely read and have an extensive vocabulary... They need a solid grasp of synonyms (words that have the same meaning), antonyms (words that mean the opposite of each other) and plurals, good spelling skills, and strong maths skills. A good general knowledge is also needed for verbal reasoning tests...Even if your child understands the question and can follow the written directions, if one of the possible words in the answer is unfamiliar, they may trip up.

One of the best ways to encourage your child to develop their verbal reasoning skills is to encourage them to read. Reading will not only increase their vocabulary but they will learn to interpret words and understand comprehension. Other ways to help your child develop their verbal reasoning skills are:

• Play word games; understanding synonyms and antonyms, spotting odd words out and finding word replacements.
• Word searches and crosswords are a great way for your child to spot new words and find answers to riddles.
• Spelling tests don't have to be boring and tedious! Challenge your child to learn ten new words per week and test them. Have a small reward for when they achieve their goals.
• Encourage your child to write stories; these could be anything from something they have done or would like to do, creative fiction based on a book they have read or strange and mysterious tales using their imagination.
• Improve their general knowledge; learn interesting facts together, visit museums, play science games, take nature walks... there are plenty of ways to teach your child something new.
• Improve their logic skills by asking them simple questions for them to work out.

Private Tutors are often employed to aid in the learning of Verbal Reasoning. Many tutors have great ways of explaining complex problems to children in a simple, fun and easy-to-understand way.

To Conclude

Some children are naturally very good at verbal reasoning whilst others require more practice and a helping hand. Whatever the case, your child will need verbal reasoning throughout their school days and on into adulthood. Encourage your child to develop their verbal reasoning skills through games, trips and simple tasks at home. This will not only aid them in their academic life but will build up their logic skills, and of course plenty of other skills, for when they grow up.

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Verbal Reasoning

Verbal reasoning: unraveling the power of language and logic.

Verbal Reasoning is a cognitive ability that encompasses the skills to comprehend, analyze, and interpret information presented in written or spoken forms. It involves an individual's capacity to understand the meaning of words, recognize relationships and patterns, and draw logical conclusions. This crucial cognitive skill plays a fundamental role in various aspects of life, including education, professional settings, and everyday problem-solving.

Understanding the Essence of Verbal Reasoning

At its core, Verbal Reasoning involves the ability to evaluate and manipulate written or verbal information effectively. It encompasses a wide range of linguistic capabilities, such as vocabulary, grammar, critical thinking, and comprehension. Possessing strong verbal reasoning skills empowers individuals to decipher complex ideas, make connections between concepts, and solve problems with clarity and precision.

Key Components of Verbal Reasoning

Vocabulary : A rich and diverse vocabulary provides the foundation for effective Verbal Reasoning. This includes knowing the meanings and nuances of words, as well as their contextual usage.

Reading Comprehension : The skill to extract meaning from written material, understand the main ideas, and identify relevant details is integral to Verbal Reasoning. It involves the ability to grasp the author's intent, follow logical arguments, and evaluate information critically.

Analogical Reasoning : Verbal Reasoning often entails the ability to identify relationships between words and concepts. Drawing parallels, recognizing patterns, and making logical inferences from these relationships are key elements of this cognitive ability.

Logical Deduction : Verbal Reasoning also involves the capacity to apply logical thinking to solve problems. It requires the ability to extract relevant information, recognize assumptions, and draw valid conclusions based on the given data.

Verbal Fluency : Verbal Reasoning entails the ability to express thoughts and ideas fluently and coherently. It involves effective communication, clear articulation, and the proper organization of thoughts.

Importance of Verbal Reasoning in Various Contexts

Verbal Reasoning is crucial in academic pursuits and careers that require strong communication and analytical skills. Individuals with exceptional Verbal Reasoning abilities excel in fields such as law, journalism, marketing, research, teaching, and management. Additionally, Verbal Reasoning is essential for standardized tests, such as admissions exams, aptitude tests, and language proficiency assessments.

Enhancing Verbal Reasoning Skills

While some individuals naturally possess strong Verbal Reasoning abilities, others can develop and enhance these skills through practice and targeted exercises. Engaging in regular reading, challenging oneself with puzzles or riddles, and actively participating in discussions can contribute to the improvement of Verbal Reasoning capabilities.

Unlock Your Verbal Reasoning Potential

Understanding the significance of Verbal Reasoning provides the groundwork for personal and intellectual growth. By further honing this cognitive ability, individuals can unlock the power of language and logic, enabling them to excel in various educational, professional, and problem-solving endeavors.

Assessing a Candidate's Verbal Reasoning Skill Level: Make Informed Hiring Decisions

Assessing a candidate's Verbal Reasoning skill level is paramount in making well-informed hiring decisions. Verbal Reasoning plays a fundamental role in many professional settings, as it directly impacts an individual's ability to communicate effectively, analyze information, and solve complex problems. By evaluating a candidate's Verbal Reasoning abilities, organizations can identify top talent, predict their potential performance, and ensure successful outcomes.

Gaining Insight into Communication Aptitude

Communication is the backbone of any successful organization. Employing individuals with strong Verbal Reasoning skills ensures clear and concise communication throughout all levels of the company. Candidates who excel in Verbal Reasoning possess the ability to articulate their thoughts, express ideas persuasively, and engage in productive dialogue. Assessing Verbal Reasoning allows recruiters to gauge a candidate's communication aptitude and ensure that they can effectively convey ideas, collaborate with team members, and interact with clients or customers.

Assessing Problem-Solving Abilities

Verbal Reasoning and problem-solving skills are intricately linked. Candidates proficient in Verbal Reasoning possess the ability to analyze complex information, identify patterns, and draw logical conclusions. By assessing a candidate's Verbal Reasoning skills, companies can evaluate their problem-solving aptitude, critical thinking abilities, and their capacity to make sound decisions. This evaluation becomes especially crucial for roles that involve handling intricate tasks, dealing with data-driven challenges, or making strategic business decisions.

Predicting Adaptability and Learning Potential

A candidate's Verbal Reasoning skills can provide valuable insights into their adaptability and learning potential. Those with strong Verbal Reasoning abilities are often quick learners, able to absorb new information efficiently, and adapt to changing circumstances. Assessing a candidate's Verbal Reasoning skill level enables organizations to gauge their capacity for continuous learning and professional growth. Identifying individuals with high Verbal Reasoning aptitude ensures they can thrive in dynamic work environments, grasp new concepts swiftly, and contribute to the company's success.

Fueling Organizational Success

Employing candidates with exceptional Verbal Reasoning skills directly contributes to the overall success of an organization. Those with strong Verbal Reasoning abilities can enhance problem-solving capabilities, streamline communication channels, and foster a culture of critical thinking within a company. By assessing a candidate's Verbal Reasoning skill level, organizations can identify individuals who are likely to excel in their roles, drive innovation, and contribute to the company's long-term prosperity.

Make Informed Hiring Decisions with Alooba

With Alooba's comprehensive assessment platform, organizations can efficiently evaluate a candidate's Verbal Reasoning skill level and make informed hiring decisions. Alooba offers a range of Verbal Reasoning tests designed to assess a candidate's vocabulary, reading comprehension, logical deduction, and verbal fluency, among other essential components of Verbal Reasoning. Unlock the power of Verbal Reasoning assessments with Alooba and ensure that your organization hires top talent equipped with the skills needed for success.

Assessing a Candidate’s Verbal Reasoning Skill Level with Alooba: The Path to Accurate Evaluation

Alooba offers a comprehensive and efficient solution to assess a candidate's Verbal Reasoning skill level, allowing organizations to make accurate and informed hiring decisions. With Alooba's user-friendly and intuitive assessment platform, you can evaluate a candidate's Verbal Reasoning abilities through targeted tests specifically designed to measure their vocabulary, reading comprehension, analogical reasoning, logical deduction, and verbal fluency.

Tailored Verbal Reasoning Tests for Precise Evaluation

Alooba provides a range of Verbal Reasoning tests that suit the unique requirements of your organization. These tests are carefully crafted to gauge a candidate's proficiency in different aspects of Verbal Reasoning. Assess their vocabulary knowledge, ability to comprehend written information, and their logical deduction skills. With customizable test options, you can align the assessment to match the specific Verbal Reasoning requirements of the role you're hiring for.

