UP Police Constable · Bite-size lessons

Classification

About 5 min · Mental Aptitude / IQ / Reasoning · English

Time worked out from the lesson's 295 words at 150 words a minute, plus a minute for each question.

Classification questions test your ability to identify patterns, group similar items, and spot the element that doesn't belong. The examiner presents four or five options, and you must identify the "odd one out" — the item that breaks the pattern established by the others.

Key ideas

• Core principle: Three or four items share a common property (category, relationship, or pattern); one item lacks this property and is the "odd one out."
• Verbal classification groups words by meaning, category, or function — examples include animals, professions, body parts, or cities. The odd word belongs to a different category or has a different characteristic.
• Alphabetical classification involves letter patterns — position in alphabet, vowel/consonant status, symmetry, or letter gaps. Look for positional values (A=1, B=2…Z=26) and alphabetical sequences.
• Numerical classification tests properties like even/odd, prime/composite, perfect squares/cubes, divisibility rules, or arithmetic patterns. One number violates the pattern shared by others.
• Figural classification presents images or shapes where three share visual properties — number of sides, rotation, shading, internal lines, or symmetry — while one differs.

Quick reference

• Verbal: Group by category (animals, places, objects), then find the outsider by meaning or function.
• Alphabetical: Convert letters to positions (A=1…Z=26), check vowel/consonant status and gaps between letters.
• Numerical: Test even/odd, prime/composite, perfect squares/cubes, and common divisibility.
• Figural: Count sides, check curves vs. straight lines, observe shading, symmetry and internal patterns.
• Strategy: Identify what three items share, then confirm the fourth breaks that rule.

Check yourself: 3 questions

This lesson is cut from the topic's note, not rewritten. Fact-checked on 18 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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