What IS verbal reasoning?

[sittinginthesun]

I hear a lot about verbal reasoning tests, but what is it? I have a DS in Year 3 at a state school, and verbal reasoning is part of tests for secondary - just curious.

If a pig flies west from the most northerly point on England's east coast at six hundred miles an hour and a cat flies east from the most southerly point on England's west coast at two hundred miles an hour how many minutes will it take before the pig catches sight of the cat?

And for two extra points, can pigs and cats fly?

cat is to dog as kitten is to ... puppy
codes
Word based logic problems
Adding /taking away/changing a sequence of letters ie. go from goat to best in 3 steps

Next time you're in WH Smiths look at Bonds books or similar.

Verbal reasoning assesses the child's ability to process information given in words, rather than diagrams or pictures. So there's usually a paragraph if information and then a set of questions which ask the child to extract information, but also to read between the lines, or to make a prediction, or infer something which isn't stated explicitly.

An easy example would be something like this (found via a quick google):

Three ships are berthed next to each other. A blue ship is to the right of a red ship and to the left of a green ship. If the blue ship and the green ship change places then -

The red ship and the blue ship are next to each other.
The green ship is between the red ship and the blue ship.
The red ship is immediately to the left of the blue ship.
The red ship is in the middle.
Don't Know

They can take a bit of practice to get used to the style of the questions, and some people like to draw their own charts or pictures to help work out the answer.

Ah, thanks. I've been avoiding looking at the books, as he's only Year 3, and I didn't want to be tempted to start practising. I just wondered if it was something they introduce gradually at school.

Depending on the child, the early stages are actually quite fun. I helped a kid for entrance exams and DD wanted a go too - so got her the first Bond books for verbal reasoning and non verbal reasoning. She loves doing them - but she thinks she's being a big girl and doing puzzles ....... I'd love to find more of them as she likes doing those kind of puzzles, in the same way my generation got addicted to the Rubrik's cube.

There seem to be lots of different types of questions - some are very logical and almost mathematical code based, others are purely vocab based. The child I helped sat a VR exam that ended up having a high proportion of maths / code based / logic type questions, rather than ones where you needed to understand the words. (Great because english was her second language!) Depending on the school, you can find past papers on the internet, and that will set your mind at rest.

The most important thing for verbal reasoning is a wide vocabulary (not just purely technique) and that is only gained from reading and talking. If you read with them and ask if they understand a word you think they might not know, then it will help them increase their knowledge of meanings of words, which is what some of the VR questions require. (Which word is the most similar in meaning etc.) I have to admit I now specifically ask my daughter if she understands words when I'm reading to her. VR crash course in 2 months was exhausting - so I figure I'm saving myself future pain!

I don't think your average school will introduce VR as such but it underpins Comprehension exercises - like identifying the words the authors uses tosuggest a particular mood. Agree you need to develop a wide vocab and certain logic of mind (think Chess and strtegy games) and practice to do well.

Our school starts them as homeworks in year 2, using Bond. Really just fun puzzles at that stage.

Yes...as a teacher I recommend Bond books to parents, you can get them from Smiths. VR and nonVR is something children can learn if they are not naturally adept at. Some entrance exams do not set standard comprehensions (text and then factual and inferential queations) and simply look at VR type question instead. It is fun but does get more tricky by year 6!