Seamless Integration and Candidate Invitations

Efficiency is key when it comes to candidate assessments. Alooba allows for seamless integration with your existing ATS (Applicant Tracking System), enabling you to seamlessly transition candidates from the application process to the Verbal Reasoning assessment stage. Inviting candidates is a breeze with Alooba's candidate invitation feature, offering flexibility through email invitations, bulk uploads, ATS integration, or self-registration links. Simplify the assessment process and reduce administrative hassle with Alooba.

Auto-Grading for Swift and Objective Results

Alooba's Verbal Reasoning assessments are designed to provide swift results while ensuring objectivity. With built-in auto-grading capabilities, you can quickly determine a candidate's skill level without bias. The automated grading process saves time and resources, allowing you to focus on evaluating the broader candidate pool effectively.

In-Depth Insights and High-Level Overview

Alooba goes beyond simple test scores by providing comprehensive, in-depth insights into a candidate's Verbal Reasoning capabilities. After the assessment, you will gain access to a high-level overview of each candidate's performance. Identify their strengths and weaknesses, assess their problem-solving skills, and pinpoint areas for further development. These insights empower you to make well-informed hiring decisions based on a candidate's Verbal Reasoning skill level.

Enhance Your Hiring Process with Alooba

Alooba's vision is to create a world where everyone can get the job they deserve. By using Alooba's Verbal Reasoning assessments, you can unlock the potential of candidates and find the perfect fit for your organization. Streamline your hiring process, ensure accurate evaluations, and discover top talent with Alooba's end-to-end assessment platform. Drive your organization forward with skilled individuals who possess exceptional Verbal Reasoning capabilities.

Exploring the Subtopics of Verbal Reasoning: A Comprehensive Overview

Verbal Reasoning encompasses various subtopics that collectively contribute to an individual's overall proficiency in this cognitive skill. Understanding these subtopics provides further insight into the depth and breadth of Verbal Reasoning. By assessing candidates across these areas, organizations can gain a comprehensive understanding of their Verbal Reasoning abilities and make informed decisions in the hiring process.

Vocabulary and Word Meaning

One crucial aspect of Verbal Reasoning is the understanding and command of vocabulary. Candidates with strong Verbal Reasoning skills possess an extensive repertoire of words and their meanings. They can accurately interpret and use words in context, demonstrating a nuanced understanding of language. Evaluating a candidate's vocabulary knowledge provides insights into their lexical range, precision in communication, and ability to comprehend complex texts.

Reading Comprehension and Critical Analysis

Successful Verbal Reasoning involves more than just understanding individual words; it requires the ability to comprehend written information in its entirety. Assessing candidates' reading comprehension skills allows organizations to evaluate their capacity to grasp the main ideas, infer meanings, and analyze the underlying messages within a text. Strong Verbal Reasoning skills enable candidates to critically evaluate written material, detect biases, and draw well-supported conclusions.

Analogical Reasoning and Logical Connections

Analogical reasoning is a fundamental component of Verbal Reasoning, focusing on recognizing relationships and making connections between different words, phrases, or concepts. Candidates proficient in analogical reasoning can identify patterns and similarities, enabling them to draw logical inferences and solve problems effectively. Assessing candidates' analogical reasoning skills helps evaluate their ability to recognize relationships, apply logic, and think critically.

Logical Deduction and Inference

Logical deduction is another essential subtopic within Verbal Reasoning, involving the ability to draw conclusions based on available information. Candidates with strong logical deduction skills can analyze data, identify relevant details, and make well-reasoned inferences. Assessing candidates' logical deduction abilities enables organizations to determine their capacity for analytical thinking, problem-solving, and decision-making in complex scenarios.

Verbal Fluency and Expressive Communication

Verbal Reasoning proficiency extends beyond comprehension and analysis. It also encompasses the ability to express thoughts and ideas fluently and coherently. Candidates with strong verbal fluency can articulate their insights effectively, engage in persuasive communication, and contribute to productive discussions. Assessing candidates' verbal fluency helps evaluate their communication skills, ensuring they can convey information clearly, engage with stakeholders, and collaborate seamlessly in team environments.

Unleash the Power of Verbal Reasoning with Alooba

Alooba's comprehensive Verbal Reasoning assessments cover each of these subtopics, allowing organizations to evaluate candidates across all dimensions of Verbal Reasoning. Gain a holistic understanding of candidates' vocabulary, reading comprehension, analogical reasoning, logical deduction, and verbal fluency skills. With Alooba's assessment platform, you can accurately assess Verbal Reasoning abilities, make data-driven decisions, and unlock the potential of top talent in your hiring process.

The Applications of Verbal Reasoning: Unlocking Potential Across Domains

Verbal Reasoning finds broad applications across various domains, playing a pivotal role in professional, academic, and everyday contexts. This cognitive ability enables individuals to excel in numerous areas by leveraging their language skills, logical thinking, and problem-solving capabilities. Understanding how Verbal Reasoning is used allows organizations to harness its power and make informed decisions in selecting candidates with strong verbal reasoning abilities.

Academics and Education

Verbal Reasoning holds significant importance in academia, influencing learning, comprehension, and critical thinking. Proficiency in Verbal Reasoning facilitates reading and understanding complex texts, analyzing and evaluating arguments, and formulating articulate written responses. Students with strong Verbal Reasoning skills excel in subjects that demand language proficiency, such as literature, history, philosophy, and social sciences. Assessing Verbal Reasoning abilities allows educational institutions to identify students with the potential for academic success.

Professional Communication

Effective professional communication is built upon the foundations of Verbal Reasoning. Individuals with strong Verbal Reasoning skills can convey ideas clearly and concisely, adapt their communication style to various contexts, and engage in persuasive discourse. Whether it's presenting ideas, negotiating contracts, or delivering impactful speeches, Verbal Reasoning plays a crucial role in fostering successful interactions within the professional realm. Assessing Verbal Reasoning abilities helps organizations identify candidates who can communicate effectively and contribute to their overall success.

Problem-solving and Decision-making

Verbal Reasoning is closely linked to problem-solving and decision-making abilities. Individuals with strong Verbal Reasoning skills possess the capacity to analyze complex information, identify patterns, and draw logical conclusions to reach informed decisions. From strategizing business approaches to resolving conflicts, Verbal Reasoning enables individuals to navigate challenges effectively and make well-reasoned choices. Assessing Verbal Reasoning abilities allows organizations to identify candidates with strong problem-solving skills, further enhancing their ability to innovate and succeed.

Legal and Analytical Roles

Verbal Reasoning is of particular significance in legal and analytical roles, where interpreting and utilizing complex information is paramount. Lawyers utilize Verbal Reasoning to analyze legal documents, construct persuasive arguments, and present evidence convincingly. Similarly, analysts rely on Verbal Reasoning to assess data, identify trends, and draw meaningful insights. Assessing Verbal Reasoning abilities enables organizations to identify individuals with the necessary skills for success in these fields and make sound hiring decisions.

Everyday Problem-solving

Verbal Reasoning is not limited to professional or academic settings—it is also valuable in everyday problem-solving. Whether it's resolving conflicts, making informed purchasing decisions, or navigating social interactions, strong Verbal Reasoning skills enhance an individual's ability to communicate, analyze information, and make sound judgments. Assessing Verbal Reasoning abilities allows organizations to identify candidates who possess the cognitive skills needed to excel not only in their professional roles but also in their daily lives.

Maximize Your Potential with Verbal Reasoning Assessments

Unlock the potential of Verbal Reasoning by utilizing Alooba's comprehensive assessments. Assessing candidates' Verbal Reasoning abilities enables organizations to identify top talent, foster effective communication, drive problem-solving capabilities, and enhance decision-making processes. With Alooba's user-friendly platform, you can efficiently evaluate Verbal Reasoning skills and shape a workforce that excels across diverse domains. Empower your organization and pave the way for success with the power of Verbal Reasoning assessments from Alooba.

