MH Police Bharti · Bite-size lessons
Verbal Reasoning
About 7 min · Intellectual Test (Reasoning) · English
Time worked out from the lesson's 462 words at 150 words a minute, plus a minute for each question.
Verbal Reasoning is part of the Intellectual Test section in Maharashtra Police Bharti examination. This topic tests your ability to think logically, identify hidden assumptions, and draw valid conclusions from given statements. Unlike mathematical reasoning, verbal reasoning evaluates how well you can analyse everyday language and arguments.
Key ideas
- Statement: A sentence presenting a fact, opinion, or situation that serves as the basis for reasoning. Always assume the statement is true, even if it contradicts common knowledge.
- Conclusion: A judgement or inference drawn from the given statement. A valid conclusion must logically follow from the statement without requiring additional assumptions.
- Assumption: An unstated belief that must be true for the statement to hold. Think of it as the hidden foundation supporting the argument.
- Implicit vs Explicit: Explicit information is directly stated; implicit information is understood but not written. Verbal reasoning tests your grasp of implicit content.
- Necessary Condition: Something that must exist for something else to occur. If A is necessary for B, then without A, B cannot happen.
Watch out for
- Using personal knowledge instead of statement logic → Always derive conclusions only from what is given. Even if a conclusion is factually true in real life, it does not follow unless the statement supports it.
- Confusing "some" with "all" or "most" → "Some teachers are strict" only means at least one teacher is strict. It says nothing about the majority or all teachers.
- Treating assumptions as conclusions → Assumptions are unstated but necessary; conclusions are derived judgements. If something is explicitly mentioned, it cannot be an assumption.
Quick reference
- Conclusion = Must logically follow from statement, no external facts needed
- Assumption = Unstated + Necessary for the argument to work
- "Some A are B" means at least one A is B — nothing more, nothing less
- Apply negation test: If reversing a statement breaks the argument, it is a valid assumption
- Never assume extreme positions (all/none) from partial statements (some/few)
Check yourself: 3 questions
1. Statement: All the students in the class passed the examination. Conclusion I: No student failed. Conclusion II: Some students did not appear for the examination. Which conclusion logically follows from the statement?
2. Statement: In a recent survey, 90% of the doctors recommended Brand X toothpaste for better dental health. Conclusion I: Brand X toothpaste is the best toothpaste available. Conclusion II: Majority of doctors trust Brand X toothpaste. Conclusion III: Other toothpaste brands are not good for dental health. Which conclusion(s) logically follow(s) from the statement?
3. Find the odd one out from the following group: 16, 25, 36, 48, 64
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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