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Verbal reasoning

Posted: Thu Nov 08, 2007 1:45 am
by Mary
You are given two sets of three words. The three words in the second group must go together in the same way as the three words in the first group. You need to find the missing word in the second group.

SOFT [POSH] HYPE MARK [ ] PILE


TABLE [ BLAME ] MAGIC PASTE [ ] RANGE

My Son is finding it hard to work this out. Are there any clues in working this out?

Posted: Thu Nov 08, 2007 1:57 am
by laid back son worried mum
SOFT [POSH] HYPE

MARK [LA M P ] PILE



The clue is to find the pattern of the letters used in the first set and use the same pattern (highlighted with coloured letters) to work out the missing letters of the second set.



TABLE [ BLAME ] MAGIC PASTE [ STARE ] RANGE

So this one will be STARE using the same pattern from the first set of TABLE and MAGIC.

Posted: Thu Nov 08, 2007 8:59 am
by patricia
Dear Mary

TABLE [ BLAME ] MAGIC
PASTE [ ? ? ? ? ? ] RANGE

I call these ‘Where does the Letter Come From’

Where does the letter B come from, 3rd on the left. Apply to unknown word, 3rd letter on the left is S.

Where does the letter L come from, 4th on the left, Apply to unknown word, 4th on the left isT

Where does the letter A come from, 2nd on the left AND 2nd letter on right. Apply to unknown word, A or A [ often these can be different letters, put them on top of each other until you can see the word forming]

Etc Etc Etc

Eventual answer is STARE, if the paper is Multiple Choice often the first 2/3 letters are enough to answer the question. Although, often the children can just see Where the Letter has Come From, I do prefer them to keep to ‘The Rule’ and write each individual letter down as these are such easy marks, why make a silly mistake. Children should get 100% marks on these questions [no excuses] ALL the information is there [ unlike out of context vocabulary]

I would EXPECT this type to be completed in about 20 seconds [or less]

Patricia

Posted: Thu Nov 08, 2007 9:28 am
by Nearly there
The only extra problem my daughter has found is when the letter could have come from more than one place,

e.g.
today [ toads] least

child [ ] smart

where the 't' could be 1st letter, 1st word or last letter, 2nd word and 'a' could be 4th letter 1st word or 3rd letter , 2nd word.

Patricia, do you have any tips for tackling these, or do these ambiguous ones not occur in the real NFER (this was from an IPS practice paper).

Nearly there

Posted: Thu Nov 08, 2007 9:36 am
by Guest
Sorry Patricia, I've just realised you had already addressed that!

Posted: Thu Nov 08, 2007 9:40 am
by patricia
Dear Guest

Finding letters that come from more than one place is common, in fact sometimes it may come from 3 positions...

Patricia