Roles That Demand Strong Verbal Reasoning Skills

Verbal Reasoning skills are crucial in various roles where effective communication, critical thinking, and problem-solving abilities are essential. Candidates with strong Verbal Reasoning skills are well-equipped to excel in these positions, leveraging their language proficiency and logical reasoning capabilities. Explore the following roles that require excellent Verbal Reasoning skills to fulfill their responsibilities:

Data Analyst : Data analysts, responsible for analyzing and interpreting complex datasets, rely on Verbal Reasoning to comprehend and articulate data-driven insights clearly.

Data Scientist : Data scientists employ Verbal Reasoning to communicate the results of their analytical models, explaining complex statistical concepts to non-technical stakeholders.

Data Engineer : Data engineers transform raw data into usable formats, leveraging Verbal Reasoning to understand and communicate the requirements of various data pipelines effectively.

Insights Analyst : Insights analysts draw on Verbal Reasoning skills to analyze market trends and consumer behavior, providing valuable insights to inform strategic decision-making.

Marketing Analyst : Effective communication is crucial for marketing analysts, who interpret data and craft persuasive narratives that drive successful marketing campaigns.

Product Analyst : Product analysts rely on Verbal Reasoning to analyze user feedback, communicate product requirements effectively, and collaborate with cross-functional teams.

Financial Analyst : Financial analysts utilize Verbal Reasoning to analyze financial data, communicate investment insights, and articulate recommendations to stakeholders.

Fraud Analyst : Fraud analysts benefit from strong Verbal Reasoning skills to examine patterns, identify anomalies, and communicate findings related to fraudulent activities.

HR Analyst : HR analysts rely on Verbal Reasoning to analyze employee data, facilitate effective communication between departments, and provide insights for talent management strategies.

GIS Data Analyst : GIS data analysts use Verbal Reasoning to interpret geospatial data, communicate insights about geographic patterns, and support decision-making in various industries.

Pricing Analyst : Pricing analysts employ Verbal Reasoning to analyze market trends, understand pricing dynamics, and communicate pricing strategies to optimize revenue.

Product Manager : Product managers make use of Verbal Reasoning to articulate product visions, communicate requirements, and collaborate with cross-functional teams to drive product success.

In these roles and many others, strong Verbal Reasoning skills are vital for effective communication, critical analysis, and data-driven decision-making. Alooba's comprehensive Verbal Reasoning assessments can help identify candidates with the necessary skills for these roles, ensuring that your organization finds the top talent equipped to thrive in their positions.

Associated Roles

Data analyst.

Data Analysts draw meaningful insights from complex datasets with the goal of making better decisions. Data Analysts work wherever an organization has data - these days that could be in any function, such as product, sales, marketing, HR, operations, and more.

Data Engineer

Data Engineers are responsible for moving data from A to B, ensuring data is always quickly accessible, correct and in the hands of those who need it. Data Engineers are the data pipeline builders and maintainers.

Data Scientist

Data Scientists are experts in statistical analysis and use their skills to interpret and extract meaning from data. They operate across various domains, including finance, healthcare, and technology, developing models to predict future trends, identify patterns, and provide actionable insights. Data Scientists typically have proficiency in programming languages like Python or R and are skilled in using machine learning techniques, statistical modeling, and data visualization tools such as Tableau or PowerBI.

Insights Analyst

Insights Analysts play a pivotal role in transforming complex data sets into actionable insights, driving business growth and efficiency. They specialize in analyzing customer behavior, market trends, and operational data, utilizing advanced tools such as SQL, Python, and BI platforms like Tableau and Power BI. Their expertise aids in decision-making across multiple channels, ensuring data-driven strategies align with business objectives.

Marketing Analyst

Marketing Analysts specialize in interpreting data to enhance marketing efforts. They analyze market trends, consumer behavior, and campaign performance to inform marketing strategies. Proficient in data analysis tools and techniques, they bridge the gap between data and marketing decision-making. Their role is crucial in tailoring marketing efforts to target audiences effectively and efficiently.

Product Analyst

Product Analysts utilize data to optimize product strategies and enhance user experiences. They work closely with product teams, leveraging skills in SQL, data visualization (e.g., Tableau), and data analysis to drive product development. Their role includes translating business requirements into technical specifications, conducting A/B testing, and presenting data-driven insights to inform product decisions. Product Analysts are key in understanding customer needs and driving product innovation.

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Getting Hackney Talking!

Verbal reasoning – what’s going on, problem solving and verbal reasoning.

Verbal reasoning is a skill that is essential for understanding social situations and learning in the classroom. It involves understanding and answering ‘how’ and ‘why’ something has happened and is fundamental for solving social problems. In order to think through and solve problems children need to use their internal language, or ‘self-talk’, so when a child has difficulties with understanding and using spoken language they will usually have difficulties with verbal reasoning.

Many problem-solving skills are learnt through experience of normal social interaction. Children with communication difficulties can benefit from talking through problems in detail as they arise, but also through specific activities such as the ones presented in this section.

Activity: What’s going on?

Aim : to be able to answer questions and about a social scenario

Resources needed: Social scene pictures from the newspaper, from a website or from picture books

Method:   Look at a picture of a social scene together. Encourage your child to look carefully and describe it. Ask concrete questions about things that are obvious from the picture, e.g. ‘who is in the picture?’, ‘what is going on?’. Then move on to questions that are not immediately obvious that about the scene. These questions should require the children to use inference or problem-solving, e.g. ‘why is he doing that?’, ‘what might happen next?’, or ‘what would you do?’

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Verbal Problem-Solving Difficulties in Autism Spectrum Disorders and Atypical Language Development

Children with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) adopt less efficient strategies than typically developing (TD) peers on the Twenty Questions Task (TQT), a measure of verbal problem-solving skills. Although problems with the TQT are typically associated with executive dysfunction, they have also been reported in children who are deaf, suggesting a role for atypical language development. To test the contribution of language history to ASD problem solving, TQT performance was compared in children with high-functioning autism (HFA), children with Asperger syndrome (AS) and TD children. The HFA group used significantly less efficient strategies than both AS and TD children. No group differences were evident on tests of question understanding, planning or verbal fluency. Potential explanations for differences in verbal problem-solving skill are discussed with reference to the development of inner speech and use of visual strategies in ASD.

Young people with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) are often reported to have difficulty with spontaneously generating plans and strategies to solve new problems [ Channon, Charman, Heap, Crawford, & Rios, 2001 ; Mackinlay, Charman, & Karmiloff-Smith, 2006 ; Minshew, Meyer, & Goldstein, 2002 ]. Compared with tasks with a fixed set of responses, children with ASD can struggle with more “open-ended” cognitive tasks where a range of strategies could be deployed to achieve a particular goal [ White, Burgess, & Hill, 2009 ]. Knowing more about why this occurs is important in both the lab and the real world, as it has implications for adaptive skills and independent living [ Kenworthy, Yerys, Anthony, & Wallace, 2008 ].

Problem Solving in People with ASD

A simple example of this is seen on the Twenty Questions Task (TQT), a verbal problem-solving 1 test based on the traditional guessing game [ Mosher & Hornsby, 1966 ]. In the TQT, the experimenter selects a target from a picture array of everyday objects, and the participant asks a series of questions to establish its identity. Typically, the questions will narrow down possibilities via a categorical hierarchy, such as “Is it living?”, “Is it an animal?” and so on. Compared with age and intelligence quotient (IQ)-matched typically developing (TD) peers, high-functioning children and adults with ASD take more guesses on the game and ask fewer category-based questions [ Minshew, Siegel, Goldstein, & Weldy, 1994 ]. Moreover, the grouping questions used by ASD participants are often too specific: for example, they may ask “Is it something you eat soup with?” when it may be more effective to first ask “Is it something you eat with?” or “Is it cutlery?” [ Alderson-Day & McGonigle-Chalmers, 2011 ].

Because many ASD individuals are able to identify basic categories when they are prompted to on other tasks [ Tager-Flusberg, 1985 ; Ungerer & Sigman, 1987 ], it has been suggested that this reflects a specific problem with “concept formation,” namely a difficulty in organizing a set of items into a new grouping heuristic when this needs to be done spontaneously [ Minshew et al., 2002 ]. But the TQT—and problem-solving more generally—also involves a range of other, complex demands that could be affecting ASD performance.

