MH Police Bharti · Bite-size lessons
Assertion & Reason
About 6 min · Intellectual Test (Reasoning) · English
Time worked out from the lesson's 450 words at 150 words a minute, plus a minute for each question.
Assertion and Reason questions test your ability to verify logical cause-effect relationships between two statements. In Maharashtra Police Bharti exams, these questions appear in the Intellectual Test (Reasoning) section and are designed to check whether you can distinguish between what is true and what logically explains something else.
Key ideas
- Assertion (A) is a statement of fact, observation, or claim that may be true or false. Think of it as "what is being said."
- Reason (R) is a statement meant to explain or justify the assertion. Think of it as "why it is being said."
- Correct Explanation means R provides the direct, logical cause for A — not just that both are true, but that R actually causes or explains A.
- Independent Truths occur when both A and R are true statements, but R talks about something unrelated to A — no cause-effect link exists.
- False Assertion with True Reason is possible — the explanation may be scientifically correct, but A itself is a wrong claim.
Quick reference
- Three-step rule: Check A truth → Check R truth → Check if R explains A
- Both true ≠ correct explanation — this is a common trap
- If A is false, stop checking explanation — answer is either D or E
- "Correct explanation" means direct cause, not just related topic
- Standard options: Learn all five patterns
Check yourself: 3 questions
1. Assertion (A): Water expands when it freezes into ice. Reason (R): The molecules in ice are arranged in a more open structure than in liquid water. Which of the following is correct?
2. Assertion (A): The Government of India has banned single-use plastic items from July 2022. Reason (R): Single-use plastics cause significant environmental pollution and harm to wildlife. Which of the following is correct?
3. Assertion (A): Mumbai receives more rainfall than Pune during the monsoon season. Reason (R): Mumbai is located on the windward side of the Western Ghats while Pune is on the leeward side. Which of the following is correct?
This lesson is cut from the topic's note, not rewritten. Fact-checked on 21 Oct 2026: an AI-assisted check of this note against cited sources; the errors it found were corrected that day. Some errors may remain. The questions are from Shishya's validated question bank.
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