05-07-2012, 04:35 PM
501CHALLENGING LOGIC AND REASONING PROBLEMS
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Introduction
This book—which can be used alone, with other logic and reasoning texts of your choice, or in combination
with LearningExpress’s Reasoning Skills Success in 20 Minutes a Day—will give you practice
dealing with the types of multiple-choice questions that appear on standardized tests assessing logic,
reasoning, judgment, and critical thinking. It is designed to be used by individuals working on their own and by
teachers or tutors helping students learn, review, or practice basic logic and reasoning skills. Practice on 501 logic
and reasoning questions will go a long way in alleviating test anxiety, too!
Maybe you’re one of the millions of people who, as students in elementary or high school, never understood
the necessity of having to read opinion essays and draw conclusions from the writer’s argument. Or maybe you
never understood why you had to work through all those verbal analogies or number series questions.Maybe you
were one of those people who could never see a “plan of attack”when working through logic games or critical thinking
puzzles. Or perhaps you could never see a connection between everyday life and analyzing evidence from a
series of tedious reading passages. If you fit into one of these groups, this book is for you.
First, know you are not alone. It is true that some people relate more easily than do others to number series
questions, verbal analogies, logic games, and reading passages that present an argument. And that’s okay; we all
have unique talents. Still, it’s a fact that for most jobs today, critical thinking skills—including analytical and logical
reasoning—are essential. The good news is that these skills can be developed with practice.
Learn by doing. It’s an old lesson, tried and true. And it’s the tool this book is designed to give you. The 501
logic and reasoning questions that follow will provide you with lots of practice. As you work through each set of
questions, you’ll be gaining a solid understanding of basic analytical and logical reasoning skills—all without memorizing!
The purpose of this book is to help you improve your critical thinking through encouragement, no
frustration.
QUESTIONS
Set 1
Start off with these simple series of numbers. Number
series questions measure your ability to reason without
words. To answer these questions, you must determine
the pattern of the numbers in each series before you will
be able to choose which number comes next. These
questions involve only simple arithmetic. Although
most number series items progress by adding or subtracting,
some questions involve simple multiplication
or division. In each series, look for the degree and
direction of change between the numbers. In other
words, do the numbers increase or decrease, and by
how much?
1. Look at this series: 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, . . . What number
should come next?
a. 11
b. 12
c. 13
d. 14
2. Look at this series: 58, 52, 46, 40, 34, . . . What
number should come next?
a. 26
b. 28
c. 30
d. 32
3. Look at this series: 40, 40, 47, 47, 54, . . . What
number should come next?
a. 40
b. 44
c. 54
d. 61
4. Look at this series: 544, 509, 474, 439, . . . What
number should come next?
a. 404
b. 414
c. 420
d. 445
5. Look at this series: 201, 202, 204, 207, . . . What
number should come next?
a. 205
b. 208
c. 210
d. 211
6. Look at this series: 8, 22, 8, 28, 8, . . . What
number should come next?
a. 9
b. 29
c. 32
d. 34
7. Look at this series: 80, 10, 70, 15, 60, . . . What
number should come next?
a. 20
b. 25
c. 30
d. 50
8. Look at this series: 36, 34, 30, 28, 24, . . . What
number should come next?
a. 20
b. 22
c. 23
d. 26
9. Look at this series: 22, 21, 23, 22, 24, 23, . . .
What number should come next?
a. 22
b. 24
c. 25
d. 26