First, efficient problem solving relies on executive functions (EFs); that is, the set of skills required to retain and manipulate information “on-line” during goal-directed tasks, such as planning, flexibility, selective attention, inhibition and working memory [ Hill, 2004 ]. Two studies by Alderson-Day and colleagues studied the effects of these factors on TQT performance [ Alderson-Day, 2011 ; Alderson-Day & McGonigle-Chalmers, 2011 ]. The typical TQT includes an array of pictures that do not change throughout the task, meaning that participants have to remember their questions “on-line” as they play [ Mosher & Hornsby, 1966 ]. Alderson-Day and McGonigle-Chalmers [2011] tested what effect this has using a version of the TQT based on a Guess Who? board, where participants could knock down items as they searched. Compared with controls, a sample of high-functioning children with ASD had to ask more questions on average to reach the target when they were unable to physically eliminate items.

When items cannot be removed, participants not only have to remember questions, but they also have to selectively attend to relevant information in the visual array. To parse out these demands, a second study by Alderson-Day [2011] provided participants with a written reminder of their questions when knocking down items was prohibited. This eliminated the need for additional questions in the ASD group—even though the visual demands of the task had not changed—implying a problem with memory for questions rather than attention. In addition, the participants in Alderson-Day [2011] appeared to have difficulty with the planning demands of the TQT. Compared with controls, ASD participants could recognize good questions to ask in isolation but struggled to plan a series of questions in advance that would be likely to narrow down options. Thus, while the TQT may require some element of concept formation, problems with working memory and planning also appear to affect ASD problem solving in this case.

Effects of Language on Problem-Solving: The Comparison With Deafness

Another important factor to consider is the role of language skills, which is prompted by similarities in problem solving between ASD and deafness. In a study with deaf schoolchildren, Marschark and Everhart [1999] observed more guessing and less use of category questions in deaf participants compared with hearing participants, with similar problems being evident in a follow-up sample of deaf graduate students. Executive difficulties are sometimes evident in deaf children, usually presenting as problems with self-regulation and impulsivity [see Hauser, Lukomski, & Hillman, 2008 , for a review]. But rather than explain their data in terms of EF skills, Marschark and Everhart proposed that they are likely to reflect the atypical language development that many deaf children experience. Deafness per se is not associated with delays or deficits: if deaf children have early access to language, usually by having deaf parents or relatives who can sign, they tend to develop very good language and cognitive skills [ Mayberry, 2002 ]. However, over 90% of deaf children have hearing parents [ Mitchell & Karchmer, 2004 ], meaning that many will not encounter skilled users of signing until school age, and some may only be encouraged to use spoken language rather than sign. Accordingly, there can be a range of delays in language skills for deaf children [e.g. Blamey, 2003 ; Moeller, Tomblin, Yoshinaga-Itano, Connor, & Jerger, 2007 ], and it has been suggested that this has consequences for language-related cognitive skills, particularly those more dependent on knowledge of spoken English [ Marschark, 2006 ]. For instance, there is evidence of subtle differences in verbal reasoning, categorization and free recall in deaf adults when compared to hearing controls [ Farjardo, Arfé, Benedetti, & Altoé, 2008 ; Koh, Vernon, & Bailey, 1971 ; Marschark, Convertino, McEvoy, & Masteller, 2004 ; McEvoy, Marschark, & Nelson, 1999 ; Ormel et al., 2010 ; Yi et al., 2011 ].

Given the presence of early communication difficulties in ASD [ Boucher, 2012 ], it could be that similar factors affect verbal problem solving in autism. One way to test this is to compare TQT performance in young people with high-functioning autism (HFA) and Asperger syndrome (AS). In contrast to HFA, AS has typically been associated with the presence of intact structural language skills in the first 3 years of life [ American Psychiatric Association, 1994 ; World Health Organization, 1993 ]. In most other respects, however, HFA and AS are considered to be alike [as indicated by the removal of AS as a separate diagnosis in DSM 5; American Psychiatric Association, 2013 ]. While some early studies reported greater EF skills and stronger verbal than nonverbal skills in AS compared with HFA [e.g. Szatmari, Archer, Fisman, Streiner, & Wilson, 1995 ], studies that have controlled for IQ generally find very few cognitive differences at all between the two groups, including similar performance on many EF tasks [ Manjiviona & Prior, 1999 ; Mayes & Calhoun, 2004 ; Ozonoff, South, & Miller, 2000 ]. No studies, however, have compared verbal problem-solving skills of this kind between autism and AS.

If early language skills affect verbal problem solving in ASD, then children with AS should show intact verbal problem-solving skills compared with children with autism. The main aim of the present study was to test this by comparing children with HFA, AS and typical development in their TQT performance. The first hypothesis was that HFA but not AS participants would show impaired performance on the task compared with TD children.

Explaining Differences in Problem-Solving Performance

The second aim of the study was to explain why such a difference might exist by ruling out confounds and identifying potential markers of early language skills. Poor problem-solving performance could just result from problems with question understanding, planning ahead and coming up with new questions on the spot; none of which are necessarily indicative of early language skills [AS participants, for instance, in some cases show an advantage over HFA participants on tests of word fluency; Spek, Schatorje, Scholte, & van Berckelaer-Onnes, 2009 ]. To rule out such differences, three tasks were deployed: a question discrimination (QD) task and a plan construction (PC) task from Alderson-Day [2011] , and a verbal fluency measure. Following prior evidence of generally similar executive and language skills in HFA and AS, we hypothesized that there would be no difference between the two ASD groups on these measures.

For early language skills to have an effect on later problem solving, they would plausibly need to shape how different strategies are internally considered and selected. For instance, early language delays could disrupt the development of inner speech, interfering with self-regulation and verbal deliberation [ Diaz & Berk, 1992 ]. Alternatively, delays in language could lead to visually mediated cognitive strategies taking precedence over verbally mediated ones [ Soulieres et al., 2009 ]. Arguably the most plausible route, though, is via semantic memory. Delays to early communication could disrupt the learning of new semantic groupings and the development of typical associations between exemplars and categories [ Horton & Markman, 1980 ; Marschark et al., 2004 ]. To test this, a novel semantic decision task (SDT) was included in the testing battery. It was hypothesized that HFA but not AS participants would show atypical semantic decision skills and that this would be associated with group differences in problem solving.

Finally, a questionnaire measure of language milestones was deployed as an exploratory tool to assess possible links between language history and task performance. If semantic skills were not observed to explain problem-solving performance, then language milestones could still indicate the presence of an unspecified effect of language delay.

Participants

Fifteen children with AS (14 m; ages 9–16) and 15 children with HFA (14 m: ages 9–18) were recruited from the local area via parent groups and a local autism charity. Participants possessed a diagnosis of either autism or AS in accordance with ICD-10 research diagnostic criteria [ World Health Organization, 1993 ]. All ASD participants were originally diagnosed via contact with local clinical services, where diagnoses are made based on agreement by a multidisciplinary panel and use of the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule [ Lord et al., 2000 ] and Autism Diagnostic Interview—Revised [ADI-R: Lord, Rutter, & Couteur, 1994 ]. Five participants had also had their diagnosis confirmed within the past 3 years by a trained researcher using the ADI-R. Exclusion criteria included the presence of any other neurological conditions, specific language impairments (SLIs) or reading difficulties. 2 Fifteen TD children (10 m; ages 9–18) were recruited from a participant database to provide a neurotypical comparison group. All recruitment and study procedures were approved by the University of Edinburgh research ethics committee.

Cognitive abilities were estimated using the vocabulary, similarities and matrix reasoning subtests of the Wechsler Abbreviated Scale for Intelligence [WASI: Wechsler, 1999 ], providing scores for full-scale IQ (vocabulary and matrix reasoning) and verbal IQ (vocabulary and similarities). Pairwise t -tests indicated that the three groups did not significantly differ in IQ, although trends were observed for mean differences in VIQ ( P = 0.089) and, to a lesser extent, FSIQ ( P = 0.098) between HFA and TD participants specifically. While HFA and TD participants were age matched, the HFA group was significantly older than the group of AS participants (HFA > AS, t (28) = 2.157, P = 0.040) 3 ( Table 1 ).

