Logical Statements

How it is scored

One point for each statement judged correctly, out of 16. Nothing is taken off for a wrong answer, so a narrowed-down guess beats a skip. Skipped items score nothing and cannot be returned to. The run ends when the 16 items are done or the ten minutes are, and every item you missed or skipped is shown afterwards with its verdict and the reason.

No answer here is written by hand. Each item is built from a small model of who is in which group, and the verdict comes from checking the statement in every arrangement that fits the premises: true in all of them is always, in some is sometimes, in none is never. An item whose premises fit no arrangement, or whose question merely repeats a premise, is thrown away before it is served.

Where we had to choose

Suited publishes the shape of its assessment: about fifteen minutes of timed sections, logical reasoning, number series and checking, plus a behavioural questionnaire, and it says the result is one data point read alongside interviews. It publishes no item counts, no clock per section and no marking, and the firms that send it publish nothing at all. Candidate reports describe the logic section as two or three statements and a three way answer, which is what this runs. Sixteen items in ten minutes is our choice, on the generous side of the reports so the reasoning gets practised before the speed does; one point each and nothing deducted is our choice too. Logicians also disagree on whether "All analysts work late" promises that there are any analysts, so every item is checked to have the same verdict under both readings, and thrown away when it does not.

How to work through one

Draw the circles, or picture them: one per group, and place the statements one at a time. "All" puts one circle inside another, "no" pulls two apart, and "some" puts a single cross in the overlap and says nothing about anyone else. Then try to make the question false while keeping every statement true; if you cannot, it is always true. Try to make it true; if you cannot, it is never true. If you can do both, it is sometimes true, which is the verdict most often missed, because a statement that sounds likely is not the same as one that is forced. Never bring in what you know about the world outside the statements.