Reasoning Section Strategy For IBPS RRB PO 2017

Reasoning Ability is an onerous section. With the increasing complexity of questions, it becomes hard for one to give it the cold shoulder. The pattern is getting complex day by day and most of the topics of this section are now being asked in the form of puzzles only. Earlier students used to have a mindset of ignoring the complex puzzles, thereby solving the other questions that are comparatively easy. But to their dismay, this strategy won’t be working anymore as so many questions from the other topics like directions, etc. are being asked in the form of puzzles only. The number of questions being asked on puzzles ranges from 60-65% of all the questions in Reasoning Section.
The other important topics to be prepared for IBPS RRB Examinations are Syllogism, Logical Reasoning, Inequality, Data Sufficiency, Blood Relation, Direction and Distance, Ranking, Alpha-Numerical, Direction Sense, Blood Relations, etc. The only way to ace the scores in the section is strenuous practice. The number of questions that will be asked in the RRB Examinations in the reasoning section is 40. The difficulty level of questions asked lied somewhere between easy to moderate.

Puzzle is the most significant part of Reasoning Section as the number of expected questions from this topic is 15-20. So many other miscellaneous topics too are being asked in the form of puzzles only. The puzzles now being asked are very lengthy, complex and even calculation based. They are usually based on Seating Arrangement (linear, circular, triangular, rectangular and sometimes hexagonal even), Floors, Tabular form, Blood Relations, etc. and can be asked in 2-4 variables, depending on the difficulty level of the question. A mix of Seating Arrangement and Blood Relations is also being frequently asked in the examinations. An important tip to solve difficult puzzles with 100% accuracy is to make 2-3 possibilities for the same puzzle and keep canceling them out as you proceed. Another important point to bear in mind while doing puzzles is not to ignore the important key points while reading the question. The puzzles that are easy to solve should not consume more than 2-3 minutes, the puzzles of moderate level should be solved within 5 minutes and the difficult puzzles should be finished within 8-10minutes. If the time that you take while solving different puzzles is more than the time affirmed above, then you really need to work on it.

Syllogism is another important topic of Reasoning Ability Section. The number of expected questions on this topic is 5-6. The questions can be based on the usual old pattern as well as the new pattern of Reverse Syllogism in which the conclusion is given in the question and you have to choose the correct statements for that particular conclusion. It is one of the easiest and scoring topics so prepare it well and you will be able to bag 5 marks very easily in Reasoning Ability Section. Data Sufficiency is also an important topic that can get you at least 3 to 5 marks in the Reasoning Section. The questions based on data sufficiency can have 2 or 3 statements based on the difficulty level of the questions. If asked, there will be a total of 3-5 questions on this topic. The questions asked from Logical Reasoning are based on cause and effect, a course of action, assumptions and conclusions, strength of arguments, inference, etc. The number of expected questions on this topic is 5-6. The level of questions has always been moderate so you can easily attempt the questions without wasting much of time on them. Inequality, Blood Relation, Direction and Distance are the other miscellaneous topics that are easy to solve as compared to the topics mentioned above. The questions asked on these topics range from 2 to 5 from each topic. Try to attempt these question in the beginning as these are easy to solve and do not consume much of your time.