Age and IQ Scores for ASD and TD Participants

AS, Asperger syndrome; HFA, high-functioning autism; n.s., not significant; SD, standard deviation; TD, typically developing.

Materials and Procedure

The first task attempted was the TQT. The task was presented on a board containing pictures of 24 everyday items, displayed in hinged frames (allowing for participants to eliminate items after each question). Participants completed three trials of Twenty Questions: the first two trials allowed item elimination during search by knocking down pictures that were no longer needed. On the last trial, elimination was prohibited, increasing the memory demands of the task. Alongside the game board, a 15” laptop was used to provide a “random selector” animation and audiovisual feedback during the game [for a full explanation of the TQT procedure, see Alderson-Day, 2011 ].

The primary outcome for the TQT was question quality (QQ), defined as the minimum proportion of items eliminated per question. For example, in a set of 10 items including five animals, “Is it an animal?” would eliminate at least half of the items irrespective of the answer, providing a score of 0.5. A direct guess (“Is it the dog?”) would only be guaranteed to eliminate one item out of 10, scoring 0.1. For comparison with previous studies, the number of questions used per trial and percentages of grouping questions and guesses were also recorded.

Following the TQT, participants attempted the QD and PC tasks from Alderson-Day [2011] . For QD, participants were presented with 10 hypothetical scenarios from Twenty Questions and asked to select which of two questions would be the best to ask first in each scenario. Five 12-item scenarios and five 24-item scenarios were presented using a stimulus book. The task was scored for the number of correct answers out of 10.

For PC, participants were presented with an array of 32 possible questions and asked to select five questions that would be useful to use “if we were to play the game again in a moment.” Once five questions were selected, participants were asked to order them in terms of which question they would ask first, second and so on. Responses were scored based on the mean QQ for the five questions selected, assuming a 24-item TQT set. For example, a sequence asking about living things, animals and pets would be guaranteed to eliminate 12, 6 and 3 items on average from the set, and would be allocated scores of 0.5, 0.25 and 0.125. Greater scores indicate greater efficiency of plans.

Verbal fluency

To assess verbal fluency abilities, the letter and semantic fluency subtests from the Addenbrooke’s Cognitive Examination—Revised [ACE-R; Mioshi, et al., 2006 ] were administered. Raw scores for letter fluency (words beginning with “P”) and semantic fluency (animals) were used.

The SDT was based on semantic association measures used by Gaffrey et al. [2007] and Marschark et al. [2004] , and presented on a laptop using E-Prime [ Schneider, Eschman, & Zuccolotto, 2002 ]. Participants viewed a target word (e.g. ANIMAL) and were then asked to judge whether a series of cue words was associated with the target (e.g. DOG, HAMMER, HORSE). In the category condition, the target word was a superordinate category term (such as ANIMAL or TOOL), and the cue words were all basic exemplars, only some of which belonged to the target category. In the exemplar condition, a basic exemplar was the target (e.g. DOG), and the cue words were all superordinate category terms (e.g. ANIMAL, PET, FRUIT). Participants completed three blocks of 10 trials in each condition. Each trial consisted of a target word (2-sec presentation), a 500-msec interval and a cue word, which would remain on screen until the participant responded. Responses were followed by a feedback page (showing “Correct!” or “Incorrect”). Based on prior evidence of intact category identification in ASD [ Minshew et al., 2002 ], the reaction times for accurate responses (indicating semantic association) were used as the primary outcome of the task. In addition, accuracy scores were collected for each condition. 4

Language questionnaire

Parents were asked to indicate (a) age of first word, (b) age of first phrase of two or more words and (c) language ratings at age 3, 5, 7 and current age in relation to other children of the same age. Ratings were made on a Likert scale ranging from 1 (“Much worse than other children of the same age”) to 5 (“Much better than other children”). Items (a) and (b) were chosen based on their standard use in the ADI-R [ Lord et al., 1994 ]. Language ratings beyond age 3 were included to reflect the possibility of later language abilities also having important predictive value [see, e.g. Bennett et al., 2008 ].

Unless otherwise stated, analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) was used to compare the three groups on the main task outcomes. Covariate analysis, using age and VIQ as covariates, was used to account for potential influences of age and general ability. VIQ but not full-scale IQ was included as a covariate because of (a) strong collinearity between scores for both and (b) the greater relevance of VIQ to verbal problem solving. Where dependent variables were nonnormal, nonparametric tests were used (specifically, Kruskal–Wallis tests with Mann–Whitney post-hoc tests when assessing group differences and Spearman’s Rho for correlational analysis).

ANCOVA was first of all applied to performance on the TQT to test the hypothesis that HFA but not AS participants would be less efficient than TD participants in their problem solving. Second, ANCOVAs and Kruskall–Wallis tests were used to assess group differences in QD, planning, fluency and semantic decision. To test their effect on problem solving, they were then also included as covariates in a reanalysis of TQT performance. Finally, correlation and hierarchical regression analyses were used to test for potential predictors of problem-solving performance across all three groups combined.

P -values were not corrected across different tasks because there were deemed to be testing separate questions (namely do the groups differ in problem solving, is that because of clear confounds in other relevant skills, and is it because of a difference in semantic abilities?). Within each task, post hoc comparisons were made using P -values Bonferroni-corrected for the number of pairwise tests between groups.

Comparing Problem-Solving Skills

Table 2 displays the main task outcomes for the TQT. To test overall problem-solving efficiency, an ANCOVA was run comparing mean QQ scores in the three groups. This indicated a main effect of group ( F (2, 40) = 5.303, P = 0.009, eta p 2 = 0.210), alongside covariate effects of VIQ ( F (1, 40) = 4.092, P = 0.001, eta p 2 = 0.244) and age ( F (1, 40) = 5.262, P = 0.027, eta p 2 = 0.116). As hypothesized, pairwise comparisons indicated that HFA participants’ questions were significantly less efficient than those of AS participants ( P = 0.016) and TD participants ( P = 0.029). No difference was observed between AS and TD participants ( P = 1.0).

Mean Task Scores in AS, HFA and TD Participants

AS, Asperger syndrome; HFA, high-functioning autism; n.s., not significant; QQ, question quality; SD, standard deviation; TD, typically developing.

For the secondary outcomes of the TQT, similar group differences were evident for the number of questions on each trial (group main effect: F (2, 40) = 4.056, P = 0.025, eta p 2 = 0.169), although only the HFA vs. TD contrast was significant ( P = 0.032). Use of grouping was high in all groups (60–65%), and on average guesses were used twice as much by ASD participants, but Kruskal–Wallis ANOVAs (used because of skew in the rates of grouping and guessing) indicated no significant group differences (all P > 0.400). A mixed ANCOVA was also used to check for any changes in efficiency across the three task trials. Despite the switch from allowing (trials 1 and 2) to prohibiting elimination (trial 3), no significant trial effects or interactions were evident for QQ (all P > 0.05, all eta p 2 < 0.1), suggesting that overall group differences on these variables were consistent across trials.

Explanations of Problem-Solving Differences

ANCOVA indicated no significant Group effect or any covariate effects on QD (all P > 0.05, all eta p 2 < 0.06). For PC, plan efficiency was significantly influenced by VIQ ( F (1, 40) = 6.658, P = 0.014, eta p 2 = 0.164), but no effects of group or age were observed (all P > 0.05, all eta p 2 < 0.06).

All verbal fluency scores were nonnormal, necessitating the use of nonparametric tests. Kruskal–Wallis tests indicated a trend on letter fluency score ( X 2 (2) = 5.175, N = 45, P = 0.075) and a significant difference on semantic fluency score ( X 2 (2) = 6.33, N = 45, P = 0.042) between the groups. In general, performance was best in TD participants and worst in AS participants (see Table 2 ), but no pairwise differences survived correction for multiple comparisons. To test for potential effects of fluency performance on problem solving, letter and semantic fluency scores were then added separately as covariates to ANCOVAs of TQT QQ. Neither significantly contributed to TQT performance, and all original main effects remained the same (all P > 0.600, all eta p 2 < 0.02).

