The important thing about these questions is that there is always a logically correct answer. You won’t need to make any guesses or assumptions when working it out. If you do, you’ve gone wrong.

What Does a Deductive Reasoning Test Measure?

Deductive reasoning tests are intended to be abstract. That means they aren’t testing specific practical skills necessary to do the job – such as knowledge of a programming language – but are more concerned with how you think. At its core, a deductive reasoning test examines how well you can:

Quickly read and understand given information. Assess which aspects of that information are relevant to the problem or question at hand. Interpret and logically process the relevant information.

Business, finance, law, software engineering or anything that requires problem-solving involves workers seeing things through to their logical conclusion. If you have good deductive reasoning skills, employers know that you are able to analyse, interpret and, most importantly, use given information. Many employers use deductive reasoning tests as a key part of assessing a candidate’s general critical thinking skills. They are easy to scale, so allow businesses to test many applicants at once and compare the results. These tests might be used prior to interview to filter down potential candidates. Because the tests are abstract, they don’t rely on any specific industry or cultural knowledge. This means that employers from a wide variety of industries can use the same kind of test. Additionally, they don’t need to worry about unfairly disadvantaging applicants from different backgrounds.

Structure of the Test

The first step in preparing for a deductive reasoning test is to know how it works. Bear in mind that every test provider is different; while the vast majority won’t stray from these general principles, find out which is providing your test and check the structure. Typically, deductive reasoning tests are timed, and a significant part of their difficulty comes from this. The questions might not be too hard in themselves, but they are a lot harder when on average you have 30 seconds per question. Typically, you will be given a short paragraph of text and a statement or series of assumptions based on the premise. You must then decide whether that statement is:

‘True’ (it logically follows from the given premise) ‘False’ (it logically does not follow from the given premise) ‘Cannot say/insufficient information’ (it could follow logically, but we don’t have enough information to say for sure)

For these, be careful to only use the information given and not any information taken from your own prior knowledge. Mike is stronger than Luke. Given that the first sentence is true, what is the bolded statement? (a) true (b) false (c) insufficient information

Sample Question 2

The green plastic cup is the same size as the purple cup. Given that the first passage is true, what is the bolded statement? (a) true (b) false (c) cannot say Linda sells 23 copies of her book and then buys a copy each of the other books in her favourite genres. How much money does Linda have left over from her book sales? (a) £200 (b) £204 (c) £210 (d) £215 (e) £218 Alex is two seats to Sophie’s left. Adam is three seats to Alex’s right. Michelle is two seats to Alex’s left. John is six seats to Lucy’s right. Edward is six seats to John’s right. Michael is not sitting next to Alex. Who sits one seat to Edward’s left? (a) Michael (b) John (c) Alex (d) Lucy If you’re finding a test particularly tough, then rest assured many others are probably feeling the same, so you might still be in a good enough percentile. But it is useful to know exactly what it is that makes them challenging, as that can give you an idea of what to focus your practice on.

Time Limit

First and foremost, deductive reasoning tests are difficult because you need to answer a lot of questions in a short amount of time. The questions themselves might not be that difficult in isolation, but you need to be quick and consistent enough to answer them accurately within the strict time limit of the test. This is the reason that practice is crucial. Not only do you need to be good at answering the questions, but you also need to quickly, confidently and accurately answer them under test pressure and a strict time limit.

Insufficient Information

The potential for the correct answer to be ‘insufficient information’ is also a cause of difficulty. It means that determining whether an answer logically follows or doesn’t logically follow is not enough. If you can’t be sure about an answer using only the information provided, then consider the ‘cannot say’ or ‘insufficient information’ option. For this reason, you need to be precise with your logical working, as using a process of elimination doesn’t work as well as it can do in other aptitude tests.

Different Suppliers of Deductive Reasoning Tests

While there are many providers of deductive reasoning tests, the two main ones you’re likely to come across are from CEB SHL and Kenexa.

CEB SHL

This deductive reasoning test will provide candidates with a chunk of information in a passage of text, followed by a statement. You need to decide whether this statement is ‘true’, ‘false’, or ‘cannot say’. The test is taken online and has 20 questions to complete in 18 minutes, giving you an average of just over a minute per question.

Kenexa

Kenexa’s test has 20 questions that are focused on the positioning of people, such as in the table seating arrangement example above. Crucially, this test is timed but has no time limit. That is, you can take as long as you want to answer the 20 questions, but the time you take is factored into the employer’s assessment of your score.

How to Prepare for a Deductive Reasoning Test

As always, your two main tools for tackling aptitude tests are research and practice. If you’re reading this, then you’re already doing the former, so that’s a good start. When practising, try to make the conditions as similar as possible to the actual test. Set aside the time you need, ensure you won’t be disturbed, turn your phone off and sit down ready to start a test. Take it under the exact time conditions the actual test will have, or be even more strict if you like.

Read the statement first. A lot of the deductive reasoning test is about determining what information is relevant. If you start by reading the question or statement to assess first, you have a frame of reference for what information is likely to be relevant. Don’t lose track of time. When your mind is focused on a logical problem, it’s easy to lose track of time. Calculate your average time per question at the start (if the test has a time limit) and stick to it. You can always come back to a question at the end if you have time. ‘Cannot say’ is as valid an answer as ‘true’ or ‘false’. ‘Cannot’ say or ‘insufficient information’ is an answer that often gets overlooked because people assume that the answer must be there. Sometimes it’s not. If there isn’t enough information to logically conclude a particular outcome, then use this option. Make sure you’re well-fed, rested and have water. Don’t underestimate the impact that these can have. Get a good night’s sleep before the test, have a filling breakfast and drink plenty of water. Your brain will thank you for it. Don’t use outside knowledge. The questions are designed so that everything needed to answer them is contained within the text provided. If a question happens to touch on something you know a bit about, then push that knowledge aside. Use only the information you are given.

I am not a native English speaker. How much of a problem is that?

Typically there shouldn’t be any issues, assuming you speak English well enough to be applying to an English-speaking workplace. The key point is that these tests will almost never use culturally specific references or idioms. And if they do, they are very unlikely to be relevant to the question and their function can be deduced from context.

Should I rush to finish the test?

This is a pressing question for all aptitude tests with a time limit. The answer is that it depends on how the specific test you’re taking is scored, information on which might be available online. Usually, it is better to answer fewer questions with higher accuracy. This is partly because some tests use negative marking, deducting points for questions you get wrong to deter rushed answers or guesswork, and partly because accuracy is often tracked. The employer will generally prefer someone who is a little slower but more accurate. Anti-cheating methods have only gotten more effective as the years have gone on and it’s almost certain you will get caught. Even if you don’t get caught taking the test remotely, you will often be asked to retake the test later to check the result. Rather than taking the time to figure out how to cheat, a more efficient use of your time is to take practice tests.