Verbal Reasoning Test Strategies

Apr 02, 2023

Written By Annika De Lathauwer

Verbal reasoning tests are used by law firms to assess an applicant’s ability to understand, process and interpret information provided usually through text form. They also check for English language skills and an ability to work with both efficiency and accuracy. Here are some top tips to ace the test:

An Introduction to Legal Verbal Reasoning Tests

In the context of a legal verbal reasoning test, the information is usually presented as a legal document. You must answer either through multiple-choice questions or choose whether a statement is ‘true’, ‘false’ or ‘cannot say’ based on the information in the text. Each text will be followed by about three or four questions. The length of the test and the time given to answer will vary based on the firm and the publisher providing the test.

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Strategies to approach the test

There are a couple strategies that can be taken to optimise your verbal reasoning test outcome. The first is to make sure to do some practice. Practice tests can be found online. By doing these practice tests, you can develop your understanding of the types of questions that may be presented, the thinking process required to answer these questions correctly, and how to work under timed conditions.

Also, be sure to develop your time management skills before taking the test and be sure to utilise them throughout the allotted time. It is important in this test to work efficiently whilst maintaining accuracy. Before beginning the test make sure that you are aware of how many questions there are and how much time you will have to complete them. This will allow you to work at a steady and consistent pace without running out of time. Aim to work through as many as you can while maintaining a high standard of work.

Avoid getting stuck on a question. It is unlikely that any questions will be weighted and worth more marks than the other questions, so it is not worth getting stuck and spending too much time on them. Given the time limit, it is important to get through as many questions in the allotted time as possible, even if this means that you will have to sacrifice some of the more difficult questions. It is also sometimes possible to go back to questions later on if necessary and make changes.

Read the whole text before attempting to answer any of the questions. Once you understand what ideas and points are being presented in the whole text, you can start answering the questions and refer back to relevant parts of the text. If you try to start answering the questions before reading the whole text, there is a chance that you may be missing key information that will allow you to answer the questions correctly. This means that you will either miss out on marks or waste time correcting mistakes once you have realised your errors.

Only use the information provided in the text, especially in the questions that ask you to answer ‘true’, ‘false’ or ‘cannot say’. Do not use outside information to answer questions. It is very important that you only take the information explicitly provided by the text to be true. Bringing in external information may be tempting if you have more knowledge on the subject. However, this will be regarded as an assumption and will therefore cause you to lose marks.

Other things to take into consideration

If you require accommodations, for example due to a disability, make sure to speak to the firm before taking the test to see if any adjustments can be made.

Be sure to find out whether incorrect answers can cause you to lose marks. If this is true, it is better to leave questions blank, rather than trying to guess the answer and risk being incorrect, thus losing marks.

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