Help with verbal reasoning questions

[GravyTrain]

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[GravyTrain]

There has been about 4000 visits to this site since my first message and over 100 views of it.

Does anyone out there need any help with verbal reasoning questions?

Post any help messages here.

[Karla]

Dear GT,

My son finds most of the VR paper easy, but slows down dramatically when attempting sequences. What would your advice be?

Yours gratefully,

Karla

[Guest]

Hi Gravy Train

I wouldn't mind if you have any details of the type of vocab to learn. I.E flowers, trees....etc etc. I know a lot of it is to do with general knowledge.

My son got a question wrong as he did not know what a damson was. I asked some people at work and they didn't either...

Thanks

F

[Guest]

Hi Gravy Train

I wouldn't mind if you have any details of the type of vocab to learn. I.E flowers, trees....etc etc. I know a lot of it is to do with general knowledge.

My son got a question wrong as he did not know what a damson was. I asked some people at work and they didn't either...

Thanks

F

[GravyTrain]

Sequences

Assuming they are number sequences

There are common difference sequences

2 4 6 8 10

That are straight forward to work out.

There are alternating difference sequences i.e. +2, +4

10 12 16 18 22 24 28

There are questions were there are two sequences alternating

2 4 6 8

with

3 6 9 12

giving

2 3 4 6 6 9 8 12

The first advice is to look for common differences or patterns within the differences.

If there is nothing obvious look for alternating sequences

There are sequences that increase by x1, x2, x3, x4, x5

1 1 2 6 24 120

A good way of preparing for sequence type questions is for the child to write their own sequences, to learn how they are constructed. Then explain how they were constructed.

[GravyTrain]

DAMSON

Vocabulary is acquired experientially.

Hopefully, he now knows what a damson is, this may not help but it proves the point.

Did he answer all the other questions in the section correctly? If he did I wouldn't be too concerned.

[Karla]

GT

Thanks for the tips on VR Sequences, will put to use over the weekend.

Regards,

Karla

[Guest]

The one that made me laugh was on paper b of the NFER verbal reasoning, where the sentence was something like:

The wine was FERTING in the barrel (I can't remember the exact words)

My daughter thought fertilising as she had done about this at school, but unfortunately she hasn't yet started making homemade wine, so fermenting was a bit beyond her experience!!

I had to laugh

[Fairy]

Dear Guest

Like you I have been highly amused by the use of this sentence on the NFER paper. None of the children I have tutored have ever heard of this word and it always leads to a short Science lesson to enable them to understand. This is usually a much appreciated diversion and it's encouraging to know that none of these young ones have turned to alcoholism to get them through their 11+!!!!!!