A 3 × 2 (group × condition) mixed ANCOVA was used to compare reaction times in each group on the SDT. Significant contributions of age ( F (1, 40) = 10.774, P = 0.002, eta p 2 = 0.212) and VIQ ( F (1, 40) = 5.388, P = 0.025, eta p 2 = 0.119) were observed, but no significant effect of group. Nominally, mean reaction times were slower for exemplar-to-category associations than the reverse (see Table 2 ), but no significant difference was observed between the two conditions ( P = 0.154, eta p 2 = 0.050) nor any group × condition interactions.

Accuracy scores for the same task were nonnormally distributed. Kruskal–Wallis tests indicated no significant differences in accuracy on the exemplar condition ( X 2 (2) = 4.295, N = 45, P = 0.117), but a significant contrast for the category condition ( X 2 (2) = 8.462, N = 45, P = 0.012). Mann–Whitney U -tests indicated that AS participants were less accurate than TD participants ( U = 49.50, N = 30, P = 0.042) in their identification of exemplars when provided with a superordinate category (e.g. Does it go with TOOL?). No other pairwise comparisons reached significance (all P > 0.05).

When SDT outcomes were included as covariates in the TQT analysis, no significant covariate effects were observed (all P > 0.300, all eta p 2 < 0.03), suggesting that they could not explain group differences in problem-solving efficiency.

Early language ratings

Language milestones and parent ratings are displayed in Table 3 . Spearman’s correlations were used to assess the validity of language ratings for ages 3 and up, showing moderate correlations with full-scale ( r = 0.26–0.29) and verbal IQ ( r = 0.19–0.30). A hierarchical regression analysis was used to explore potential predictors of problem-solving performance, using mean QQ as the dependent variable. Block 1 included age and gender (as control variables), block 2 added ages of first word and first phrase, and block 3 added language ratings for 3, 5, 7 and current age. The only individual predictor to reach significance in any model was age of first phrase (stan. beta = −0.532, P = 0.029), and while block 2 showed a significant R 2 change over block 1 ( ΔR 2 = 0.145, F (2,44) = 3.492, P = 0.043), none of the resulting models significantly predicted mean QQ (all P > 0.110).

Early Language Milestones and Parent Ratings

AS, Asperger syndrome; HFA, high-functioning autism; SD, standard deviation; TD, typically developing.

The main finding of the study was that HFA participants, but not AS participants, adopted less efficient strategies than TD children during verbal problem solving. As was hypothesized, HFA participants asked questions that eliminated fewer items each time, whereas AS participants performed at a similar level to TD children. This suggests that atypical language development may be important to explaining inefficiencies in the task performance of ASD participants and that prior evidence of problems on the TQT in ASD samples [ Alderson-Day & McGonigle-Chalmers, 2011 ; Minshew et al., 1994 , 2002 ] may only apply to those with experience of language delay. There was also tentative evidence to suggest that age of first phrase acquisition was related to problem-solving performance, although in general early language milestones and ratings from parents did not significantly predict success on the TQT.

Alongside this, AS and HFA participants displayed a very similar profile on a range of other measures. No differences between ASD participants were observed in question understanding, planning and verbal fluency, in support of the hypothesis that such skills would not explain group differences in problem solving. This is consistent with prior reports of comparable EF and fluency skills in autism and AS [ Manjiviona & Prior, 1999 ; Miller & Ozonoff, 2000 ; Verté, Geurts, Roeyers, Oosterlaan, & Sergeant, 2006 ; cf. Spek et al., 2009 ]. It may have been expected that AS participants would be generally be more fluent than HFA participants and thus able to generate questions on the task, but the direction of results indicated the opposite. Furthermore, performance on the task was unrelated to problem-solving efficiency on the TQT.

These results add to the prior findings of Alderson-Day [2011] and Alderson-Day and McGonigle-Chalmers [2011] by suggesting that verbal problem solving might be a specific problem for HFA children, rather than ASD as a whole. Moreover, while those studies identified specific executive demands posed by the TQT, the present study suggests that language background may be more important to understanding why children with ASD struggle to use the most effective questions.

The final hypothesis—that differences on the TQT would map on to underlying differences in semantic skill—was not supported: performance on a SDT was unrelated to success on the TQT. Contrary to predictions, AS rather than HFA participants showed the most atypical performance on this task, scoring lowest for the identification of exemplars for specific superordinate categories. This is consistent with prior evidence of atypical semantic skills in AS compared with TD children ( Kamio et al., 2007 ) but hard to explain in relation to HFA participants. Very few studies have directly compared categorization or other related lexico-semantic skills in AS and HFA, and those that have usually find HFA to be more atypical in profile than AS [e.g. Speirs, Yelland, Rinehart, & Tonge, 2011 ]. In any case, there is little evidence here to suggest that semantic skills provide the link between language history and later problem solving for children with HFA.

One process that could be implicated instead is inner speech (also known as silent speech or internal monologue). Inner speech is often argued to be developmental in origin and has been historically associated with problem solving and self-regulation [ Vygotsky, 1987 ]. Problems with early communicative interaction would in theory impact upon inner speech and its developmental precursor, private speech [ Fernyhough, 1996 ]. Intriguingly, use of private speech appears to be intact in children with ASD and can even enhance their performance on cognitive tasks relative to when they are silent [ Winsler, Abar, Feder, Schunn, & Rubio, 2007 ]. However, a range of studies have indicated that inner speech is less likely to be utilized by people with ASD [ Holland & Low, 2010 ; Wallace, Silvers, Martin, & Kenworthy, 2009 ; Whitehouse, Maybery, & Durkin, 2006 ], and this seems to be particularly the case for more complex planning and problem-solving tasks [ Williams, Bowler, & Jarrold, 2012 ]. If the development and internalization of inner speech was more likely to be disrupted in HFA compared with AS, then this could have long-term consequences for activities like verbal problem solving.

Such an explanation is speculative, but it has specific implications that are testable. One prediction is that there would be differences in inner speech use within the autism spectrum according to language history, at its simplest varying as a function of language delay, or varying with the degree of early communicative impairment in some other way. Another implication is that we should expect similar problem-solving profiles in other children with a history of language difficulties, such as those with a SLI. There is initial evidence to suggest that children with SLI show intact use of inner speech but less internalized use of private speech during planning tasks, implying a delayed development of verbal strategy skills [ Lidstone, Meins, & Fernyhough, 2012 ]. It may be that similar delays in the internalization of self-directed language skills affects ASD as well: a question for future research would be to examine how the relative proportions of private and inner speech use vary for ASD children in relation to their degree of language delay.

Another possibility, not mutually exclusive to the first, is that participants with HFA were more likely than AS or TD participants to adopt other, nonverbal strategies in their approach to the TQT. Anecdotally, there are many accounts of people with ASD preferring to “think in pictures” rather than speech [ Grandin, 1995 ; Kunda & Goel, 2011 ]. Direct experimental comparisons are few, but there is some evidence to suggest HFA but not AS participants respond faster to visuospatial rather than verbal matrix reasoning puzzles [ Sahyoun, Soulières, Belliveau, Mottron, & Mody, 2009 ]. If this were to explain differences in problem-solving skill, the implication would be that ASD individuals with language delay would be more likely to adopt visual strategies than those with more typical language development. As the TQT involves a visual array, visualizing potential groupings or basing questions on concrete and perceptual similarities represent possible ways of attempting the task, but also ones that may not identify the most abstract categories for questioning (such as organic vs. nonorganic entities). Dependence on visual or verbal strategies could be investigated by manipulating levels of perceptual similarity and abstractness in the test materials [for a preliminary example, see Alderson-Day & McGonigle-Chalmers, 2011 ].

It is of course possible that AS and HFA participants were differing in other ways on the task. Given its visual presentation, it could be that HFA participants were narrowly focusing on small groupings at the expense of more global categories, as would be typical of a “local-biased” processing style [ Happé & Frith, 2006 ]. However, signs of local bias are generally evident across the autistic spectrum [e.g. Jolliffe & Baron-Cohen, 1997 ]. It is also not clear why, developmentally, the two groups would be more likely to differ in this regard, but not differ in other ways more closely related to language.

