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APTITUDE AND REASONING ABILITY

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Although reasoning ability does depend on some level of ‘raw’ or basic ability, aptitude and reasoning ability are two different things. Straightforward ability or aptitude is to do with the computational acts involved in solving a very specific test question – what you have to do is often clear, whether you can do it or not is quite a different matter. Reasoning ability is to do with knowing when to apply a certain computational act.

In the power and speed test examples above, the speed questions were to do with basic, raw numerical or mathematical ability. A very precise act of computation (for instance subtraction or multiplication) was clearly indicated by the format of the question. All you had to do was carry out the calculation.

With the power questions, it was not indicated which specific mathematical computation (for instance, addition or division) had to be carried out in order to reach a solution. The task you faced was to apply a more general problem solving approach – the problem being not ‘what is the answer?’ but ‘what do I have to do to work out how to reach the answer?’

Once you have established how to reach the answer, the final task itself is often a very simple process of mathematical calculation.

Brian is 1,692 cm tall

a) true

b) false

c) can’t tell

If William is 1,680 cm tall, Kate is 2 cm taller than William, and Brian is 6 cm taller than Kate then the answer must be:

1,680 cm + 2 cm + 6 cm = 1,688 cm.

So the statement that Brian is 1692 cm tall is false.

Notice how simple the mathematics was once we had worked out what to do. This is a good example of numerical reasoning ability or aptitude, rather than just straightforward numerical ability or aptitude. Furthermore, because the information is presented verbally, this is also a reasonable example of what verbal reasoning test items may look like. Power tests are more commonly found in the numerical and verbal domains but can also crop up in the mechanical, abstract and perceptual ability areas.


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