How to prepare Reasoning Ability for LIC Assistant Exam 2022?

Reasoning Preparation Tips and Strategy for LIC Assistant Exam

In the reasoning section, in the preliminary exam, a total of 35 questions will be asked. They will be of 1 mark each. The questions are expected to be easy to a moderate level, so, you must set a target of scoring 28+ from this section in the LIC Assistant prelims exam 2022. If we look into the exam analysis of previous banking and insurance level exams, the Reasoning section consists of questions from topics such as Syllogism, Coding-Decoding, Inequality, Seating Arrangement, Puzzles, Blood Relations, order and Ranking, Direction Sense, Alphanumeric Series, word problems, input-output, etc. 

So, it is not a wise decision to leave any topic. The reasoning section can be enhanced only with sturdy practice. You must practice all the topics thoroughly. While practicing, you have to keep track of the following things:

• Solve the puzzles and seating arrangement questions with the timer
• Note down the time taken for attempting a question
• Identify your strong areas & work on your weaker sections
• Practice reasoning sectional quizzes within a stipulated time (20 minutes to start with). 
• Keep track of Speed and Accuracy. Both should be in sync.
• During the phase of your preparation always aim to maximize your attempt.
• Always attempt easy and scoring topics first. Leave the time-taking topics to be attempted at the end.
• Nonetheless, make sure that you read the instructions thoroughly before attempting the paper.

Remember: Prelims is not the test of how well you attempt the questions but rather how well you leave the questions. Now, let’s have a look at the list of topics that you need to study thoroughly before appearing the exam: 

1. Syllogism –In the prelims exam, questions from Syllogism are asked of an easy to moderate level. Generally, 4-5 questions are asked on this topic. You can easily score full marks here.

Tips to solve this type of question in the exam

(i) Read the statement carefully and choose the correct options which satisfy the given conclusion.

(ii) Try to solve questions with a Venn diagram which is an easy method to solve syllogism questions.

Important Rule:

1. Possibility cases in Syllogism –In possibilities cases, we have to create all possibilities to find whether the given conclusion is possible or not. If it is possible and satisfies the given statement then the given conclusion will follow otherwise conclusion will not follow.

2. Restatement is not a conclusion – The conclusion has to be different from the statement. It means if the statement and conclusion are the same then, the conclusion does not follow. This rule also follows in possibilities case

3. Complementary Pairs: (Either & or) – Practice questions having either-or cases.

2. Inequality – It is one of the easy topics in this section.

(i) Questions of inequality are easy to attempt. Try to attempt these questions first.

(ii) Inequality-based questions can be direct or indirect, depending on the difficulty level.

3. Coding-Decoding –

(i) Questions from Coding-Decoding are expected to be based on sentences, where a set of sentences/words is given along with their codes.

(ii) One needs to identify the correct code for each word and answer accordingly. 

4. Seating Arrangement & Puzzles – In Insurance & Banking exams, a major chunk of questions are asked about this topic.

• Questions from these topics consist of the following:
  (a) Linear Arrangement (Single/Double Row)
  (b) Circular/ Square Arrangement (all facing the same side or some facing inside & some facing outside)
  (c) Tabulation/ Scheduling based puzzles
  (d) Box, floor-based & arrangement based puzzles

Tips to solve Seating Arrangement (Circular / Linear) questions

• The first step is to take a glance at the given information and you will get an idea of the situation of the person.
• The second step is to pick the useful information which is “definite information” and fix the place accordingly. Example A is sitting second to the left of B.
• Do not pick any negative information in the first step. Negative information means the information which does not tell us anything definite but gives an idea to eliminate a possibility. Example A is not sitting on the immediate left of B. or B is not opposite of E.
• Left movement is a clockwise rotation.
• Right movement is an anti-clockwise rotation.

Important note: 

1. If two pieces of information are joined by “and”, then the information is talking about the first person. E.g. A is third to the left of B and second to the right of D. Here it means A is sitting third to the left of B and A is sitting second to the right of D. Many students get confused here and take information as A is sitting third to the left of B and B is sitting second to the right of D, which is wrong.

2. If two pieces of information are joined by “who”, then the information given after “who” is talking about the second person. E.g. A is third to the left of B who is second to the right of D. Here it means A is sitting third to the left of B and B is sitting second to the right of D. 

3.  Adjacent means next to each other and not opposite to each other. A and B are adjacent to each other, which means they are an immediate neighbor of each other.

5. Series-based Questions (Alphanumeric and Numeric) 

• Series based questions are easy to attempt. 
• Questions may be based on a combination of symbols and numbers or just alphabets/ numbers. 

6. Input-Output

• Here 4-5 statements are given. Each statement is derived from the previous one following some specific pattern, you have to find out that particular pattern.
• Using that pattern you have to find out the given question.

The expected number of questions for the LIC Assistant exam from various topics in this section are-

• Coded Inequality – 3-5 questions
• Syllogism – 5 questions
• Coding-Decoding – 5 questions
• Puzzle / Seating Arrangement – 15 to 20 questions
• Miscellaneous – 3-5 questions
• Blood Relation/Direction Sense – 3-5 questions
• Alphanumeric Series – 5 questions

7. Miscellaneous Questions – Apart from the above-mentioned topics, the questions may be asked from Ranking based topics, Blood relations, Distance and direction, Alphabets based coding, data sufficiency, word problems, etc. 

Study Notes

Sr. No.	Name of Topic
1	Syllogism
2	Inequality
3	Blood relation
4	Coding-Decoding
5	Order & Ranking
6	Alphanumeric Series
7	Puzzles and seating arrangement

You can practice Quizzes on different topics from the link given here: Reasoning Ability Quiz

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