Before discussing the practical implications of these findings, some caveats must be acknowledged. First, the sample size tested here is small, and it was not possible to closely match the participant groups in age and IQ abilities. The analytic method used here to compensate for this (ANCOVA) adjusts for the effects of age and IQ, but it should not be interpreted as fully “controlling” for their influence [ Miller & Chapman, 2001 ]. This is perhaps less of a concern regarding age, as HFA participants were significantly older than AS participants and yet still performed worse on the TQT. That being said, the relatively wide age range may have also obscured important differences in ability, given that executive skills and overall problem-solving competence can change considerably for ASD participants in adolescence [ Van den Bergh, Scheeren, Begeer, Koot, & Geurts, 2014 ]. The inequivalence of the groups is more important regarding VIQ, as theoretically this could have driven group differences in performance despite the statistical correction of using ANCOVA. In mitigation, it is worth noting that group differences between HFA and TD participants have previously been observed in samples closely matched for IQ [ Alderson-Day, 2011 ; Minshew et al., 1994 ] and that HFA participants in the present study performed comparably on almost every other task. Nevertheless, these findings need to be replicated in a larger, more closely matched sample before the potential contributions of age and IQ to group differences in problem solving can be clearly ruled out.

Second, the study did not include a standardized measure of language skills, such as the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals (CELF) test [ Semel, Wiig, & Secord, 1995 ]. To allow for other experimental tasks to be used in the time allowed, it was not possible to deploy an in-depth language battery in this instance: a larger study with an existing database of ASD participants should be able to achieve this. However, while a standardized language measure was not deployed here, the tasks used covered a range of relevant skills, including lexical knowledge (WASI vocabulary), category knowledge (SDT) and word fluency (ACE-R letter and semantic fluency). Thus, a number of language-dependent skills were accounted for, even if a standardized battery was absent.

Finally, the use of parent’s retrospective reports of early language abilities—which may have occurred over 10 years ago—at best only offer a rough proxy for language skills at the time, and without additional data it is unknown how reliable those ratings truly are. The data provided by families generally fitted existing diagnoses, but only longitudinal data could fully demonstrate relationships between early language and later cognitive skills. Such data would also be important in assessing how problem-solving abilities may change with language skills over time for people with ASD.

Notwithstanding those limitations, the study has a range of potential implications for methods and practice. First, if the TQT and other measures of verbal problem-solving are used with ASD groups [as it is in the Delis Kaplan Executive Function System; Delis, Kaplan, & Kramer, 2001 ], then task performance needs to be considered in the context of current and past language skills. The TQT is not a simple measure of problem solving or concept formation: it is a complex task with considerable executive and linguistic demands. Other cognitive tasks where the most effective strategies are language dependent, and the executive load is high—such as certain types of free recall or counterfactual reasoning—are also likely to create similar problems for HFA individuals.

Second, although the recent changes to diagnostic criteria have eliminated the diagnosis of Asperger disorder [ American Psychiatric Association, 2013 ], these data act as a reminder that variation in language skills and development across the spectrum are important and can impact upon cognition in subtle ways for people with ASD, even if the large majority of cognitive outcomes appear similar. This is likely to be particularly important in educational contexts for understanding what kinds of strategies are going to be most useful for facilitating verbal problem-solving skills in ASD individuals. In social problem-solving training [ Solomon, Goodlin-Jones, & Anders, 2004 ], for example, young people with HFA who have good structural language skills but a history of language delay may still need considerable support for use of new verbal strategies. Alternatively, they may be more likely to benefit from use of visual materials such as decision trees, Venn diagrams or other graphical techniques that can be used to support decision making [ Davies, Stock, & Wehmeyer, 2003 ; Dexter & Hughes, 2011 ]. AS individuals, in contrast, may be better placed to handle the language demands of such training, while still struggling with the social-cognitive aspects of its core content.

Any problem-solving task presents a range of complex demands: verbal problem solving often requires generating linguistic strategies and applying them flexibly to a new situation. The results presented here suggest that even a simple, game-based example of problem solving could be affected by an individual’s developmental background. A replication of this result, with more closely matched groups and a wider age range, would test this more idea more comprehensively. Understanding how language development can selectively affect performance in a range of problem-solving contexts is crucial to developing better educational tools and better support for people with an ASD.

Acknowledgments

This research was completed as part of a doctoral degree by the author at the University of Edinburgh and supported by a University of Edinburgh College of Humanities and Social Sciences Studentship. Margaret McGonigle-Chalmers and Robert Logie are thanked for their help and support for the research. Thanks are also due to Charles Fernyhough for comments on the manuscript. The author declares no conflicts of interest.

The author is currently supported by Wellcome Trust grant WT098455.

1 “Problem solving” is a term that has been applied to a wide range of tasks that can sometimes vary considerably [c.f. Rumsey, 1985 ; Soulieres et al., 2009 ]. Broadly, it is used to refer to tasks or puzzles where the solution is not made apparent in the task materials. More specifically, problem-solving tasks often require (a) the generation of a strategy to achieve success and (b) working through a series of moves or steps towards a solution [ Newell & Simon, 1972 ].

2 One HFA participant had also previously received a diagnosis of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Because of the high comorbidity of ASD and ADHD [ Leyfer et al., 2006 ], this participant was not excluded, but the data weremarked for later analysis in case of potential outliers in performance. However, all of the participant’s data fell well within range for their group.

3 Parents were also asked to complete a version of the Autism Quotient [AQ-Adolescent; Baron-Cohen, Hoekstra, Knickmeyer, & Wheelwright, 2006 ] about their child as a further means of matching the groups. Questionnaires were available for all but one HFA participant. Both HFA and ASD participants scored higher than TD participants ( P < 0.05). No difference was observed between the ASD groups ( P = 0.596).

4 Participants also initially completed a practice round of identifying four-, six- and eight-letter words without a semantic decision component, but that is not reported here.

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Problem-solving and analytical skills

• Putting together an argument for an essay
• Dealing with an awkward customer when working part-time in a shop or restaurant
• Debugging a computer program
• Managing your budget to keep you going until the end of term
• Working out why your printer won’t respond
• Developing a strategy to reach the next level of a computer game

All jobs involve problems that need to be solved. It’s important to show that you have the right skills to resolve these problems, and the personal resilience to handle the challenges and pressure they may bring.

Solving these problems involves both analytical and creative skills. The skills required can vary, depending on the problem and your role in the organisation, but the following skills are key to problem-solving: analytical ability, lateral thinking, initiative, logical reasoning and persistence.

Analytical and critical thinking skills help you to evaluate the problem and to make decisions. A logical and methodical approach is best in some circumstances: for example, you will need to be able to draw on your academic or subject knowledge to identify solutions of a practical or technical nature. In other situations, using creativity or lateral thinking will be necessary to come up with ideas for resolving the problem and find fresh approaches. Whatever issue you are faced with, some steps are fundamental:

• I dentify the problem
• Clarifying the nature of a problem
• Formulating questions
• Gathering information systematically
• Collating and organising data
• Condensing and summarising information
• D efine the problem
• Managing the problem
• Using the information gathered effectively
• Using techniques such as brainstorming and lateral thinking to consider options
• Analysing these options in greater depth
• Identifying steps that can be taken to achieve the objective
• E xamine the options
• Deciding between the possible options for what action to take
• Deciding on further information to be gathered before taking action
• Deciding on resources (time, funding, staff etc.) to be allocated to this problem
• A ct on a plan
• Implementing action
• Providing information to other stakeholders; delegating tasks
• Reviewing progress
• L ook at the consequences
• Monitoring the outcome of the action taken
• Reviewing the problem and problem-solving process to avoid similar situations in future

At any stage of this process, it may be necessary to return to an earlier stage – for example, if further problems arise or if a solution does not appear to be working as desired.

