MH Police Bharti · Bite-size lessons
Syllogism
About 6 min · Intellectual Test (Reasoning) · English
Time worked out from the lesson's 325 words at 150 words a minute, plus a minute for each question.
Syllogism is a core reasoning topic where you draw logical conclusions from two or more given statements (called premises). In Maharashtra Police Bharti exams, syllogism questions test your ability to think systematically and identify what conclusion definitely follows, possibly follows, or does not follow from the given information.
Key ideas
- Premise (Statement): A given sentence assumed to be absolutely true. Example: "All dogs are animals."
- Conclusion: A new statement that may or may not logically follow from the premises. You must verify using rules.
- Universal Affirmative (A-type): "All X are Y" — entire X is inside Y.
- Universal Negative (E-type): "No X is Y" — X and Y have zero overlap.
- Particular Affirmative (I-type): "Some X are Y" — at least one X is inside Y.
Watch out for
- Applying real-world logic instead of given statements
- Confusing "Some" with "Only Some"
- Assuming O-type converts
Quick reference
- A = All, E = No, I = Some, O = Some...not — memorize these four types.
- A converts to I, E converts to E, I converts to I, O does NOT convert.
- "Some" in conclusion = easier; "All/No" = needs universal premises.
- Possibility = valid unless directly contradicted by premises.
- Always draw Venn diagrams for complex questions — 30 seconds well spent.
Check yourself: 3 questions
1. Statements: All books are pens. All pens are boxes. Conclusions: I. All books are boxes. II. Some boxes are books.
2. Statements: Some teachers are doctors. All doctors are engineers. Conclusions: I. Some teachers are engineers. II. All engineers are doctors.
3. Statements: No flower is a tree. Some trees are plants. Conclusions: I. Some plants are not flowers. II. No tree is a flower.
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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