Verbal reasoning test examples and practice questions

What your practice score means

Your score shows how many of the 20 questions you answered correctly, split into passage questions and inference questions. The pattern of your mistakes is more useful than the total. If you often chose True when the answer was Cannot say, you are probably filling gaps with assumptions; if you missed False answers, you may be reading too quickly past numbers and limits. This verbal reasoning practice test is not timed and is not a percentile.

How true, false or cannot say questions work

Most verbal reasoning test examples use the same three answers:

• True means the statement follows from the passage. You should be able to point to the sentence that supports it.
• False means the passage contradicts the statement, for example by giving a different number, limit or date.
• Cannot say means the passage does not give enough information either way, even if the statement sounds likely.

The commonest mistake is answering True or False from general knowledge or common sense. The test checks whether you can stay within the information given, which is what careful reading at work requires.

Inference and main-idea questions

Some verbal aptitude test questions ask which conclusion is best supported, what must be true, which word completes a sentence or what the main idea of a passage is. For these, eliminate options that go further than the text, such as "should", "always" or "only" when the passage does not say so. The best supported conclusion is usually the most modest one that still explains the facts.

Tips for verbal reasoning tests

1. Read the statement first, then the passage. Knowing what you are checking makes you read with purpose.
2. Find the exact sentence. If you cannot point to it, the answer is probably Cannot say.
3. Watch the small words. "All", "some", "only", "most", "at least" and "not" change meanings.
4. Check numbers carefully. A limit of two days makes "three days" false, not cannot say.
5. Do not import knowledge. Even if something is usually true at work, the passage decides.
6. Keep moving. Timed tests rarely leave time to re-read every passage, so mark hard items and return if allowed.

Where verbal reasoning tests are used

Employers use verbal reasoning tests for roles that involve reading policies, contracts, briefs or customer messages and acting on them accurately, such as administration, customer support, sales, marketing and graduate roles. A verbal reasoning test sample is often one part of a wider aptitude assessment alongside numerical and logical questions. If you practise verbal reasoning tests alongside the numerical reasoning practice on this site, you cover the two most common sections.

A worked example, step by step

Here is how to work through one of the verbal reasoning test examples above. The passage says staff may work from home up to two days a week with approval, and that customer-facing staff cannot work from home from November to January. The statement says a customer-facing employee could work from home in December.

Step 1: identify what the statement claims. A specific person (customer-facing), a specific action (work from home) and a specific time (December).

Step 2: find the sentence that covers it. The last sentence names customer-facing staff and the November to January period.

Step 3: compare. December falls inside that period, and the passage says they cannot work from home then. The statement contradicts the passage, so the answer is False, not Cannot say.

Working this way, statement first and then the exact sentence, is slower at first but quickly becomes automatic.

How verbal reasoning tests are scored

Most verbal reasoning tests score one point per correct answer, with no penalty for wrong answers, so it is usually better to make a best guess than to leave a question blank. Results are often compared with a group of people who took the same test, which is why employers may see a percentile rather than a raw score. Check the instructions in case a test uses a different rule.

Practising with everyday reading

You can practise verbal reasoning without a test. Take a short news article, policy or product page, write three statements about it, and decide whether each is true, false or cannot say from the text alone. Doing this for ten minutes a day builds the habit of separating what a text says from what you already believe.

Types of passages you may see

Passages in workplace verbal reasoning tests are usually short and factual: a company policy, a summary of survey results, a description of a process, a news-style report about a market or a set of instructions. They are written to be neutral, so your opinion of the topic should not matter. Some tests use longer passages with several statements each; others use a new short passage for every question. Either way, the method is the same: read the statement, find the sentence that decides it and answer only from the text. Practising with a mix of policies, reports and instructions prepares you for most of the passages you will meet.

For employers

HireValid's verbal reasoning test uses short passages and conclusions like these, under a time limit, as part of our cognitive ability tests. More free practice for candidates is on our practice tests page.