Developing your analytical and problem-solving skills

Most problem-solving skills are developed through everyday life and experience. However, the following interests and activities may be useful in demonstrating a high level of these skills - this may be particularly important when applying to employers in areas such as engineering, IT, operational research and some areas of finance:

• ‘Mind games’ such as cryptic crosswords, Sudoku, chess, bridge
• Computer games – the best of these can involve strategic planning, critical and statistical analysis and assessing the pros and cons of different courses of action
• Practical interests such as programming, computer repairs, car maintenance, or DIY
• Working with sound or lighting equipment for a band, event or show
• Academic study: evaluating different sources of information for essays, designing and constructing a shelter for an architecture project; setting up a lab experiment

Problem-solving skills and graduate jobs: what do recruiters want?

Analytical ability, problem-solving skills and using initiative are among the top ten skills recruiters want graduates to demonstrate. They want people who will take the personal responsibility to make sure targets are met, who can see that there might be a better way of doing something, and who are prepared to research and implement change - people who don’t panic or give up when things go wrong but who will seek a way around the problem. These problems may be similar to academic problems or may be more practical problems such as those involved in people management.

These skills can be asked for in a variety of ways.  Many job ads will simply ask for candidates who can take the initiative or have the ability to resolve problems. Others, however, may not make it so clear.  You have to learn to interpret phrases like:

• “Someone keen to take responsibility and with the confidence to challenge established practices and come up with new ways of working…”
• “An enquiring mind and the ability to understand and solve complex challenges are necessary…”
• “We are looking for innovative minds and creative spirits ...”
• “The ability to use your own initiative, to think for yourself, to be creative and pro-active...”
• “The ability to resolve problems, to think logically and/or laterally, to use ingenuity to overcome difficulties and to research and implement solutions...”

How will they assess these skills?

On application forms

• Describe a situation in which you analysed data and solved a complex problem
• Describe a complex problem you have faced and the steps that you took to solve it
• Describe a setback in your life and say what you did to overcome it. What lessons did you learn from this?
• Describe a time when you demonstrated creativity in solving a difficult problem
• Give me a specific example of a time when you used good judgment and logic in solving a problem

When answering these questions, cover the process you used to solve the problem rather than just outlining the problem itself. Give examples of how you used initiative/creativity, or made effective use of resources, in solving the problem. It is also useful to say what you learned from this process, especially if the problem was not resolved to your complete satisfaction.

Evidence you could give to an employer to convince them that you have problem-solving skills:

• Analysing data from a project or experiment
• Working on a computer helpdesk
• Advising a client at the Kent Law Clinic
• Implementing a new filing system in an office job
• Acting as a student rep
• Dealing with staff problems or unexpected staff shortages in a part-time job
• Coping with living on a limited student budget

Example from an application form

“Give an example of a time when you have successfully resolved a complex problem .”

In the sixth form, I took part with two friends in a “Robot Challenge” competition. The brief was to design and build a robot that could perform a dance routine synchronised with a music soundtrack. My responsibility was to control the movement of the robot through the sensors and actuators. This was a complex task because of the number of movements that the robot was required to execute and the different stimuli to which it had to respond. In addition, the robot proved particularly sensitive to changes in light levels and I needed to experiment with a number of adaptations to discover the optimum balance between responsiveness and reliability.

Our team achieved second place in the local competition and progressed to the regional final, where we came fifth out of 25 teams.

Through psychometric tests

The most common of these tests involve verbal and numerical reasoning: you may also encounter diagrammatic reasoning and critical thinking tests. They may be administered online at an early stage of the selection process, or at first interview or assessment centres. (link to Psychometric testing pages)

At interview

If your application form has included competency-based questions such as the ones above, you can expect the employer to ask for more detail at interview, about the problem or the situation and the way that you went about finding a solution. Be prepared to be asked about alternative ways in which you might have gone about tackling this problem and what you would have done if things hadn’t worked out.

Hypothetical questions

Hypothetical questions ask you about the course of action you might take in the event of some fictional situation, often work-related. There is usually no right or wrong answer to these questions: the interviewers are seeking to assess your logical thinking and common sense. You may need to ask questions to clarify the situation and gather more information. You can expect your answers to be challenged, the interviewers asking questions such as  “Yes, but what if …?”, or “Have you thought about ….?”, or “Why would you do that …?” This doesn’t mean that there is anything wrong with the answer you have given – just that the interviewers are trying to find out how you have arrived at your solution to the problem. They may also be testing you out to see how you cope with pressure and how well you can argue a point. Although the situation is hypothetical, if you have been faced with any similar situation in real life you can use this, and the way that you handled it then, to support your answer.

• "You are working on the till in a retail store when a customer’s credit card is refused. The cardholder is a regular customer who is trying to buy a present for their mother’s birthday the following day. How would you deal with this situation?"
• "Your manager regularly leaves you in charge of a small office in his absence. The other staff regularly complain to you about the way he runs things, and how irritated they are by his interference in their day-to-day work - what do you do?"
• "You work in a company that manufactures meat pies and pasties. Sales have been falling for several years and you are asked to come up with ideas to revive the company”

Technical questions

These are most commonly asked at interviews for science, engineering and IT posts. They may relate to your previous relevant work experience or to a student project, or may relate to hypothetical situations:

• “The scenario was that we were in charge of lighting a theatre. We were given different examples of what type of problem could be caused by various faults in the lighting plan and who this problem would affect. It got harder as different conditions were added to the original ones and you had to take more and more information into consideration, such as: certain lights need to always be turned on first; some lights need to be warmed up in the breaks; different lights create different effects.”
•  “If I were organising a national cancer screening campaign, what standards/precautions/feasibility/practicality checks would I do before implementing the scheme?” 

Ethical questions

These are particularly common in interviews for medicine and law. Again, there is often no right or wrong answer, although you should be aware of the legal and regulatory framework behind these questions. You will be expected to put both sides of the argument before giving your opinion and can expect to be challenged and asked to justify your opinion.

• Should doctors be authorised to remove organs from a dead person without obtaining consent from their relatives?
• A patient urgently requires a bone marrow transplant but the only suitable donor is her brother, who has severe physical and mental disabilities. Can this brother donate?
• Should conjoined twins be separated even if it is almost certain that one of them will die in the process?
• Since the victims in rape cases have anonymity, should the same anonymity be granted to the accused?

Case study interviews

This type of interview is often used for graduate positions in management consultancy and investment banking. Case questions are business problems designed not only to test your logical and analytical thinking skills, ability to solve problems but also to make you think on your feet. Often there are no right answers to these types of questions, but they give the selector an idea of how you think, your reasoning skills, how you react under pressure and your common sense. The problems may be brief (sometimes seemingly bizarre) “estimation” or “brain teaser” questions such as “ How many cars are there in the EU?”,  or “ How many laptops will be purchased in the UK in 2020?”,  or “ Why are manhole covers round?”

Alternatively, you may be asked questions related to the issues facing real-life clients:

• A manufacturer of umbrellas, based in the west of Ireland, wants to expand into mainland Europe.  What issues should they consider? What risks might they face?
• A parcel delivery company plans to offer a new service where customers can hand a package directly to one of the company's drivers instead of taking it to a depot. What issues need to be thought about?

Through group tasks and discussions at assessment centres

Almost all assessment centres will involve a strong element of group work. These tasks may involve the group sitting around a table discussing a problem or may be more active and practical. The decision reached by the group is likely to be less important than the way in which the group works together to reach its decision – these tasks aim to test your team-working and negotiation, as well as your problem-solving, skills.

• “We were asked to come up with a business proposal for building a computer network between an imaginary group of islands, to be presented to the island’s government.”
• “We were provided with information on four sites that were possible locations for the construction of a nuclear power station. This included information on the environment, the local economy, transport links and the estimated costs of construction. We had to select one and recommend it to the Secretary of State for Energy, giving the reasons for our decision.”
• “We were given a task involving Lego bricks - we had to work out how many bricks we wanted to use to build the tallest tower possible at the lowest cost.”
• “A large part of the Army Officer selection process takes place outdoors – the teams of candidates have to negotiate an obstacle course using ladders, ropes, poles and planks.”

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Verbal Reasoning and Problem Solving Task

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