How To Solve Wonderlic Verbal Problems

Verbal Review

Each Wonderlic Verbal problem provides you with some known information. These are the rules that you have to work with.

Rule Busters

Rule busters are choices that immediately clash with a rule and can be quickly ruled out.

Example: John is sitting next to Bob.
This is a rule. Therefore any seating combination that does not have John sitting next to Bob is a rule buster, and is wrong! Quickly scan through the list of answer choices and eliminate all of those that have Bob and John sitting apart.

Example:
Mary is not sitting next to Bob.
Here is another rule. Quickly scan back through the answer choices and eliminate any that have Mary and Bob sitting together. For every rule that is given, quickly check and see if there are any answer choices that immediately “bust” the rule and eliminate them.

Symbology
Don’t try to remember all of the information in your head. Sketch out the problem using the information provide d. As much as possible, use symbols to represent the problem. Letters are great for abbreviation. Use a “M” as a symbol for a man, and a “W” as a symbol for a woman. Use the first letters in names to describe people. Therefore, John becomes “J” and Paul becomes “P”. If the problem involves a seating or standing arrangement, use blanks to represent the possible seats. Then if a rule states that John is in the rightmost seat, put a “J” in the rightmost blank. Fill in as much information as you can using your symbols. Symbols will help you save time from writing the names out and will allow you to make fast and accurate diagrams of the problem.

Scratch Aides
Use your text booklet as scratch paper extensively. It’s a great ally! If you finish the Analytical Reasoning section without scribbles throughout, you didn’t take advantage of all of your potential resources. A good diagram or drawing of the problem described gives you a huge aid to solving the problem. Take advantage of it!
Be forewarned though, when creating your drawings, be efficient. Don’t waste time filling in more information that you nee d. This is why symbols are great tools. They will save time and effort. Don’t include useless information on your diagram or spend time making it “pretty”. Fill in what you can quickly deduce. Focus on getting the bare essentials down on paper and spend your time more productively trying to solve the problem.

Tough Questions
If you are stumped on a problem or it appears too hard or too difficult, don’t waste time. Move on! Remember though, if you can quickly check for obvious “rule busters” your chances of guessing correctly are greatly improve d. Before you completely give up, at least check for the easy rule busters, which should knock out a couple of possible answers. Eliminate what you can and then guess at the remainder before moving on. 

Face Value
Always accept the situation in the problem at face value. Don’t read too much into it. The Wonderlic isn’t trying to throw you off with a cheap trick. If it says there are six seats in a row, you can be confident that it is a single file row and one person is seated directly beside the next person and there are two ends to the row. Don’t overcomplicate the problem by creating theoretical scenarios that will warp time or space. These are normal problems with solvable answers. It’s just that all of the information isn’t readily apparent and you have to figure things out.

Read Carefully
Understand what the problem is about. Read the description of the problem carefully. Don’t miss the question because you misunderstood the explanation of the problem. The description is there because it is important in understanding the problem. Don’t waste too much time though. You must read carefully and efficiently.

Danger Words
Some words go with a warning. They can be dangerous in any problem, not just Analytical Reasoning problems. These are “hedge” words such as the following: only, exactly, but, never, can be, cannot be, always, must be, least, most, highest, lowest, first, last, none, entire, all, no, unless, each, every. These words can completely alter the meaning of a sentence or a question and can easily be missed if you’re reading quickly. Watch out!

Loose vs Tight
Rules are often either “loose” or “tight”. Don’t confuse the two when you check for rule breakers. A loose rule gives vague details about the problem. A tight rule gives specific details about the problem. Tight rules are much more helpful, providing more information, and allowing you to make clear determinations about answer choices more easily.

Example:
Loose: Bob is standing somewhere behind Joe.
Tight: Bob is standing directly behind Joe.

Don’t mistakenly eliminate an answer choice that has Bob standing two spaces back from Joe, if only the loose rule above is given. If the loose rule is given, you can only eliminate answer choices that have Bob in front of Joe.

Double Negatives
A double negative can be treated as an affirmative. If a rule or answer choice has two negatives, mentally switch it to a single positive.

Example:
He is not going to not be there. = He is going to be there.

Answer Selection
Eliminate choices as soon as you realize they are wrong. But be careful! Make sure you consider all of the possible answer choices. Just because one appears right, doesn’t mean that the next one won’t be even better! Take a second to make sure that the other choices are not equally obvious. Don’t make a hasty mistake. There are only two times that you should stop before checking other answers. First is when you are positive that the answer choice you have selected satisfies all of the rules. Second is when time is almost out and you have to make a quick guess!

The Wonderlic test will usually put more than one good answer choice for every question, so read all of them. Don’t worry if you are stuck between two that seem right. By eliminating the other three your odds are now 50/50 if you have it down to two. Rather than wasting too much time, play the odds. You are guessing, but guessing wisely, because you’ve been able to knock out some of the answer choices that you know are wrong. If you are eliminating choices and realize that the answer choice you are left with is also obviously wrong, don’t pani c. Start over and consider each choice again. There may easily be something that you missed the first time and will realize on the second pass.

Common Sense
When in doubt, use common sense. These problems will not require you to make huge leaps of logi c. If you think a leap of logic is necessary, read back through the set of conditions and question in order to gain a better understanding. Don’t read too much into the question or set of conditions. Use your common sense to interpret anything that isn’t clear. These are normal problems rooted in reality.

Some problems may have complicated reasoning that must be sorted through. Before you pick an answer choice and work it out in great detail, which takes a lot of time, first look briefly through the other answer choices to see if any of them are readily obvious as being correct.

Always use your time efficiently. Don’t panic, stay focuse d. Work systematically. Read the problem carefully. Eliminate the answer choices that are immediately wrong and are rule busters. Keep narrowing the search until you are either left with the answer or must guess at the answer from a more selective group of choices.